<p>Every time I look at "chance me" posts for Dartmouth (or any other Ivy League school), I always read the same response: </p>
<p>"Your grades and test scores look good but make sure you write a good essay!"</p>
<p>So my question is...drum roll...</p>
<p>What makes an essay a "good" one for Dartmouth admissions officers? Do they prefer some traits over others? Are they quirky-intellectual like UChicago or are they more "life changing experience" types?</p>
<p>This also applies to the peer eval. What makes a peer eval a good one? </p>
<p>Any help is great :) I'm in the process of writing my college essay and am 99.5183% sure I'm applying ED to Dartmouth.</p>
<p>One thing that I’ve read/heard is that the essay should be something so individual that it couldn’t have been written by anyone except for you. I don’t know what the Dartmouth admissions officers are looking for. Since I’m sure it varies somewhat from one officer to another, just write about something really meaningful to you.</p>
<p>For the peer evaluation, there’s not much you can do other than giving it to the friend who you think knows you the best. Colleges like to see personal anecdotes on peer recs to make it more solid than just listing a bunch of nice adjectives. Good luck!</p>
<p>unless you were planning on writing different common app essays specific to each school (which seems way too much work), dartmouth’s supplement doesn’t ask for any additional essays. so the only essays dartmouth will see will be your 150 e.c essay, and your main common app. just use the same essay you will be writing for your other schools. </p>
<p>as for the peer evals, they should show a side of you that your teachers/counselors can’t get across to the schools. a friend would know more about your personality, or certain stories that had morals or something. you could also use them to emphasize certain qualities about you that you couldn’t show in other parts of your application.</p>