Stanford University Admission Essay Writing Guide

Contents

How to write Stanford University Supplemental Essays

An essay is a common type of academic writing a student will likely do many times. However, writing an essay can be difficult for students; it requires great writing skills and knowledge. To write a remarkable application essay, students need to have the necessary skills. This article will teach you to write an excellent application essay that will stand out among the thousands of applicants.

Understanding the Essay question

Writing requires due diligence; a student needs to have clear knowledge and understanding of what to do. Ensure to have full details of the essay before embarking on it. There are different types of essays; the first thing to consider is the style, structure, and focus of the essay, as it varies depending on the type of essay you are writing. The next thing to consider is the essay format and style requirements.

Ensure to observe the essay requirements such as word length, citation style, spacing, font style, and font size. Finally, you might be confused about what you are supposed to write. Do not assume. Endeavour to ask questions. Seek the assistance of your friends or teachers for better clarification.

Planning and Organizing your essay

Your essay might require you to cite examples to support your arguments; the best solution is research. Library information, academic journals, textbooks, and websites are the best source to consider. Make sure you verify the knowledge you gathered before applying it to your essay. As you keep researching, ensure to keep notes of relevant details. Once you've established an idea you like to discuss in your essay, try to summarize it in a few sentences. This will form the foundation of your thesis. After a clear thesis has been created, outline the major point, paragraphs, and subcategories you will be using in your essay.

Drafting the Essay

Once you've understood your essay and written your thesis and outline, start your essay writing with an introduction. An Introduction is the first part of an essay; it gives a short detail of the topic. It must also express the thesis statement. As the admission officers will be going through thousands of essays, ensure that your introduction is captivating, enabling them to read further.

The body of the essay is the part you get to present your arguments in detail, providing a detailed answer to the essay questions. This is an avenue for you to showcase your knowledge and skills. While writing your essay, make sure to use transition sentences between paragraphs to build connections between your arguments.

Finally, wrap up your essay with a closing paragraph. This paragraph will briefly summarize your points and also discuss the main idea of your essay. It will reveal how your arguments are related to your thesis.

Revising the Essay

As soon as you are done writing your essay, it is a bad idea to submit it immediately. Take a break after finishing your draft. Give your essay a little time to rest and come back to it with a fresh perspective. When you are back at your essay, go through it to check for any mistakes. It is good to read it aloud to pick mistakes you miss. Check your essay for mistakes such as:

  • Excessive wordiness
  • Inappropriate transitions
  • Points that aren't explained enough
  • Formatting errors
  • Inappropriate language or slang
  • Unnecessary information
  • Spelling, grammar, and style issues

Stanford University Application Essays

As you all know, gaining admission into Stanford can be difficult, but with a remarkable essay, you stand a chance to be among the 4% enrolled. However, Stanford essay prompts give applicants an opportunity to showcase their qualifications and impress the admissions officer. Stanford applications are of two types.

The first part asks students to provide answers to some different short questions in 50 words. The second is a longer essay question, applicants will respond to three essay questions, and the answer to each of them must not be less than 100 words and a maximum of 250 words. This article provides you with detailed strategies to approach Stanford application essays.

Stanford short answer questions

Question 1: What is the most significant challenge that society faces today?

For this significant challenge question, you can choose to discuss how the social challenge affects you or how it is related to your course of study. Discuss briefly how the issue affects you and how it inspires your choice of major. More importantly, remember to include the why in your answer.

Question 2: How did you spend your last two summers?

This is a direct question; you are simply asked to discuss how you spent your holiday. In brief, the academic officers want to know the activities you participated in during your holiday. You can write about the summer camp you volunteered in or the places you visit.

Question 3: What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed?

This will take you back to your history classes in high school. While this might sound like an ordinary question, the objective of this question is to reveal your knowledge about the past. There are thousands of histories you can write about. Be specific and original when answering this question.

Question 4: Briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities, a job you hold, or responsibilities you have for your family.

Discuss briefly the unique aspect of yourself that has proven how dedicated you are to your interest and what you are passionate about outside school curriculum activities. These are what Stanford requires of you; they want to know what you have to offer the school besides academics and grades.

Question 5: Name one thing you are looking forward to experiencing at Stanford.

What is one thing you want to learn, experience, or participate in as a Stanford student? To answer this question, you need to check Stanford's website or ask alumni to know about different activities available to students. It is important to keep your answer academic.

Stanford Essay prompts

Prompts 1:

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.

This first longer prompt asks about your interest inside and outside the classroom. The Academic officials want to know more about your contribution to school and how you spend your time after school. Make use of this opportunity to write about something you are passionate about. You don't have to limit your answer to your potential major; writing about something different from your major will show that you are open to new ideas.

Prompts 2:

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—know you better.

The roommate essay is an avenue for you to show the admission officer a different side of you. This will reveal your talent, perspective, opinions, and aspirations. This is also a perfect time to talk about your family, friends, and everything that makes up your present life.

Prompts 3:

Tell us about something meaningful to you and why?

Out of the three prompts, the third essay is the broadest. This essay does not specify whether to write about something specific personal, or academic. However, the essay simply asks you to write about something meaningful to you. Therefore, you can write about any aspect of your life. Whatever topic of your choice, ensure to be sincere and be real.

Admission requirements into Stanford University

Stanford uses the Coalition App or Common Application as its admission application system. To gain admission into Stanford University, you would need the following:

For Undergraduate programs:

  • Coalition Application or Common Application
  • $90 nonrefundable application fee or fee waiver request
  • ACT or SAT scores (refer to testing for score reporting policies)
  • School Report and counsellor letter of recommendation
  • Official transcript(s) or academic results
  • Letters of recommendation from two teachers
  • Midyear transcript

For Graduate programs:

  • $125 nonrefundable application fee
  • Official transcripts from all degree-granting institutions attended.
  • Three academic letters of recommendation
  • Proof of English proficiency
  • Test scores

About the University

Stanford University, located in Stanford, California, is a privately owned research institution officially regarded as Leland Stanford Junior University. The school was founded in the year by a U.S Senator and former governor of California, Leland Stanford and his wife, Jane. They both found the school to honour the memory of their only child, who had died the previous year.

Stanford University's main campus, established on 3,310 hectares of land, is among the world's largest campuses by land mass. It is located in the northwest part of the Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley) on the San Francisco Peninsula. The school also has a campus in San Mateo County; this is where SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve are located, also in Menlo Park, Woodside, and Portola Valley.

As of 2021, the school has an endowment value of $37.8 billion and a budget of $7.4 billion. Having 2,279 academic staff and 15,314 administrative staff, the school can cater to over 17,000 students.

Conclusion

With an admission rate of 3.9%, the institution is considered one of the most competitive Universities. The school is among the world's most prestigious universities. Stanford Alumni include; the former president of the United States, 74 living billionaires, 17 astronauts, 29 Nobel prize winners, 4 Pulitzer Prize winners, 33 MacArthur Fellows, 6 Wolf Foundation Prize winners, 2 ACL Lifetime Achievement Award winners, 14 AAAI fellows, 2 Presidential Medal of Freedom winners. Out of 55,471 students that applied for Stanford University in 2021, Stanford admits 2,190 students, and only 1,757 enrolled.

Stanford enrols 6,996 undergraduate and 10,253 graduate students, among which 29% are white, 25% Asian, 17%Hispanic, 7% black, and 1% Native American. We advise you to give your best when applying to Stanford University.

If you are overwhelmed with work, and you want somebody to write your paper for you, we have professional writers who can deliver a remarkable application essay to Stanford University within a short time. You can buy your essays at a cheap price from our platform. For more conviction, you can also check our website for numerous Stanford University essay samples.

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