<p>For the roommate essay, my idea was to write about all the elaborate schemes my brother and I used to put together to ambush, trick, and occasionally abuse each other when we were kids, and how much fun we had(we shared a room). My GC thinks it's too informal, but I'd like to hear what you guys think, especially those who of you who have been accepted. Thanks!</p>
<p>Well it depends if it shows your immature, annoying brotherish side, or your witty, smart, outsideoftheboxthinking, but mature in the end type side. I mean, if its just a summary of how you put his toothbrush in the toilet, I agree with your GC... i think you can pull it off though.</p>
<p>Lol, I would attempt to present the latter. Most of it wasn't mean spirited, but it was a complicated system. Things that were too simple were dismissed as "cheap", and if it was to complicated you "tried to hard". I'm not sure how we invented the ratings system.</p>
<p>I did, however, throw his toothbrush in the toilet when I was six, funny that you should mention it.</p>
<p>What is it going to show about you? Will it reveal something fresh about you, something different you can bring to the table?</p>
<p>That's what I've been struggling with. I'm pretty sure I could make it entertaining, but not much more than that. </p>
<p>New idea from today: I would write about how when I'm in the middle of rigging/modeling a character in Maya, I'll stay up all night sometimes, and then sleep from 5am-10am. It's probably my only "unique hobby", so I guess that would be something fresh.</p>
<p>P.S. For those who don't know, character rigging is sort of like building a puppet for 3d animators to use. It requires a lot of forethought because all of the systems are interconnected. It basically deals with networks.</p>
<p>Entertaining isn't enough. It needs to reveal something about you--I would say that it should at least be something substantial. After all, the prompt does specify that (that it should 'reveal' something about you).</p>
<p>Your second idea is good. Of course, you'd focus more on you and the activity (not so much your sleeping schedule), but it sounds like it has potential. I wrote my roommate essay on constructing languages, and it had a similar vibe (unique hobby, requiring a lot of effort, etc.).</p>
<p>Yeah, I was just going to use the sleep/work schedule to sort of introduce the subject into the roommate context. Thanks for the advice, sometimes it's easy to forget the point of these essays.</p>
<p>You guys might want to check out some of the roommate essays for kids who will be starting Stanford this fall. We made a thread for it in one of our facebook groups (there are two for 2012). Here's the link to the board topic:
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/topic.php?uid=12839352343&topic=8876%5B/url%5D">http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/topic.php?uid=12839352343&topic=8876</a></p>
<p>basically people just posted their essays as a kind of get-to-know-you thing. There is also a topic in that group where people posted their intellectual vitality essays. I'd encourage you to check those out as well.</p>
<p>Wow, that's actually amazing. Thank you.</p>
<p>No prob! i actually realized i should have posted the intellectual vitality link as well, because people have lots of questions about that one too. Here you are:</p>
<p>Thank you peachiepizzazz!!!!! I needed some examples!</p>
<p>Do you guys know if the roommate essay is the same it was this year as it was that year? </p>
<p>This year's is:</p>
<p>What would you want your freshman roommate to know about you? Tell us something about you that will help your roommate -- and us -- know you better.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>And that was different from before:</p>
<p>"Write a note to your future roommate relating a personal experience that reveals something about you."</p>
<p>And it was different before that. Stanford has had this essay for at least 10 years. On that note (pun intended), here's a good article on Stanford's admissions:</p>
<p>^Excellent article! That really helped a lot!</p>
<p>thanks mucho for all of these links guys. got a lot of sparks firing in my head. :)</p>
<p>The reason I was asking if the prompt had changed is because when I read the current prompt: </p>
<p>"What would you want your freshman roommate to know about you? Tell us something about you that will help your roommate -- and us -- know you better."</p>
<p>I interpreted "something" to be one thing. When I read the essays in facebook they spoke of many things. </p>
<p>Am I being too literal?</p>
<p>yes. that is the same phrasing as last year.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I interpreted "something" to be one thing. When I read the essays in facebook they spoke of many things.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Not to be critical, but some of the people on that facebook topic did exactly what Stanford doesn't want you to do for that topic. For example, the whole "describe your room" method is very overused. (Any college counselor / essay guide would tell you, do not describe your room.)</p>
<p>Hey, is it just me or is the roommate essay link broken?
Does anybody have it? I tried searching for it on the board, but it didn't work.</p>
<p>Is this the first year where they did not say "Write a note" ?</p>