Engage with the Center for Career Design
The Dartmouth Center for Career Design works with high school students in select programs to help them utilize career and life design early in their academic and professional journeys, giving them a strategic advantage ahead of entering college.
Online “Designing Your College Experience” Life Design Summer 2026 Program
The Center for Career Design’s “Designing Your College Experience” online life design program, running in August 2026, is intended for rising tenth to twelfth grade high school students. This program equips participants with the tools to map, test, and iterate on a personally meaningful college experience.
Drawing on the Stanford “Life Design” framework, the program blends self-reflection, creativity, and rapid-prototype experimentation so participants can move from the uncertainty and anxiety of “what I think college will be” to “what I want my college life to become,” while strengthening resilience, purpose, and establishing a sense of intentionality to their approach to their first year in college.
By leveraging this life design approach, the program helps students
- Reduce anxiety around the transition to college and reduce the likelihood of choosing an institution that is a poor fit, or pursuing frequent major changes.
- Foster a growth mindset through positive-psychology practices.
- Position students for an intentional approach to their college experience and life after college. Participants will leave with a personal mission statement, three 5-year “Odyssey” scenarios, and several SMART goals backed by low-risk experiments shared with mentors, networking contacts, and/or supporters (a participant’s Dream Team).
The Center for Career Design is offering this program twice in the summer 2026:
- Session #1: August 10 – August 21 (3 hours per day for 10 days); 9:00am – 12:00pm EST
- Session #2: August 10 – August 21 (3 hours per day for 10 days); 1:00pm – 4:00pm EST
Each class lasts three hours. There will be a break offered as close to the middle of the session as possible. Zoom will be used as the program delivery format. Students will also be introduced to Mural, a visual collaboration tool.
- $1,100 early bird pricing (by 6/19)
- $1,200 base price (6/20-8/1)
- $950 price for children of faculty, staff, alumni, or members of the military
Life design adapts the Stanford “Design Thinking for Life” model to career and personal development. It treats one’s pathway to and through college as a design problem:
- Empathize with one’s current reality
- Define a purpose-driven compass
- Ideate multiple possible futures
- Prototype low-stakes experiments
- Test outcomes to iterate
The method emphasizes self-knowledge (values, energizers, stressors), divergent thinking (multiple 5-year scenarios), rapid learning cycles, and relational scaffolding (mentors, peer “dream teams”). The result is a living, adaptable plan aligning work, health, relationships, and play—exactly the whole-person development that helps students navigate the transition to college and thrive.
Dartmouth’s undergraduate admissions process is separate and independent from Dartmouth Precollege programs. Participation in Dartmouth Precollege programs does not affect your admissibility for Dartmouth Undergraduate Admissions. For information regarding Dartmouth Undergraduate Admissions, please visit admissions.dartmouth.edu.
If you choose to include your Dartmouth Precollege experience in any college application, we encourage you to consider reflecting on your experience with Dartmouth Precollege, and how you felt you learned, grew, and developed your talents and curiosity during your time with us.