“I’m a freak,” I announced to my sympathetic mother. Until that day in fourth grade I’d been the cheerful and enterprising master of my own little universe, completely unaware of its tiny size and my own position in it. I had started a trend of encyclopedia-reading in first grade by declaring that the best book in the classroom was called D, and that it appeared to be part of a promising series. I didn’t care that I...

Response this prompt: Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development.

Response to this prompt: Vitually all of Stanford’s undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that revelas something about you or that will help your roommate—and us—know you better.

Response to this Stanford prompt: What matters to you, and why?

1. I had never been more grateful for a snow day. Next to our flickering fire, I had picked through our stack of red Netflix envelopes. I slid out the one DVD we hadn’t watched, Kenneth Branagh’s “eternity” version of Hamlet—all four hours of it. As I settled in for the movie, the snows outside became the snows of Denmark. The storm piled up more than two feet of snow; one snow day turned into a week, and...

Script Analysis. This...

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You might have a ton of ideas about what to write for your essays, and,...

Academia is an interesting and kind of weird place, and I didn't realize how much the faculty of each department would change how their classes...