Get Accepted to Dartmouth College | How to impress the admissions committee

before we get started just a little reminder to subscribe to our channel and ring the notification bell so that you don't miss out on any of our new videos where we discuss our top tips for building a strong school list getting into your dream schools writing great essays and so much more welcome everyone to another stream here at collegevine i'm your host today elias miller what we're talking about today uh dartmouth home to fun traditions like running over a hundred laps around a bonfire or perhaps doing the polar bear swim in akumpon during the winter now they may not seem particularly fun to you but many dartmouth students do swear by these traditions what are we chatting about today just going to try to walk through how to maximize your chances of acceptance at dartmouth [Music] okay what we'll be talking about today well we're going to go over some basic background about dartmouth we'll talk about admissions and admissions data at dartmouth we'll talk about how best to build your profile now in high school i assume to set yourself up to get in we'll talk about how to write essays okay some basic overview info about dartmouth well it's located in hanover new hampshire that's in the northwest part of new hampshire it's sort of a rural location in new hampshire's upper valley right along the connecticut river in the white mountains and right on the border of vermont it's the ninth oldest institution of higher education in the u.s it is of course one of the ivs and it's by far the smallest iv in terms of total student population it's ranked number 13 by u.s news it's well known for its very strong liberal arts tradition and also its commitment to undergraduate education its acceptance rate last year was only 8.7 percent and of course that also includes athletes and legacies who have a substantially better chance at acceptance than the rest of us if you're not an athlete or legacy your real acceptance rate goes down below 8.7 dartmouth college does refuse to call itself university due to its focus on liberal arts and college programs although it does have some graduate programs including graduate students it's made up of 6 350 students in five different colleges dartmouth students enjoy doing lots of outdoorsy stuff and tend to refer to dartmouth as being in the middle of nowhere which of course isn't a bad thing if you've spent any time in the white mountains as i have dartmouth also well known for its very very heavy greek life presence with over 60 percent of students being involved in greek life i've heard that greek life there is very inclusive and uh that the frat houses and the like do allow all non-freshman darvith students into their spaces for parties and the like which is you know better than some of the universities that have more exclusive frat or other social club organizations but you know still very very strong social club experience their dartmouth okay what are the different schools the five schools at dartmouth are arts and sciences the thayer school of engineering the school of medicine the school of business and the school of graduate and advanced studies thayer does have an undergraduate degree program as well as graduate degree programs and then medicine business and of course graduate advanced studies those are just graduate schools if you're an undergraduate you'll be either in thayer or in the school of arts and sciences so how does dartmouth break down well of course the admissions rate is 8.7 percent how does that look in total numbers well last year there were 21 392 applicants of whom 1973 were accepted as such a tiny number uh and of course fewer than that actually ended up attending dartmouth total undergraduate admissions is only like 4 400 right so it's about 1100 a year so some of the people who don't really accepted it didn't end up coming as is often the case most of these competitive schools do give athletes and legacies admission priority so at dartmouth about one-fifth of the student body comprises varsity athletes one of the lowest percentage of legacy enrollments out of the ivy league at dartmouth um it's still about 10 uh of the classes legacy but that's actually lower than most places so legacy possibly not quite as critical at dartmouth as at some of the other ivs of course if you're not legacy if you're not an athlete the actual acceptance rate is lower it's very very hard to get in how does admissions break down we estimate here at college vine that about 45 of admissions are made up with your academics meaning your gpa your grades test scores as well and your course rigor that's going to be the largest chunk of your applications and what counts the most in the process 25 will be how you respond to your essays of course how well-written they are how much they share about you if you have clearly shown that you've done your research and have a real interest in attending dartmouth and also if you're able to show that you'd be a good fit for dartmouth that you would excel there make the most of your advance of your opportunities schools of course are looking for people to show up and take advantage of every opportunity they are offered um 20 would be your extracurricular profile which could um you could show in your extracurricular resume on common app which you could also talk about in your essays and also possibly your recommenders might talk about some of your extracurriculars and 10 is just in other category including uh i don't know some random things uh like interviews uh recommendation letters all that good stuff of course this is not set in stone dartmouth isn't saying you know 45 here and using a calculator to give you a score probably but uh at dartmouth and at schools like this this is basically the breakdown at least how we've estimated it with our data this is about how it works how about academic qualifications um well of course they're the largest component of the admissions process at dartmouth in schools like dartmouth about 45 that's just trying to decide if you're academically qualified with some adjustment for your background right they're going to compare you to other people who match your background whether they're from the same place or uh you know something like that there's some you know some demographic adjustment there is a bit of an academic index which is sort of a composite score that represents both your gpa and your standardized test scores this is created you know dartmouth admissions officers create this academic index and it varies slightly uh from college to college but dartmouth admissions officers will use that academic index as a cutoff point if your gpa and or your sat or act are below a certain level sort of below that 25th percentile by any kind of significant margin then you really won't be considered for admission at dartmouth and dartmouth admissions officers will probably put your application in a throwaway pile without even reading your essays or checking out your extracurriculars so it's definitely in your best interest to make sure that you fit within or above that academic cutoff in terms of your standardized test scores and gpa and if you're worried about what that cut off is don't worry we'll talk about it in a moment how does this dartmouth student body breakdown demographically well you can see it about above about 62 percent of dartmouth's current students identify as a white or caucasian 23 percent uh identify as asian or asian-american 11 percent identify as black or african-american and 12 percent identify as hispanic or latinx how about gender sorry this graphic is just for the incoming class you can see a very very close split between people who identify as men and people who identify as women as you can see on this graph there is a very very small number of students from the class of 2024 who self-identified as non-binary or as gender queer on their application do note that that this isn't necessarily an accurate estimation for the total size of the community and also we're talking about very small numbers because of course the entire class is very small the number within the full student body not just the freshman class may be much higher than this point six percent how about the geography dartmouth does have a significant number of international students 12 percent on par with a lot of other elite schools although it's not a huge number right we looked at some schools last week i want to see usc uh that had numbers of uh international uh students in the in the 20s in the 20 20 something percent yeah but uh so of course the majority of dartmouth students will be domestic if you're an international applicant you're going to really need to work to make your application stand out but it's definitely possible to get into dartmouth as an international student and finally where do dartmouth students break down geographically well as you can see the largest component of dartmouth students do come from new england and the mid-atlantic schools typically do accept the most students from within their direct geographic region it's no surprise that the west is a slightly smaller cohort but again fairly even at dartmouth in terms of uh population centers and which ones they're they're drawing from we talked about academics a little bit let's talk about extracurriculars ideally your extracurriculars line up with your intended major that's to say if you're applying to dartmouth as a computer science major we're hoping that your extracurriculars clearly demonstrate and prove your interest and success in computer science right so if you're applying as a computer science major well hopefully you've done a couple hackathons you've taken some computer science courses maybe you've coded an app maybe you've done some competitive coding competitions or maybe cyber patriot if you're into cyber security or the like um you know in the same way that if you're applying to study piano performance at a conservatory we hope that you've you know have some significant accomplishments as a pianist whether that's in competitions or going to different festivals playing in master classes etc um having your being able to back up your intended major in your extracurriculars uh profile and also in your essays is really really critical for building a strong applications profile of course also you'll want to use your extracurricular profile to demonstrate your passion for your extracurricular activities and hobbies you'll maybe be able to demonstrate consistency if there's certain activities you've pursued for many years and in the line with consistency also your commitment perhaps you can also demonstrate uniqueness which will go a long way to showing the authenticity of your application and also making your application more memorable which is important because admissions officers are people my friends they are not robots or algorithms they are in fact people who are influenced emotionally by your writing and if you're unique and specific and true to yourself then you know your real personality will come through you'll build that kind of virtual connection with your admission officer which is so critical in your admissions and in your applications to very selective schools like dartmouth how about college essays well they do make up about 25 of your college application at dartmouth you'll be writing two supplemental essays this is in addition to your common app essay of course they are each between 100 and 300 words these essays represent the most personal component of your application you can use them to discuss who you are what you care about how you respond to different informations basically you're giving admissions officers at dartmouth a real sense for who you are why you do the things you do how you developed your interests how you hope to pursue them in the future admissions officers really want to root for you they want to read really unique and interesting and thought-provoking essays they want to read about applications from people who they think would be amazing additions to the student body these essays are often the deciding moment for whether or not you get in there are so many applicants with great gpas great sct and act scores and rigorous course loads who apply to dartmouth every year the essays are oftentimes a deciding component of course the two essays at dartmouth one of them is a y dartmouth essay which you'll want to do some research to make sure you know exactly why you want to attend dartmouth the second is a pick your own essay prompt and we'll go through each of the possible prompts maybe we'll even do some examples we'll see how much time we have as we continue on how about other variables this is just kind of a 10 bucket sometimes the recognition of your high school can um can factor in sometimes having a lot of students from your high school apply to dartmouth might be bad for your chances especially if some of them are very qualified or being recruited as athletes or our legacies some schools have feeder relationships with colleges i always think of the example at harvard as being bot boston latin school boston bls of course has a real relationship with harvard where they're sending you know 10 20 25 students each year to harvard that's really a feeder relationship if you go there you have a better chance of getting into harvard almost automatically there are other parts of your identity that might play into your considerations the way that you write about them in your essays can also help admissions officers get a better sense for who you are what kind of struggles you've had maybe things that you overcame we've only listed a few here but there are many other things that can make your identity unique these are parts of your application that you have little or no control over we can't speak exactly on how or in what ways or to what degree these factors influence your decisions we're just aware that there are slight demographic adjustments for certain other variables in the considerations how does the admissions process work at dartmouth well you've got a primary reader that's the first person to check out your profile and your application that person is probably responsible for all the applicants within your geographic area and that person will determine whether or not they're going to put your application sort of more in a throwaway pile because maybe you don't meet the academic threshold kind of informal cutoffs at dartmouth or they may decide that you know they believe in you and they want to advocate for you and then will go on to secondary readers uh three or four more readers at dartmouth you'll need to win these people over just like your primary reader and eventually your primary and secondary readers hopefully will vouch for you in front of the larger admissions committee which is when the application is presented and of course it's mostly your secondary readers advocating that for you there in front of the admissions committee although your primary reader may also play a role that's why it's so important to win over those secondary readers though the committee will ultimately decide whether they're going to waitlist you accept you reject you or if you've applied early decision or whether they're going to defer you which means that they'll consider you in the regular pool if anyone here was deferred if you applied to dartmouth early and you were deferred and you're still interested in going i would strongly recommend you actually write a letter of continued interest to make sure that the admissions officers know that you're still serious about attending you'll want to explain all the great things you've been up to and all the things you've accomplished since you initially applied that'll make sure that you know you do have a real chance at getting in and regular that said if you've been deferred after applying early your chances are rather lower but not impossible and not unheard of i had some students who actually got into really great schools including georgia tech and maybe mit definitely georgia tech uh uh had definitely had some students who got into good schools after being uh deferred early admissions profile how do you build a strong admissions profile that can maximize your chances at dartmouth we're gonna talk about building your profile through high school we're going to talk about how to write the essays and of course you're going to have to apply and you're going to have to get lucky probably admissions are incredibly selective at schools like dartmouth and may come down to somewhat arbitrary decisions unfortunately because so many people are qualified to attend dartmouth in schools like dartmouth don't worry we'll talk about all this stuff in a moment what sat scores what a ct scores should you be sending uh okay so the middle 50 of accepted students at dartmouth had between a 14 40 and a 1560 if you have significantly lower than a 1440 you may want to consider not attending i would talk about 60 points off that maybe factoring a little bit for demographics again remember you're going to be compared against other people in your demographic cohort so if for instance you're an asian-american applicant you're going to be considered against other asian american applicants unfortunately you're going to need a slightly higher sat score than the equivalent caucasian or white applicant to get in to these really selective schools this is just a known fact unfortunately but so you know a little bit of factoring in for those extenuating circumstances and demographic information but if you have 60 points below the sat or you know two to three points below the low end of the act uh so that that would be in this case you know below a 1380 on the s on the sat or below uh 30 29 on the a ct in that range you may want to consider not submitting but if you're in this range or close to this range we collegevine would recommend that you do submit how did the sat breakdown work well the e b r w or evidence-based reading and writing scores were within the 710 through 770 range that's 25th percentile through 75th percentile and uh the middle 50th percentile for act um of course legacies and athletes have lower average stats since they don't need as high scores for admissions and of course legacies and athletes are factored into these 50 estimations basically you'll need slight even slightly more selective scores to get in if you're not legacy or an athlete how about subject tests sat2s you may all be wondering well they are not required this year at dartmouth they can help if you have some good ones of course you want to cater your test to your possible major right if you're going to pursue economics hopefully you've taken the math too if you're going to pursue history hopefully you've taken the u.s history sat2 or the world history of c2 but that said it really doesn't matter it's totally optional this year don't worry if you don't have time don't worry if they're not offered because of covid it's not a big deal it's just a bonus if you have them they may become slightly more important again in future years after covid but on average during the past years uh sct-2s have become increasingly less important in your admissions profile how about grade point average 94 of admittees in the top 10 of their high school graduating class you're gonna aim for as high as possible a gpa with the most rigorous courses available ideally you'll want a 3-9 or a 4-0 really a 4-0 it is okay if you had a rough start in high school though as long as you demonstrate a really good upward trajectory throughout high school your grades have gotten much much better over the course of high school that'll look good as well for college admissions officers of course if you want to make sure that your profile is strong enough for dartmouth you know obviously you can calculate your chances by signing up for a free account here on collegevine.com and then you know input all your information into our profile we'll pop out really refined estimates of your chances at hundreds of schools in the country how about extracurriculars well your extracurricular profile is your chance to demonstrate excellence within a particular domain of course at schools like dartmouth you really want to focus on leadership positions because these will show initiative drive and leadership and of course dartmouth is looking for future world leaders you'll want some high level awards with which quantify and show exactly how excellent your achievements are impressive projects as well what are some examples of each well leadership positions might be student council president or the founder of a club but they could also be the treasurer or the vice president or whatever how about impressive projects well maybe you coded your own website maybe you started a volunteer pipeline maybe you created a non-profit or published a book all of those things would look really really really impressive and can help make up for slightly lower gpa and or sat scores okay let's talk about essays prompt one while arguing a dartmouth-related case before the us supreme court in 1818 daniel webster class of 1801 delivered this memorable line it is sir a small college and yet there are those who love it as you seek admission to the class of 2024 what aspects of the college's program community or campus environment attract your interest so this is a standard why school x essay it's very very short only a hundred words you're barely going to have time to say anything you'll want to tie in your current interest and experience to specific university offerings right so you do want to name drop professors programs and classes but you don't just want to name drop them and then continue on and have a bunch of things you want to go into detail right if you're going to mention a specific class you want to take you have to say why you want to take that if it's going to expand your mind in new ways if it's going to allow you to take an interdisciplinary approach to your given fields if it's going to be really important for your career and for you to achieve your career goals these kinds of things explain to us why it will be meaningful to take that specific course same thing if there's a specific research program you're going to take part in or a specific internship to which you'll you'll apply a specific extracurricular in which you hope to participate don't just list them do list them but also explain why exactly that experience will be meaningful to you and is important to you in your academic career of course we've got a blog post on this which is titled how to write the dartmouth college essays 20 20 21. okay what's next well six prompts for some tips on how to choose one read through each prompt first see if any of them grab attention you can categorize into three segments you know put likely possible or unlikely next to each of those prompts you can jot down ideas for the likely or possible prompts review them check them over select the topic with the most unique story and the most memorable and exciting personal narrative or the one that best showcases your wit and intellectual prowess you'll want to mention dartmouth-specific opportunities in these essays but don't let it overlap with prompt one if you've already listed a particular professor or research opportunity in essay 1 don't include them again in your essay too with these tips in mind let us dive into the six prompts the first the hawaiian word mo lo is often translated as story but it can also refer to history legend genealogy and tradition use one of these translations to introduce yourself so this is a you know a chance for you to narrate a defining moment in your life you want to look into your history look at your family academic or employment or recreational history to choose a moment or you can look into culture and folklore or your ancestry to find a story that's important to you or you can use a family anecdote or an heirloom to uh to use as a jumping off point you want to make sure that you say something profound and interesting and exciting about yourself and make sure that it's not vague or general but deeply specific and personal to you because that'll help your application be memorable to help you stand out make a connection with your admissions officers number two what excites you this could be a more creative essay although they all can be creative it's a real chance for you to showcase your personality for you to discuss a passion or a hobby perhaps it's a chance for you to humanize your application you can definitely be self-deprecating if you want don't be too self-deprecating though because you want to present yourself in the best possible light but without bragging of course take a risk uh you know feel free to do a more creative response make sure that you only talk about one thing if you talk about all the things that excite you you're not going to get into enough detail we'd recommend really focusing on one number three in the boy who harnessed the wind william kumquamba class of 2014 reflects on constructing a windmill from recycled materials to power the electrical appliances in his family's malawian house if you want to make it all you have to do is try what drives you to create and what do you hope to make or have you already made so this is your chance to show what drives you to create it's a good particular essay topic for any of you who are interested in engineering specifically or you can pick a passion for a certain topic or a certain cause or you know something artistic if you're more on the creative artistic side and uh things inspired you to create so there's many different ways to take this prompt and many different reasons you might select it if you've created something you're proud of whether that's you know writing a novel creating an invention building an app developing a website whatever it may be we highly recommend you do use this prompt to talk about your creation you can talk about specific departments or courses that you hope to take advantage of at dartmouth that will help you build your knowledge uh build onto your existing knowledge and maybe you know achieve your career interests and life goals in relation to that area dartmouth prompt number four curiosity is a guiding element of tony morrison's talent as a writer i feel totally curious and alive and in control and almost magnificent when i write she says celebrate your curiosity this is super open-ended you can choose an anecdote about something that sparked your curiosity you could write a love letter to something that sparks your curiosity don't oversimplify your answer make sure you really deeply reflect and ruminate on it say something poetic or powerful or meaningful to you dartmouth essay prompt number five everything changes everything moves everything revolves everything flies and goes away observed frida kahlo apply khalo's perspective to your own life of course when you write this essay you'll want to focus on specific events or topics you'll want to focus on how an experience has impacted your life goals you'll want to try to be creative when you respond to this prompt and do make sure to qualify the impact of this perspective you know don't say that you changed your whole life around the first time you heard this quote or you know you don't need to say that you live by this philosophy or this philosophy impacts everything you do just try to use this quote as a lens to look at something in your life or apply it to a situation you've been in obviously her quote is about transience and the nature of transience and the nature of time and evolution and things so i'm sure this could apply in many ways to any of us and to any of the things that we do or hope to accomplish dartmouth option number six in the aftermath of world war ii dartmouth president john sloan dickey class of 1929 proclaimed the world's troubles are your troubles and there is nothing wrong with the world that better human beings cannot fix which of the world's troubles inspires you to act how might your course of study at dartmouth prepare you to address it so this is a chance to discuss a current political social climate scientific issue about what you're passionate it's also a chance for you to explain why addressing this challenge is motivating you to pursue an education specifically at dartmouth make sure that you clearly articulate what the specific trouble is it doesn't need to be huge in scale it could be something small make sure you explain to the reader how you plan to address the problem with potential actions tools etc and maybe also um or no specifically also how the specific courses you'll take at dartmouth the extracurriculars in which you participate the research opportunities of which you'll take advantage how will all those experiences and uh parts of your education better enable you to deal with this trouble again it's actually really good for you to to make the problem slightly specific so for instance uh if you know global climate change is such a big issue i might you know if you're interested in addressing global climate change pick a certain part of it that you think you could maybe fix or help solve at a local or perhaps national level and and focus on that because it'll make uh your essay a little bit stronger and it'll make your goals a little more achievable and less kind of broadly or vaguely ambitious okay of course also there's your common app essays those are in there and we've got a sample essay i'll read it aloud to you and then we'll talk about why it's good my earliest memory is spinning in circles with folk dancers in a flurry of gold red and green embroidered on black dresses we weren't in a dance hall but in a gymnasium twirling on three-point arcs and free-throw lines the bohemian hall has tons of contradictions like that in their beer garden they serve chicken schnitzel and buffalo chicken wings macaroni and cheese and tachenka or head cheese happy drunken 20-somethings pass by little kids and nobody thinks anything of it like the bohemian hall the apartment complex i grew up in had its own contradictions our czech landlord yardo was the stereotypical slavic badass from the movies chatting up a crowd drinking their umpteenth pilsners he insulted a tenant that dared complain about asbestos in a part in his apartment after all asbestos only spreads if you cut the old pipes hung on the wall of yardo's basement were works of all shapes and sizes from the lush rolling hills of the moravian landscapes to the curves of the female body in suggestive poses yardos smelled of cigarettes and beer which my mom told me to avoid at all costs i wonder why she befriended him but then i realized that he reminded her of home we couldn't go to the bohemian hall every day but we could always go to yarda's basement and talk czechoslovak celebrity gossip i am constantly brought back to my slovak heritage but is influenced by my american lifestyle i eat koulosh at thanksgiving dinner speak a mix of english and slovak slovlish with my great aunt and say not javi instead of cheers when i drink champagne on new year's day my slovak american heritage was and always will be perfectly contradictory so i hope you enjoyed the example the essay is deeply deeply personal right it's extremely memorable it'll stick in your head because the details are poignant and so specific i think it's a deeply effective essay i'm assuming this is a response to essay prompt number one it's very effective and it's effective because it's not only well written and pleasurable to read but also because it's so specific to the applicant and thus unique and memorable and anyone can make their you know even if you think you haven't done anything unique no one has the exact same life experiences that you do so if you're able to talk really specifically about your experiences that will make you unique no need to worry if you enjoyed the video please don't forget to like the video and subscribe to our channel and ring the notification bell below so you don't miss one of our new videos also you know share the video with your friends if you enjoyed it

Channel: CollegeVine

Views: 1,366

Rating: 4.8048782 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: xfvyZW9BHd8

Length: 30min 3sec (1803 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 11 2021