Dartmouth College supplemental essays
Dartmouth College asks for three supplemental essays in 2026-27, chosen from 9 options. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
That is three supplements plus the Common App personal statement: four pieces of writing in all. Early Decision closes November 1, 2026 and Regular Decision closes January 1, 2027. The prompts carry these limits: 100 words, 250 words. Every Dartmouth College prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it, checked against the college’s own admissions page.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 1, 2026 |
| Regular Decision | January 1, 2027 |
Checked against admissions.dartmouth.edu/glossary-term/writing-supplement. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Required · 100 words
As you seek admission to Dartmouth's Class of 2031, what aspects of the college's academic program, community, and/or campus environment attract your interest? How is Dartmouth a good fit for you?
Short answer. Paste it on the homepage and we will read it.
Required (choose 1 of 2) · 250 words
Question 2, option A. 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.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired (choose 1 of 2) · 250 words
Question 2, option B. "Be yourself," Oscar Wilde advised. "Everyone else is taken." Introduce yourself.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired (choose 1 of 6) · 250 words
Question 3, option A. What excites you?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired (choose 1 of 6) · 250 words
Question 3, option 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?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired (choose 1 of 6) · 250 words
Question 3, option C. In an Instagram post, best-selling British author Matt Haig cheered the impact of reading. "A good novel is the best invention humans have ever created for imagining other lives," he wrote. How have you experienced such insight from reading? What did you read and how did it alter the way you understand yourself and others?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired (choose 1 of 6) · 250 words
Question 3, option 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?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired (choose 1 of 6) · 250 words
Question 3, option E. Celebrate your nerdy side.
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this promptRequired (choose 1 of 6) · 250 words
Question 3, option 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?
Get a free read on this essayPaste your draft, see the verdict before you pay.No draft yet? Pick a topic for this prompt
Your Dartmouth College checklist
Three supplements, all required. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 1, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- Supplement 1Required100 words
- Supplements 2 and 3Required250 words each
- Supplements 4 to 9Required250 words each
It saves these rows to your essay manager, where each one carries a status you set yourself and the prompt stays attached to it. Add your other schools and they land on the same page, in deadline order. Nothing written yet? The topic quiz is free as well.
Free: this page, the checklist, the essay manager and the topic quiz. Paid: a written review of a finished draft, $49 an essay.
Paste your essay for a free read
Have it in a document? or drop one here (Word, PDF, or Text).
Not sure what a review is? What an AI college essay review can and cannot do, and what a college essay grader leaves out. What the read checks against Dartmouth College’s own prompts is on the Dartmouth College essay review page.
Getting into Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College admits 5.4% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1500-1570 on the SAT and 33-35 on the ACT.
About 1 in 19 applicants are admitted, at a college of 4,541 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1500 | 1540 | 1570 |
| SAT reading and writing | 740 | 760 | 780 |
| SAT math | 760 | 780 | 790 |
| ACT composite | 33 | 34 | 35 |
What SAT score do you need for Dartmouth College?
A 1570 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1540 at their midpoint, and a 1500 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 33, 34 and 35. A quarter of an enrolled class scoring under the 25th percentile is not a rounding error, so a score below the range is a reason to strengthen the rest of the application rather than a reason not to apply.
US Department of Education, College Scorecard (2026-09-17). Percentiles describe students who enrolled, not everyone admitted. SAT totals are the reading and math bands added together, which is how every source in this market reports them and is an approximation of about 10 to 20 points, because the two sections are correlated.
- What SAT score do you need for Dartmouth College?
- Dartmouth College sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1500-1570 on the SAT: a 1500 sits at the 25th percentile, 1540 at the median and 1570 at the 75th. A score at or above 1570 is a clear strength in the application; below 1500 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures Dartmouth College reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Dartmouth College?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 33-35 on the ACT, with a composite of 34 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 33. Reported by Dartmouth College to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Dartmouth College?
- The honest answer is that the federal data behind this page does not contain one. Colleges report their admit rate and their enrolled students' test scores to the Department of Education; they do not report a GPA distribution, so any site quoting an exact average GPA for Dartmouth College is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Dartmouth College admits 5.4% of applicants, and the more selective a college is, the closer to the top of the class its admitted students sit and the more the strength of your course load counts alongside the number itself.
- How hard is it to get into Dartmouth College?
- Dartmouth College admits 5.4% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 19 applicants. At that rate no set of numbers makes admission likely, a perfect one included, because the college turns away far more qualified applicants than it takes. Strong grades and scores get the application read; the essays, the recommendations and what you have actually done decide it from there.
What Dartmouth College costs after grant aid, by family income, from the same federal data.
Sort your whole college list into reaches, targets and likelies, or find colleges that fit your GPA and test scores. Both are free and neither needs an account.
Dartmouth College essay questions, answered
- Does Dartmouth College have supplemental essays?
- Yes. Dartmouth College asks for three supplemental essays in 2026-27, chosen from 9 options. Every prompt is printed in full on this page. Word limits: 100 words, 250 words.
- How many essays do you write for Dartmouth College in 2026-27?
- Three supplements, plus the Common App personal statement.
Schools with similar admit rates
Dartmouth College admits 5.4% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Princeton University (4.6%), Northeastern University (5.2%), Brown University (5.4%), University of Pennsylvania (5.4%), Duke University (5.7%), Vanderbilt University (5.9%).