57 Essays That Got In to Dartmouth College

Prompt: While arguing a Dartmouth-related case before the U.S. 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 2025, what aspects of the College’s program, community, or campus environment attract your interest? Why Dartmouth?

The most important thing I’ve learned in school so far is the value of community, so Dartmouth really brings me home. Its dedication to collaboration and expression through interaction and community work together to create a culture where I can feel inspired to understand global health and improve our communities. Academically, Dartmouth will support my interdisciplinary interests through classes like The Practice of Science Policy & Diplomacy that allow me to study broadly. I also imagine myself involved with the Dartmouth Student Mental Health Union to empower my community for positive mental health, and organizing with the Dartmouth Asian Organization.

Prompt: “Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde advised. “Everyone else is taken.” Introduce yourself.

In honor of Wilde, I feel much obliged to also quote one of his most subtly ontological sayings from The Picture of Dorian Gray: “To define is to limit.”

Both my names are literal translations from the word eternal, the denotative difference being the languages to which they belong, and so I think, not any other name can suit me better. I am a cosmopolitan person who likes to be exposed to novelties, embrace and adapt to new cultures, learn and relearn languages, study the bygone empires and delve into history as it’s known to man, be a part of the world as it is a part of me.

I am indefinite: my ceaseless growth is nature’s part of my being, and it agitates me to think that at some point my entity can be dictated by epistolary exposition. I believe myself to be higher than this, more so as Nietzsche’s Übermensch. My temporal body is but a means to an end, for my transcendental psyche is not any good on its own, and, until their separation, I’m going to partake in shaping Earth as much as she ceaselessly shapes me. Like she has taught me, I will always spurn inertia and myopia—always defy the hardest winds’ blowing, for I am ever-young and ever-growing.

Prompt: What excites you?

Whenever my mom describes me, excitable is the first word she uses. Which I always thought was strange, why not funny, adventurous, or passionate? But, without fail or hesitation, she says that I am excitable. She’s not wrong, though. There is a seemingly never ending list of subjects that excite me. So my answer to “what excites you?” could’ve been sustainable land usage or 70s soft rock or camping or high-speed railway systems or film photography. But, as I reflected on the past few years, I realized that cinema has been the center of my most exciting conversations and experiences. There is something about the chaotic, love-filled action sequences in Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the vast visuals of Dune, and the quiet, intimate moments in The Power of the Dog that excites me to no end. And it’s this excitement that inspired me to write a film studies-based research paper.

Over the course of six months, I wrote 25 pages of original research about the impact of female perspectives on male-centered filmmaking. Through this opportunity, I studied the portrayal of female and male characters and their emotions, and how they shifted based off of the gendered perspectives represented in the filmmaking process. Despite the struggles of conducting research and the frequent moments of doubt, this experience deepened my love and understanding of cinema. So the movies are more exciting than ever, especially with my newly-honed analytical skills (although my friends are often annoyed by my mid-movie interpretations).