"Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Tell us about your intellectual vitality" You could say my reputation at O. J. Actis Junior High School is rather illustrious. I will forever go down in history as the girl who read the” really,really big book “ and lived to pass its reading test. Conquering Tolstoy’s War and Peace, however, was really more of a testament to my innate, ancestral Vaughan family obstinacy than to my love for reading. That would come...

First, here are some quick tips about college essay writing: Common App Essay- Quick Tips 1. Not Everyone Has to Have a Terrible Hardship a. This is a huge myth in college essay writing. “Nothing terrible has ever happened to me, so I won’t get into [blank] school.” In reality, everyone has hardships; some are just more subtle and nuanced than others, and take more insight to tap into. For example, someone that grows up in an extremely affluent neighborhood...

Being deferred from Stanford was an extremely stressful and long, long process. Luckily for me, there was a light at the end of this admissions tunnel, which was possibly thanks to my deferral form. In my deferral form, i spoke about a large community service project that i had completed since admission, and made sure to include the quantitative...

My recommenders were chosen on the basis of relationship over subject diversity. I did not worry too much about getting recommenders from a variety of different course types, i.e a science and an english teacher's recommendations, and instead focused on the teachers who knew me the best. If you don't...

This is an extremely hard question to answer, as myself and other applicants are surely asking ourselves this question in disbelief after being accepted to Stanford. As for the most definite and concrete answer I can give, the letter i received from my admissions counselor after being admitted expressed interest in the different programs i had taken a part in or begun for women in my community. This was an odd departure from the letters i got from other admissions counselors at other schools, which spoke mostly about my art supplement or mentioned my essays. From this i can gather...

I chose to attend Stanford because it is a university with the opportunities and quality of an ivy league school but without the ego. While everyone there is extremely intelligent and hard working, they...

From talking to others and reading a few essays, I really wish that I could go back, start my essay process earlier, and answer some of my prompts and questions more creatively. My application was sent into Stanford extremely early, because i did early action plus an arts supplement, which means that the application was due a month before the normal EA deadline. I ended up not loving the essays that i sent into Stanford as much as the ones that i wrote for regular decision schools, because i think i became more knowledgeable and comfortable with the process with...