Hello! My name is Luísa Michel and I’m an 18 year-old student from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Here is my journey to Dartmouth!

My Background - how my school occupied a fundamental role in my story

I studied at Colégio Militar de Belo Horizonte since the beginning of middle school, where I was introduced to numerous extracurricular activity opportunities that helped me to grow as a person in many areas of my life. Additionally, I had the opportunity to meet inspiring people who had been accepted into international universities and participated in exchange programs, which inspired me to learn more about the Application process.

It was a place where I could really develop my interests and curiosity by getting involved in different types of projects, such as organizing dance festivals and participating in school clubs like swim and informatics, in which my passion for technology and STEM was shaped.

Why Study Abroad?

I’ve always been an independent kind of person who likes to solve challenges, so the idea of studying abroad seemed like the combination of many of my life objectives, such as traveling the world, meeting new people, and cultures. But I only really started working on this dream during the COVID-19 Pandemic, when I had more time to practice English and an enormous amount of online access to learn more about the admission process.

The college sense of community and the curriculum flexibility were the main aspects that caught my attention in the international model of study, so when I was around 13 to 14 years old, I decided to pursue the dream of studying abroad.

Why Dartmouth?

I was really attracted to the flexibility that Dartmouth gives the students to organize their study calendar through the D-plan, in which they have autonomy to choose how they’ll schedule classes and breaks in a way that provides more liberty to balance the academic life while also engaging in internships and other opportunities.

Other aspects that caught my attention included Dartmouth’s great Design initiative that aligns with my interest in Human Centered Design (HCD, a well-established Brazilian community, an outdoor campus with many activities, and the experience of living all four years in college.

Extracurricular Activities and Honors

My profile was well-rounded because I had extracurriculars in different areas, especially when it comes to a CS type of student, but I think my strongest ones were in the field of research. I was a scientific initiation scholarship for two years in the Eletrical Engineering department of UFMG, the federal university of my state, where I could explore more about the engineering path to see if I was willing to follow it. This experience showed itself to be very challenging yet important to my academic trajectory because I started when I had just become a junior without knowing even the base of electrical physics (this subject would only be teached in the senior year at my school), so I had to study a lot by myself to be able to reach the level that was required of me.

Another research project I did was in partnership with the Sanitary and Environmental Engineering department of UFMG, in which I tested the potential of an industrial microwave-processed coconut charcoal for removing pharmaceuticals from water. It was an amazing opportunity to work with high-level researchers. I also did smaller research projects in my sophomore year, such as developing a code based on graph theory to solve a real-world problem.

Besides those, I was selected to the AFS Global STEM Academies exchange program about sustainability and social impact, in which I had the opportunity to have online enriching classes for 12 weeks and 4 immersive weeks across different Chinese cities.

My main leadership extracurriculars showed a side of myself that was passionate for helping my community, including the organization of dance festivals from scratch with a few people and volunteering with the Legion of Honor of my school. Lastly, I was a record holder on the school's swimming team and valedictorian.

What helped me during the Application

In my high school senior year, I was one of the two Brazilian recipients for the Crimson Education Scholarship mentorship, which helped me to create my college list and prepare myself for the admission process. Another resourses that helped me were the College Essay Guy blog for essays, watch many YouTube videos for SAT prep and to learn tips to do well on the test, and solve lots of questions from the College Board Question Bank.

I also talked to people who got into universities before me and used Google Calendar to organize my time and priorities (try to create an account only for Application purposes).

Financial Aid

The cost to go, atend, and live at Dartmouth goes around 100k dollars annually. I got a partial scholarship, so I applied to several organizations for financial assistance and received it from Fundação Behring, which made it possible for me to study college abroad.

Stats and Tips for Applicants

I got an SAT score of 1570 (790 in Math and 780 in English), and for my English proficiency test, I took TOEFL and scored 113/120. Finally, my GPA was around 9.2 out of 10.

During the year of my application, I really pushed myself strategically through the academic tests because I knew I could get good results and that would make me stand out from other students. I felt like I needed to make this up for the other parts of the admission process that I thought weren’t my best ones, so my first tip is to know your strong points and work strategically to highlight them as much as you can.

Other advice would be to explore your interests and find extracurriculars that resonate with who you are, because that way, you will be able to commit to them. Also, try to apply to mentorships that can help and guide you through the process.

Always remember that, besides being a harsh and tiring journey, in the end it is going to be worth it, regardless of whether you get accepted into college or not. It allowed me to challenge myself and to grow as a person and scholar; the soft skills I learned during that season will follow me throughout my life.