Freshman Requirements & Process

Essays

In reading all of your writing, we want to hear your individual voice. Write essays that reflect who you are; use specific concrete details and write in a natural style.  Begin work on these essays early, and feel free to ask your parents, teachers, and friends to provide constructive feedback. When you ask for feedback on an essay draft, ask if the essay's tone sounds like your voice—it should. If your parents, teachers, and friends do not believe your essay captures who you are or what you believe, surely we will be unable to recognize what is most distinctive about you. While securing feedback is suggested, you should not enlist hired assistance in the writing of your essays.

The Common Application’s Essays

Candidates must choose one topic and respond. Responses must be at least 250 words but should not exceed the space provided (approximately one page).

  1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
  2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
  3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
  4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you, and explain that influence.
  5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community, or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
  6. Topic of your choice.

The Stanford Supplement Short Essays

Candidates must respond to all three questions/topics.  Responses must be at least 250 words but should not exceed the space provided in the Supplement.

  1. Stanford students are widely known to possess a sense of intellectual vitality.  Tell us about an idea or an experience you have had that you find intellectually engaging.
  2. Virtually all of Stanford’s undergraduates live on campus.  What would you want your freshman year roommate to know about you? Tell us something about you that will help your roommate—and us—know you better.
  3. Tell us what makes Stanford a good place for you