Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:

1. There is a Quaker saying: Let your life speak. Describe the environment in which you were raised and the impact it has had on the person you are today.

This is a cool question, but it’s very open-ended. Lots of directions you could pursue. But also, notice that this question is RIPE for a fundamentally YAWN-WORTHY response. Let’s do… not that, shall we?

This may be counterintuitive, but start by thinking about a few BORING ways to describe the environment you were raised in, and how it impacted you. Seriously, imagine versions of exactly how that would go. What would make your audience go, “Um, is that… uh, anything else besides that enormously predictable thing you just said?” or…. “Is that literally everything you can tell me about your upbringing? I’m all caught up? … Thanks?” Try it. 

Spoiler alert: Here’s what you’ll find. The one thing that will be common to EVERY version that’s boring is… LACK OF CONFLICT.

If your dad was an army general, that might be amazing, but what if your grandfather had also been in the army and your dad wanted to be in the army from a very young age? And your dad loved being in the army and made it through without much hassle? And then went and had a great career? And didn’t see any action but had a great time, and came back and lived a great life? Well, good for him (it’s actually GREAT in reality), and his environment clearly shaped him, but for an essay like this, it’s the worst story ever.

Conflict, tensions, challenges and obstacles are key components of an interesting story. The Hero’s Journey ALWAYS involves a major crisis (and the hero’s victory, of course!). 

So, first things first, find the conflict! Find what made any aspect of the environment you were raised in… tricky. Make a list of these conflicts. While this might be interesting on its own, remember, we need to segue into how this has impacted YOU. Just because your parents both did XYZ, doesn’t mean your conclusion needs to be “AND THAT’S WHY I FIND MYSELF DOING ABC TODAY!” It can be connected directly, or it could even be “um, given all that, how crazy is it that *I’M* who I am today!” Or it can be a different relationship entirely, that’s where your creativity will come through. There’s an art form to making a smart connection OF SOME VARIETY. But you do need to connect it all somehow.

Now, what do you do if there’s no TENSION in the environment you were raised in, or between you and that environment? (Maybe do a second pass if that’s your initial conclusion?) Well, then YOU need to be the interesting one against a background of plainness. You are the Technicolor character in the black and white movie. In this case, you need to represent CONTRAST to something.

OR—if neither of those leads anywhere good, your final option might be, if you’re still aligned to the environment you grew up with in most ways, the CONTRAST between that environment, and ‘the rest of the world’ (the community, whomever), may be the answer. Contrast of some sort usually needs to be a part of the soup here.

2. "Be yourself," Oscar Wilde advised. "Everyone else is taken." Introduce yourself.

This prompt gets you out of the specific framing of ‘the environment in which you were raised,’ but it does NOT exempt you from describing the fires in which *you* were forged! Once again, there are surely 50 boring directions we could all go in to answer this question. 

We know you do a bunch of cool things, and are really smart. That will all show up on your application elsewhere. Here, they’re asking about what you’re *really* made of. One of Dartmouth’s key values is being really committed to… well… values. They’re on a mission to educate ethical citizens. They’re not asking for a description of your moral, ethical or religious values. This is an opportunity to SHOW them who you are when it hits the fan. What makes you unique, down to your core? What specific value do YOU add to a community that your peers wouldn’t?

At the risk of sounding like drama hounds, let’s go back to… that’s right… conflict. Make a list of the toughest things you’ve gone through in your life, then name how each has made you uniquely you. Finally, add a column for ways that you’ve TAKEN ACTION because of this particular thing about you. 

Action is the key here. It might be a repeated action like volunteering, or a time you stuck your neck out to stand up for what you knew was right. But it doesn’t suffice to just TELL them you're an XYZ type of person. You need to SHOW them. Remember, this is YOUR Hero’s Journey… take them for that ride.

Required of all applicants, please respond to one of the following prompts in 250 words or fewer:

Before we get into the specific prompt options here, let’s generalize a bit: these prompts all—in different ways—touch on purpose, drive and/or curiosity. If the previous essay was a ‘who are you?’ question, think of this as a ‘what makes you tick?’ question. Obviously there can be overlap between those two, or between this essay and one of your Common App essays, so make sure you’re telling them something NEW here.

To recap, Dartmouth is a smallish community (heavy emphasis on ‘community’!) in a fairly rural area that prides itself on its values, its commitment to inclusivity, and its academic excellence through independent thinking and collaboration. If your transcript and letters of recommendation will speak to your academic excellence & intellectual curiosity, you can consider leaning into the purpose version of this essay. Or if you’ve drained ‘purpose’ through your activities and previous essays, nerd out and show them how your intellectual curiosity comes to life!

We recommend going through the following prompts and making a quick list of possible answers to each prompt. Build them out with a couple sentences. Identify any stories you could leverage to SHOW them, not just tell them. 

Once you’ve done that, go back through the list and consider which adds the most to your application HOLISTICALLY – which shores up any potential perceived weakness? Or develops a part of your ‘character’ that hasn’t yet made it onto the application? Which shows your commitment to inclusive practices when the rubber hits the road? Which includes something memorable AND meaningful?

Then, choose the topic that will be the best essay to COMPLEMENT and STRENGTHEN the rest of your application. 

A. What excites you?

Make a list! Next to each item, write anything you’ve DONE connected to this thing. Your best topic here will be not just something that excites you per se, but that invigorates you and spurs you into action – whether intellectual, community-oriented or otherwise. 

B. Labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta recommended a life of purpose. "We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things," she said. "That is what we are put on the earth for." In what ways do you hope to make—or are you already making—an impact? Why? How?

If you have an important impact story that you haven’t exhausted in another essay, this is your moment! SHOW them how you’ve made an impact. Pay attention to the part of the quote, ‘not just to acquire things’: great answers here will likely include a difficult trade-off. You had to turn down an easy gain, or something that seemed really fun and gratifying, to do this harder but much, much more important thing. What did you need to sacrifice to make this impact? You can focus your essay on the impact, but your commitment will seem that much more credible if you can show what you gave up. Remember to answer both HOW and WHY!

C. In "Oh, The Thinks You Can Think," Dr. Seuss invites us to "Think and wonder. Wonder and think." Imagine your anticipated academic major: How does that course of study sync with Dr. Seuss's advice to you?

If you tentatively know what you want to major in, think of that topic, and imagine how four years of drinking deep from those sweet intellectual waters will form you as a person. How will taking time to study, question and ponder—ideally, with a specific Dartmouth department/faculty—prepare you to take action down the line?

Our caveat here is that this one can easily go in a navel-gazing direction, so only go this route if a) you have a strong story and b) it adds to your overall application. 

D. The social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees have been the focus of Dame Jane Goodall's research for decades. Her understanding of animal behavior prompted the English primatologist to see a lesson for human communities as well: "Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right." Channel Dame Goodall: Tell us about a moment when you engaged in a difficult conversation or encountered someone with an opinion or perspective that was different from your own. How did you find common ground?

Pay careful attention to the end of this prompt: How did you find common ground? This is NOT an opportunity to tell them how you came into a conversation with the moral high ground and enlightened those wrong-minded folks. There must be an element of PERSPECTIVE-TAKING. Even if you’re recounting a conversation wherein you were advocating for human rights to a deeply bigoted person, you must show how a bridge was built, and you were willing to set aside your knowns to engage sincerely in dialog with this person(s) and understand where they were coming from.

The best students, like the best leaders, may be great speakers… but generally, they’re even better listeners. The story arc outlined in their prompt could have multiple trajectories… you convinced another person of your side, they convinced you of theirs, or you (both, maybe) ended at a totally new perspective from where any of you began. Here, process is key. Yes, set up the conversation or encounter, and then tell us HOW you found common ground. 

E. Celebrate your nerdy side.

See prompt (A) for guidance, although here, ‘action’ might be more along the lines of independent projects, research, starting a club, etc. Show them how your nerdy streak drives you!

F. "It's not easy being green…" was the frequent refrain of Kermit the Frog. How has difference been a part of your life, and how have you embraced it as part of your identity, outlook, or sense of purpose?

List the ways you are/have felt different from others during your life. This difference might or might not have been obvious, noticeable or known to others around you. 

Now pay careful attention to the second part of the question: ‘HOW have you embraced it as part of your identity, outlook, or sense of purpose?’ Here, it’s not enough to assert that you HAVE embraced it, come to fully love and accept yourself, etc., but you need to spell out HOW. What gives? How will this difference not only make you a UNIQUE addition to the Dartmouth community, but someone with a unique outlook and sense of purpose? 

Generally, the best essays will highlight a period or moment when you struggled with this difference (internally or externally), learned something, then ultimately accepted and perhaps even WELCOMED this difference as an asset.

G. Buddy Teevens '79 was a legendary and much-beloved coach at Dartmouth. He often told parents: "Your son will be a great football player when it's football time, a great student when it's academic time, and a great person all of the time." If Coach Teevens had said that to you, what would it mean to be "a great person"?

Make a list of the traits you believe make a person a ‘great person’. Then go back down the list and try to identify WHY you think that – or – maybe better yet – WHEN you came to that conclusion? A strong answer here won’t just be an explanation of your personal values, but rather what you’ve experienced or done that’s EARNED you that understanding.

Anyone can write an essay about how a great person puts the needs of others before their own (or insert other platitude here). Ultimately, here, they’re asking about YOU. Not necessarily ‘what have you done that makes YOU a great person’? But, which experiences or mentors have shaped your beliefs about what makes a person great? If you don’t have a strong, specific answer that points back to YOU and the values you’ll bring to the Dartmouth community—not to worry—you’ve got plenty of prompts to choose from!