Dartmouth is a prestigious Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was , which is higher than most of the Ivy League schools, but only by a percentage point or so.
While Early Decision application numbers have remained high, the number of students applying overall has decreased since a peak during the height of COVID. This decrease, , and immediately followed Dartmouth reinstating their ACT/SAT standardized test requirement. And yet, the pool of applicants is still higher than six years ago with a total of applications submitted.
Dartmouth that the top five undergraduate majors are, in this order, Economics, Government, Computer Science, Engineering Sciences, and Biology. If looking at the breakdown in areas of study among students with declared majors, the largest proportion (44%) focus on the Social Sciences, like economics, psychology, and political science. The next largest group is in the division of the Sciences, accounting for 32%. A total of 11% focus on the Arts & Humanities, and 13% are pursuing an interdisciplinary track. This breakdown is nearly perfectly echoed in the interests of first-year (so undeclared) students, which shows that while the statistics are from a particular year, they can be looked at as representative of larger norms at Dartmouth.
Interestingly, however, Dartmouth a massive decrease in students focused on the social sciences (16.2%) and the STEM (25.8%) fields from 2014 to 2024. Even the number of students pursuing economics decreased, while the number of students declaring a major in computer science more than doubled. It’ll be interesting to see if this shifts in recent years as the starting salaries for undergraduates with degrees in computer science are expected to fall, but, for now, computer science is still a highly competitive major for first-year applicants.
Below, we’ll break down the five most competitive prospective majors for first-year applicants to Dartmouth and the majors that you should be putting down on your application in their stead. Plus, we’ll give you the actions you need to take to make this swap truly work in your favor.
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If you are aiming for a top college like Dartmouth, and especially any member of the Ivy League, you need to do more than simply be exceptional. Yes, your grades need to be impeccable. Yes, your activities and leadership roles need to wow. Your writing, too, much be compelling. However, that isn’t enough. The piece that is most often forgotten — leading to rejections — is strategy.
This is where major decisions come in. Ultimately, what you want to major in when you get to Dartmouth doesn’t matter as much as which major will best position you for admission to the undergraduate college that you want to attend within Dartmouth. We work with our students to begin planning for this as early as possible — ideally by sophomore year. If you are further along in high school, though, there are still clear actions you can take to strengthen your Dartmouth application, especially through the lens of major selection.
So, instead of picking one of the five most popular majors at Dartmouth to list on your application as your prospective area of study, we suggest some substitutes. Let’s explore them.
Instead of Biology, do Climate Science
is one of the most popular majors at Dartmouth because it is a gathering ground for students with a wide range of life goals and visions for the future. Students who want to go into research, of course, and to practice biology as a scientist end up here, of course, but also everyone who is considering a career in the medical fields. Some of the toughest students are those who hope to become doctors. Even if you are one, we do not recommend putting yourself in that lineup when having your application assessed. Instead, take a different approach.
We recommend, instead, to specify a prospective area of study of . This keeps you in the science fields, making your hard won successes still work in your favor, but also puts you in a less specialized and obsessive pool. Students interested in Climate Science tend to engage with the world beyond the classroom and intensive academic achievements. They do the science things that look and sound impressive, yes, but they also lead clubs oriented towards the environment and social change, enjoy the outdoors, and pursue research and advocacy internships.
If you are already doing these things, a major in Climate Science helps you amplify them in your favor. If you aren’t, though, you’ll need to start as soon as possible to authenticate your interest.
Instead of Engineering Sciences, do Engineering Physics
Engineering is always a hyper-competitive program to apply for at top colleges, and it isn’t a field that you can find your ways towards, typically, as top schools silo engineers in specialized schools that are difficult or even impossible to move into after being accepted as a first-year. With that in mind, we need you to stay within engineering but move to the side of the most engineering popular program: s.
To do this, we advise our students to specify an interest in . This is still a very competitive program, and you still need to be an exceptional applicant to get in, but we’ve found that a prospective major in Engineering Physics and a proposed minor in can set you apart and give your application an additional edge. To prepare, the most important thing you can do is to pursue a project.
This could be a project for a competition, but it doesn’t need to be. What matters most, actually, is that you can illustrate your obsessive passion through strong narrative story in your applicant. If you can bring in a mentor through the process who is a professional in the field, even better.
Instead of Computer Science, do Physics & Astronomy
Despite the rise of the AI era and the on-going debate around the role of junior coders (i.e., entry-level jobs for recent comp sci grads) in the coming future, remains one of the most popular majors at Dartmouth. It is also one of the most competitive programs to get into, so we suggest looking at programs that are close enough to computer science to get you into the avenue you need at Dartmouth, but through a different pool.
If you are interested in Computer Science at Dartmouth, then, you should seriously consider specifying an interest in pursuing .
We get it. Physics & Astronomy is not the same as computer science. But if you have the time to deepen into astronomy, especially, alongside your computer science passion it will add interest to your application far and beyond what students who just code for fun can pack into their applications. Even better, meld the two. Use your computer science skills to build something that is relevant to physics or astronomy. This could be for a competitive or structured activity, but we actually prefer when it’s an independent pursuit with the idea of creating something that has impact beyond you.
Instead of Government, do Public Policy
Another of the most popular majors at Dartmouth is . Students are drawn to this major because it prepares them for a career in or peripheral to politics and government through a global lens that immerses students in the conceptual side of government and the practical side, with experience in research, internship, and field work.
The name is also approachable. When looking at a list of majors at Dartmouth, “Government” appears quite self-explanatory and non-threatening. We suspect that this is one of the reasons why so many first year applicants point to the Government program as their prospective major. The strongest students who would consider selecting Government as their major should actually seriously consider selecting History from the proverbial and literal drop-down menu of college applications with twist.
The in History allows students to pair a major in history with four ‘modifying’ courses that add depth and focus to the major. In this case, the modifying courses would be from the Government major. Then you’ll also propose layering on a Public Policy minor.
This is all a bit complicated, we know, but we have reasons. The pool of applicants applying with a strong interest in History is much smaller than those looking towards the Government program. To sell the idea of you doing History, but modified, instead of going straight towards Government you need to develop your extracurriculars that speak to a deep passion for the past. This could be through independent writing and research, activities like Quiz Bowl, or something wild like becoming involved in historic reenactments at a historic site that is close to you. If you do the last one, send us pictures of your costume!
Instead of Economics, do Sociology
Economics is one of the most popular majors across all of the Ivy Leagues and similarly competitive colleges. This is interesting, as it isn’t a major that directly funnels into a career path. Most majors do not, after all, become economists. Instead, econ majors are spread across fields like finance, consulting, and business.
The same could be said, in fact, for the major that we suggest selecting on your application instead of picking Economics: . Sociology is one of those classic liberal arts majors that involves studying a little bit of everything. It takes bites out of history, anthropology, philosophy, and, yes, economics. The core of the major is the pursuit of understanding, and students learn how to ask questions — and how to seek out answers to them. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because that’s how your brain work and why you love economics in the first place. What makes sociology an attractive alternative to economics, though, is that the pool of students expressing strong interest in it in their applications is much smaller.
To prepare to apply to Dartmouth as a sociology student, you need to keep doing everything you are doing. There isn’t really much that you need to shift in your activities to strength your application that you wouldn’t already be doing for an economics focus. The difference really appears in the writing and how you make the case for your ideal academic experience at Dartmouth. That’s somewhere we can make a huge difference.
If you are set on applying for one of Dartmouth’s most popular majors, you need to create a strategy for standing out. When we work with students, we aim to have this plan in action as early as possible — even sophomore year of high school if the student has a strong focus early. By selecting the best activities and opportunities for what you are interested in, you can move your application from strong to truly exceptional.
That’s all eminently doable, but we still advise seriously considering selecting a less competitive major for Dartmouth that will increase your odds of admission without limiting your options once you get onto campus. Either way, though, we can help.
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