<p>intellectual vitality.</p>
<p>all of them. In a way i wish other colleges made you do supplements like these. Even though they are killer to write, they really show who you are.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree Ruskie. They do show who you are and I really hope they put a lot stock in these....I really liked mine. </p>
<p>Wanna swap?</p>
<p>my best essay is definitely the "why stanford" essay (i was there for 2 months and i just fell in love). Then "roommate". Then IV. </p>
<p>just curious, wat topics did u guys talk about in ur IV essay? Mine was on dimensions.</p>
<p>For IV I wrote about writing. lol. It's what I want to major in and i wrote a narrative about how i got the idea to write a short story. I really, really like that one.</p>
<p>For the roommate one, I did a list. "THe 6 most important things my future roommate should know about me". It was clever and funny, I'd like to think.</p>
<p>For why Stanford, i talked about how i'd gotten involved with writing from a very young age, and how i've wanted to go to a school that would be good for that... i liked it, but not as much as the other too.</p>
<p>my favorite one overall was probably my why stanford essay, because i had this great metaphor. my favorite one to write though was my roommate, it let me be a little quirkier in my writing. IV was good too, just not my fav.</p>
<p>i totally agree, i realized that the stanford supp, while labor-intensive, allows an accurate portrayal of the applicants personality.</p>
<p>anyone want to swap?</p>
<p>My ranking: IV, Why Stanford, Roommate.</p>
<p>I agree completely with you guys, the Stanford app is a beast of an app, but I really liked getting the chance to show them who I am. The following day, as I was filling out my Columbia app I realized how lacking it was compared to Stanford, which actually cared about getting to know us.</p>
<p>I'm up for trading essays as well, feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>^ I actually LOVE the fact that Stanford requires so many essays, because I'm solid academically, but my ECs/leadership aren't necessarily golden. I happen to be a dam* good essay writer (IMO, but others agree), so I embrace any chance I get to make up for my weaknesses lol.</p>
<p>IMO, the extensiveness of the app gives me WAY better chances at Stanford than at HYP (although Yale is closer in its extensiveness. It does have a Supp essay, a Why Us? essay, and short answers).</p>
<p>^Agreed! If Stanford had a one essay supplement then my chances would be greatly diminished. I wish more schools had supplements similar to this one.</p>
<p>Rank: Roommate, Why Stanford and IV</p>
<p>I really like my roommate essay. I didn't address it to my roommate (was this a mistake?), but it still gave the reader a good idea of what kind of person I am. My Why Stanford essay included a totally sweet metaphor. But I wish I had gotten the chance to visit Stanford so I would have had something more substantial to use for my 'Why Stanford' essay. IV was previously my favorite until I noticed a flaw in one of my arguments. It doesn't completely break the essay, but it certainly weakens it. (If the admissions officer notices it, that is...)</p>
<p>I hate my essays a little bit more each time I re-read them. =/ Anyone else get that feeling?</p>
<p>Haha, yes I do, Shuffle.</p>
<p>I was pretty confident about my essays when I sent it off. My intellectual vitality was really abstract and I thought it was beautiful, but the next day I read it I completely ignored that when I found out I made a style error and I didn't like a word choice in one of my sentences. I panicked... you can see me make the post earlier in the thread, haha.</p>
<p>Considering that my essays need to save my butt because my test scores aren't that great. ACT is okay, but SAT is abominable. SAT IIs are pretty abysmal too.</p>
<p>But yeah, I kind of don't want to reread my essays because I know I'll start hating them.</p>
<p>I didn't address my roommate one to a roommate, and I still got in. Looking at the Facebook group, it was pretty common to do so though.</p>
<p>I was in the same position about "hating my essays" while I was waiting for a decision to come. I refused to reread them because I had spent more time thinking about what I wanted to write, rather than actually writing/perfecting, so I thought I had bombed it. However, about a week before ea decisions, I sat down and reread all of my essays and realized that I actually liked them; I was proud of the application that I sent in. So while it's daunting to wait and easy to fret over essays and whatnot, I think it's best to realize it's out of your hands and to be proud of what you submitted (even if it's not perfect). </p>
<p>Hope this helps...</p>