Guidelines on submitting short stories or poems

<p>I am applying to Dartmouth for ED. I write short stories and I want to submit one of them with my application for evaluation. I emailed Dartmouth and they told me to mail it directly to the admission office. But, do I need to double space text, use a specific text, or something else? Any advice will be very helpful. Thank you.</p>

<p>here's a rule of thumb
don't submit that which has not been published
and if it has been published, send the publication, not the manuscript</p>

<p>Keep in mind you're playing against 15,000 of the top applicants around the world at any given year. the admissions officers are not going to enjoy reading through manuscripts. they are laymen in terms of reading fiction/poetry. They may like it or may not like it, but do so from a layman's perspective, and one that has only read established/published authors. It's gonna have to be real good for it to count in your favor. Otherwise, you just wasted 10 minutes of their time.</p>

<p>If you MUST, contact one of the professors in the creative writing department. Talk to them about the program. Ask them to read and comment about your work. If it's favorable, ask them to shoot admissions a short little blitz saying "this kid's good".</p>

<p>BTW, another rule of thumb is
double space, courier new, 12 point</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestions. Much appreciated!</p>

<p>What about photographs?
i don't file them as supplements coz i don't have an instructor.
Can I just mention the URL linked to webpage of my photos in additional information section?
or I should also contact a professor?
btw, it's not going to be my major. i just very very like taking photo.</p>

<p>If you think they are very good then submit them with the arts supplement, if possible. In that way, you are assured that they will be evaluated. And since there is a specific supplement for such works, I guess it would be the sensible thing to do. </p>

<p>Anyways, you can also contact the admission office.</p>

<p>Yeah writing and poetry needs to be handled carefully. Make it something that when they first glance upon it, they decide that they can get through it in 3-5 minutes (like listening to a music sample). That being said, if you have faith in your piece of writing and your HS english teacher does too, it probably will be good enough to surely NOT hurt you and possibly help a little. You just want to think about the overall bulkiness of your application.</p>

<p>Well, the sample I am submitting is just over 1000 words in length. It is a very short story.</p>

<p>cant we simply upload the writings in the additional info section of common app???</p>