Lee A. Coffin Vice Provost for Enrollment and Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid
2 | admissions.dartmouth.edu
PHOTOGRAPH BY DON HAMERMAN
“Give yourself permission to explore, even when some voices around you are less convinced.”
Today, Michelle Obama is widely celebrated as one of the most admired women in the world. But as she recounts in her memoir Becoming, her high school counselor saw things differently when the teenaged version of herself—a student ranked in the top 10 percent of her class—outlined her admissions plans in the fall of 1980: “I’m not sure that you’re Princeton material.” “It’s possible, in fact, that during our short meeting, the college counselor said things to me that might have been positive and helpful,” the former First Lady writes, “but I recall none of it. Because rightly or wrongly, I got stuck on one single sentence the woman uttered…She was telling me to lower my sights, which was the absolute reverse of every last thing my parents had ever told me.” Mrs. Obama’s admissions journey from the South Side of Chicago is familiar to many first-gen kids. Comments like those from her guidance counselor are like a slow leak from a bicycle tire: you realize you need to pedal even harder to reach your destination. Sadly, too many of you hear similar things as the application deadlines inch closer, or perhaps you are doubting yourself as you peer into the future. In an episode of The Search, the admissions podcast I hosted earlier this year, a Dartmouth-bound student from a low-income urban school recounted a story similar to the one Mrs. Obama shared. His peers wondered why he was even considering “a place like Dartmouth.” They told him, “No one from here goes to a place like that.” It gave him a moment’s pause, but my young friend held true to his own goals. He applied despite the cloud of doubt he encountered, and today he’s a Dartmouth ’24. Determination counts. Remember, it can happen. It does happen. As a student in 2020, you certainly have far more admissions information available to you than existed in 1980, when Michelle Obama was navigating a pre-internet search of higher education. If you’re reading this column, you’re already in the right zone. Give yourself permission to explore, even when some voices around you are less convinced or when the selectivity of a given college intimidates you. “Failing to try...is the source of some of our deepest regrets,” UVA President and Dartmouth parent James Ryan advises in his book, Wait, What? “What we don’t do often haunts us more than what we actually do.” Bottom line? “What if...” should be a scenario you work to avoid. Yes, the public health crisis continues to scramble the norms of how we’ve imagined college admissions over the decades. It’s now cliché to say we’re in “an unprecedented moment.” We are, but don’t let that stop you. You’re still you. Use each element of your application to introduce yourself, to unmute yourself, in the lingo of our virtual communications context. College is opportunity. Step towards it confidently. Reach. Listen to the voice that guides your own ambition. And remember Michelle Obama, who met resistance with determination: “I’ll show you!”