Adrianne is a Senior Admissions Counselor and TV/film director, producer, writer, and actress currently based in LA. She uses her experience in multiple disciplines to help students achieve their personal and academic goals.
Before I get started, I want to warn you: the Stanford supplement is very long and can be difficult to write. You can often get a sense of what a school is looking for in their applications by reading their supplement to the Common App and Coalition App. Stanford’s supplement seems to be telling us, among other things, that they’re looking for students who are willing to put in some serious time and effort in order even to be considered for a spot at the school.
In addition to the Common App or Coalition App essay, Stanford asks that you respond to three short essay questions (100-250 words). These supplemental essay questions are very open-ended, so you have a great deal of freedom to write about just about anything you like. Plan your three responses out before you start writing to make sure you’re hitting three distinct points that show three distinct features of your personality. There should be no overlap between these essays.
Stanford also has several (very) short response questions that help you show off your personality. Many students do best when they start with short essays — the reason for this is that you don’t want to repeat any information on your application, and it will be easier for you to build your short responses around what you’ve already said on the essays. So, here we go!
The Stanford Community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. (100-250 words)
Keep in mind that these are very short responses, so you want to get right to the point. Don’t waste time repeating the question or praising the Stanford community for its deep curiosity.
Note that highly selective schools like Stanford care a great deal about what you do outside of the classroom. (That’s why there are outside-the-classroom questions in the “short response” section.) So even though the question here is about an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning, the way the question is set up tells you that Stanford values not only what you’ve done in school, but also what you’ve done on your own. If you can speak to an idea or experience that you didn’t get/have in a high school class, it will make for a stronger essay.
So, continuing to close-read the prompt: you can either reflect on an idea or an experience. Whichever you choose, remember that the best essays are narratives — they tell a story. You can choose to write about an idea, but make sure you’re not simply waxing philosophical and getting lost in the conceptual stratosphere. Tell a personal story about your discovery of this idea, or give us a series of short anecdotes about what you’ve done to pursue it. Talking about a specific experience should be easy to relate to as a story.
Virtually all of Stanford’s undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about you or that will help your roommate—and us—get to know you better. (100-250 words)
This response should be all personality. Actually imagine the person who is going to receive this note. You’re not writing for admissions officers anymore — you’re not trying to impress grown-ups who hold your future in their hands. Highlight your endearing quirks here. Maybe you have a ritual where every Tuesday at 9 PM you absolutely have to make muffins, and you’re planning on using the communal kitchen for this. Maybe your mother lives within driving distance of Palo Alto and is planning on bringing you cookies every week, even though she knows it’s going to embarrass you. Maybe you plan on bringing thirteen different houseplants with you to campus. Use this prompt as an opportunity to highlight something or things about yourself that Stanford doesn’t know already.
Please describe what aspects of your life experiences, interests and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergraduate to Stanford University. (100-250 words)
This question is tough because it is so broad. You’ve already written your Common App or Coalition App essay. You’ve just written two short supplemental essays where, hopefully, you talked about what you’d like to learn and your potential relationship with your roommate. So, what’s left? It’s a serious question. What else do you want Stanford to know about you and what you’d be like on campus?
Avoid talking about vague concepts here, since it is so open-ended. As always, be specific! This should still be a story, or a series of anecdotes. It can be a story about a specific memory that has stuck with you and continues to inform the person you are. It can be a story about a hobby that holds personal meaning (and isn’t on your activities list). It can be about a series of experiences, but just make sure it answers the question at hand and fits in this small space. Finally, make sure you don’t repeat yourself in the above questions or when you answer the questions below.
What is the most significant challenge that society faces today? (50 words)
First off, let me emphasize that these “short response” questions are really very short. Maybe you’re thinking, “Great! This will be a cinch.” But there is a real art to writing concisely. You’ve probably heard the famous quote where Mark Twain apologizes to his correspondent for writing such a long letter because he didn’t have time to make it shorter. Writing concisely and effectively takes time. Plan for it.
So, what’s the greatest challenge facing society today? These questions can be difficult because you can easily sound like a candidate for Miss America. But this is a required response, so the real question is: how do you stand out by talking about an issue that by definition affects millions or even billions of people, and which you certainly don’t have a solution for? (If you do have a solution for climate change or the refugee crisis, you should consider running for president.)
The solution is to make it personal (and thus, specific!). At the very least, you need to be talking about an issue that directly affects you or the people around you. For example, you shouldn’t talk about the climate crisis unless you can link it to your community’s experience — unless your community has been affected by hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, floods, etc.
A personal connection is the bare minimum for responding to this prompt. Ideally, I’d like to know what you’ve done about this issue, which you believe to be the greatest challenge facing society. If you can’t tie this to something concrete that you’ve done, your response won’t be very convincing. If it sounds like they’re asking for a lot, they are. Stanford’s acceptance rate was under 5% the last time they bothered reporting it. They can afford to require that their applicants try to change the world.
How did you spend your last two summers? (50 words)
Stanford is not the only school that asks this, which should indicate to you how important your summer activities are on your application. It shows you that these incredibly selective schools really care about your activities outside of the classroom. We may sound like a broken record, but if you’re a first-year in high school, and you’re reading this for some reason, focus on your extracurriculars and make the most of your summers!
There’s no trick to this question. Either you’ve got something impressive to say, or you don’t. Stanford just wants to know about all the incredible things you’ve done with your summers since you finished your sophomore year. And if you’re running out of things to say, really think about every little thing you did, even if it wasn’t a formal program or “activity.”
What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed? (50 words)
For this one, students should think about an event they’d actually want to be present at. The Normandy landings? No, you’d have to have a death wish. The moment Derrida decided to write “difference” with an a? No, in all probability, there was nothing visually exciting about a French guy deciding to misspell a word. On the other hand, probably don’t say Woodstock, since your admissions officers will have a hard time picturing you there without assuming you’re violating some campus policies.
Now is a good time to remind you that all of these responses should serve to strengthen your personal narrative. In 50 words, you can’t explain yourself, so your choice needs to speak for itself. If you were born in Toronto, have a fiery passion for Early Middle Japanese poetry, are a champion shot-putter, and you started your school’s cooking club, we’re going to scratch our heads if you say “the moon landing” here. (By the way, don’t say the moon landing. It’s just too predictable.) The idea isn’t to be one-dimensional, but your choice here should make sense in the context of who you are. Your response shouldn’t come out of the blue… which, to attempt to tie this example together, is what the moon does every day.
Briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities, a job you hold, or responsibilities you have for your family. (50 words)
Here’s a question that other insanely selective schools ask. It’s a big hint as to what they’re looking for in their applicants. They want students who’ve done one really impressive thing outside the classroom. Stanford phrases the question a little differently, however: they add the part about family responsibilities. There’s a fairly widespread misconception that good old-fashioned jobs aren’t particularly impressive to colleges. They are! In fact, holding down a part-time job for a couple of years in high school can be far more impressive than a few fancy one-month internships. If you’re wondering whether to talk about the summer job you’ve held for the past three summers, painting houses, or the debate team you’re a part of, go with painting houses.
You can talk about any significant family responsibilities as well. The fact that you do the dishes ever night won’t impress Stanford, but if you’re the one whose job it is to milk the cows every day at 6AM and 6PM, or if you’re responsible for picking up your little sister at school every week day and taking care of her until your single parent gets home in time to tuck her in, write about those experiences. If you’re going to write about a more traditional extracurricular, make sure your response goes beyond the description on your activities list. Tell us why the activity is meaningful and personal.
List five things that are important to you. (50 words)
Once again, Stanford is asking for a more personal perspective in this short essay, now in list form (which means you can actually bullet point with a brief description). So, make sure you’re not just trying to sneak in more of your resume — don’t say your trophy from your All-Sate game or your binder for speech and debate, unless you can put a truly new spin on it.
Focus on what really matters, but you can still put a little creative or funny spin on it. For instance, you can say your little sister, but not whenever she’s stealing clothes out of your closet. You should also try to strike a good balance between things that represent your life at home, school, practice, and/or wherever else you spend your time. You can also list a mix of physical things or “things” more generally, whatever works best for you.
As always, Ivy League admission consultants are here to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out.
