This past week has been crazy. Never in my life did I expect an acceptance from Stanford. A funny anecdote I have is that when I visited Stanford as a rising sophomore, I visited my mom's friends at Palo Alto. One of them asked me if my dream school was Stanford and I said that Stanford isn't my dream school because I wouldn't get in. Well, I suppose that life can be quite unpredictable and surprising at times.
I have no idea what the admissions officers thought of me, but I think my essays played a big role in my acceptance. To be honest, my standardized test scores were quite average and I did not win impressive awards like raising thousands of dollars for world hunger or curing cancer as a 17-year-old. I would say that my supplemental essays for Stanford were like vignettes that showed different aspects of me. I tried my best to write specific, unique things that sounded authentic and personal. The things I wrote not only showed my intellectual vitality (a word Stanford loves), but also my appreciation of various subjects such as the arts.
This post will mention my writing experience that included revisions for each of the questions. An important thing is that there are no actual rules you must follow when you write your college essays as there are always exceptions. My essay is just one example, so avoid copying my format because you are a different person.
Short Questions
Most significant challenge society faces
The first idea I had was about how people are addicted to technology, which causes solitude deprivation. My high school counselor said that a lot of my classmates at school also wrote about this challenge, so I decided to discuss a challenge that avoided blaming technology for causing this problem. I also wanted to use less jargon. My final answer had to do with the fact that nowadays people can no longer embrace boredom. I then mentioned the consequences of this challenge, which included worse concentration and less obvious consequences such as the inability to practice self-reflection or think creatively.
For this short question, my answer came from months of learning about this topic from books and TED talks as well as other sources. In short, do your research about this challenge and mention the significance of the challenge, specifically its impact. If you can choose a more specific topic, that is ideal but if you can't that is okay.
Last two summers
This question doesn't require you to use eloquent language and fancy words. I simply went straight to the point by using short, concise phrases to describe my past two summers. Even though barely anything interesting happened in 2020, I still used 20-25 words to describe that summer. My descriptions were details of my daily routine such as biking and reading books. For the 2019 summer, I mentioned how I explored museums around the country.
To make the best use of this space, mention things you didn't cover in your activities list. Don't only talk about serious academic things because the admissions officers don't expect a teenager to be working 100% of the time during summer on research or competition preparation. There is nothing wrong with mentioning that you spent time blogging or writing diary entries.
Historical moment or event
This question required a lot of revisions. My first idea had to do with Henry David Thoreau and Walden pond and it was a bad idea because it was pretty vague in the sense that I did not pinpoint a specific moment. I then decided to think about things that I loved, specifically things that were old such as classical music. I always bring up Debussy as one of my favorite composers when people ask me about my music tastes, so I thought about witnessing Debussy record a specific song on the piano roll.
I ended up spending a couple of hours researching how piano rolls work and how they are stored as well as rare recordings of the composer playing various pieces like Clair de Lune or Reflets Dan L'eau. The process of writing this question was quite fascinating because in the past I never listened to the composer playing his own pieces based on his own interpretations.
My advice is to avoid historical moments that everyone knows from history class or general knowledge because those do not have a personal connection. A personal connection shows what you like to learn in your free time based on what you read, listen to, or watch. Historical moments do not have to be captured in textbooks. They can be small things. Personally, I find these small moments to be more interesting because it shows something that the person is passionate about.
Extracurriculars
I personally think that I could have done a better job on this short answer because quite of the few phrases I wrote for this question were quite similar to what I wrote on my activities list. I tried my best to mention things that I didn't say in my activities list. I chose Science Olympiad because I wanted to mention how I grew as a leader and specific actions I took to improve my team. I then mentioned what tangible impact I made on the team.
I would say that you should choose an activity that highlights some important soft skills you have that you couldn't squeeze into the 150 characters description in the activities list.
One thing you are looking forward to Stanford
I wrote about this oral communication class that I looked forward to taking because I was a fan of This American Life. I then explained how I would benefit from this class and why I really wanted to take this class. I would say it took me a long time to find this specific class on the Stanford website. My first idea was not good (Stanford SLE program) because it didn't show that I spent enough time learning about Stanford. I actually have no idea how I landed on the Stanford course catalog for oral communication, though I remember first reading about the Stanford Storytelling Project.
Like I said before, there are no exact rules to follow when you answer these short questions. In my opinion, I found it a lot easier to talk about a specific thing about Stanford instead of a general thing like its general liberal arts curriculum or seminars because it is harder to make a personal connection. To achieve this, start reading about the general Stanford page and then explore the entire website, whether it is activities or study abroad programs. It sounds very inefficient, but I think it was worth it in the end.
Short Essays
Idea/experience that makes you excited about learning
This one was probably the easiest one to write about because a large portion of the essay was written when I applied to science summer programs in junior year and then I ended up using these essays for quite a few colleges like the UCs that asked me about why I enjoy learning what I want to major in, which is biochemistry.
A general summary is that I talked about the specific event that inspired me to pursue biochemistry, which was Protein Modeling in Science Olympiad. I then talked about how I continued to learn more about biochemistry by reading a textbook about protein chemistry. I ended the essay by saying what I want to achieve from learning this subject.
I would say that using figurative language made my essay sound a lot more interesting because it kind of helped convince the readers why this topic is so fascinating. I also tried to vary my sentence structure and syntax so it didn't feel repetitive.
I demonstrated my curiosity by showing how I took the initiative to learn more about the topic. I also mentioned some important lessons I learned from this scientific journey that didn't really have to do with the scientific content. Instead, these lessons had to do with how to embrace a good learning mindset by realizing that there was no end to learning science.
If you are stuck, think about the hero's journey. In the beginning, you start out thinking that your goal is to achieve x, but you end up realizing that your goal is to achieve y. X is the obvious thing while y is the less obvious thing that involves self-transformation and becoming a better person. I would say that my biochemistry journey kind of reflected the hero's journey.
The reason I chose biochemistry instead of organic chemistry was that I didn't really mention biochemistry on my activities list whereas I had 1 activity on my activity list that was an online organic chemistry class. I also had two other activities that had to do with chemistry olympiad. Although I put Science Olympiad on the activities list, my description did not have room to talk about Protein Modeling. I was kind of conflicted about which one to choose at first, but I decided to go with biochemistry because I wanted to portray myself as a multifaceted person and I didn't want to repeat stuff that the admissions officers already knew about me from my activities list. Even though organic chemistry sounds more impressive because it is college material, I already wrote a 150-character description about it. Also, I felt like the readers wouldn't learn a lot of new stuff about me if I wrote about organic chemistry.
Note to future roommate
I would say that out of all the essays that I wrote, this one was probably the one that stuck out the most. The first thing I want to point out is that the prompt says "note," not "letter." Therefore, you are NOT obligated to write your essay in the form of a letter. You don't need to start off with the words, "Dear roommate," and sign off with your name. In fact, you can just write it like a generic essay but add in some components to show that you are addressing your roommate. Also, the full prompt mentions that it is also an opportunity for the admissions officers to know you better. In other words, you can think of this prompt as a write-anything-interesting-about-yourself prompt.
This one was a very challenging prompt to write because all the college applications blogs I read online did not have a clear structure and felt generic. I am not saying that those types of essays don't work, it's just that I didn't feel comfortable writing those types of essays. I found my first draft to be quite disorganized because all I did was list random facts and quirks about me and then I mentioned social activities to do with my friend. Let me just say the first draft was very cringy.
My high school counselor helped me brainstorm by thinking about important things I wanted to share with the admissions officers that weren't suitable for other prompts. I wanted to show something that the admissions officers could not find from my activities list, Common App, or other Stanford essay questions. Therefore, I decided to write about my experience at the SF MOMA. The purpose of choosing my SF MOMA experience was that I felt like I underwent some major transformation when I was at the museum. I became more open-minded and developed a new curiosity for things outside of the natural and physical sciences. I wanted to show that I was interested in various subjects, which would convince Stanford that I was a good fit because Stanford prides itself on its interdisciplinary curriculum.
Writing about a specific topic made the writing process a lot easier because I focused on one thing instead of jumping around random things. My first sentence went straight to the point by describing a strange painting that I saw in the museum. I then talked about how I became more interested in modern art and then ended the story by telling my roommate about how I looked forward to exploring art with my roommate.
My advice is that you shouldn't feel pressured to write this essay in a letter format. Instead, you can think of an important story that portrays a different side of you that you couldn't write about in other places. For instance, you can write about a funny prank you did to show your humorous personality.
Something meaningful to you and why
I would say that this one required the most number of revisions because although the prompt appears to be quite straightforward and easy, in reality, it is very difficult to answer. I started brainstorming for this essay in July and my final idea came around November. My first ones were horrible because they were too cheesy like the sunset. I would say this prompt could be rephrased as a use-this-extra-empty-space prompt. For this one, I thought about why I enjoyed certain things and why these things made me happy. I mean, if I didn't like this activity, why would I keep doing it? This question led me to write about why I enjoyed reading to elementary school children after school as part of a volunteer program that I set up.
I started off in media res with dialogue and then I mentioned my initial goals for the reading program and how I realized over time that the reading program was more than just helping children with reading. It made me relive childhood and relax. It made me let go of my serious demeanor by embracing other identities. I made the essay more interesting by using imagery and specific memories so it didn't sound vague or general.
General Summary
I would say that a thing that my essays had in common was that I tried to make them sound personal and authentic and made sure my essays addressed Stanford's mission, which I read from their pamphlets and their websites. I didn't want them to think I was the stereotypical nerd so I showed that I had various interests. At the same time, you can argue it would have been better if my essays had this common theme that made me a more memorable person but it is ultimately up to you. I made sure to mention a topic that not a lot of people would write about, but I didn't worry too much at the end of the day because I bet these officers have read hundreds of thousands of applications so there is no "unique" topic. I didn't change my tone to fit what I thought Stanford wanted to hear because I found that to be pointless and not genuine. For instance, don't write like a comedian if you really aren't that funny. Don't feel obligated to sound philosophical and serious if you aren't described as that type of person.
Honestly, there were thousands of kids out there who had better essays than me but didn't get in so I would say one reason I got in was luck.
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