<p>Just wondering basing on the 2011 SCEA results, does it seem well roundness is more important than passion or vice visa? </p>
<p>Sorry if this topic has been done to death, but just wondering about it in relation to this year's SCEA results.</p>
<p>Personally, I gambled with passion (my roommate essay is the only one without any references to my passion for science and engineering). Is this really bad? Did I show too much passion for something? Do they consider different majors? Like treating electrical engineering as more competitive to history of basket waving? </p>
<p>Just starting to get paranoided since I really want to get into Stanford. It is going to be a long 4 and half months wait for me...</p>
<p>they don't consider different majors. you are accepted to stanford university as a whole. i think passion was more important. i focused only on technology for all my essays except the roommate one.</p>
<p>LOL. That's what my son did too. The only one that doesn't talk about computer programming is the roommate one. For that he wrote about a game of bridge our family played where no one noticed there were two kings in the deck for three hands!</p>
<p>I definitely took the roundness approach. None of my essays really refer to the same thing. I got in. I think you're fine either way as long as you do a good job on demonstrating you passion or well roundedness.</p>
<p>well i can't really speak from any success...as i was deferred</p>
<p>all my essays talked about different things i brought to the table </p>
<p>my e.c.'s were fairly well-rounded, leadership positions in various things, but everything in the app pointing to the overarching emphasis on what i wanted to do at stanford. i thought i achieved the perfect balance, somehow had the perfect applicaton of plenty of uniqueness without being one-deminsional.... but who knows? don't listen to anybody...just do whatever you feel like... life is pointless anyways cheers!</p>
<p>i got accepted... if this help:
long essay: about international competition (IT)
short essay 1: about passion for weiqi and how i excel in it (a kind of chess)
short essay 2: about software i developed (IT)
short essay 3: about my military service now</p>
<p>i guess is passion + roundness ;) good luck!</p>
<p>Just speaking from luck: I didn't really have a single passion (ie lead the team, win awards, start a business to fund the team, etc.). I was a more well-rounded person (athlete, community service, tutor, musician) but my essays and mainly recommendations highlighted how passionate I was about each activity. I stuck with all of my activities for four years, and I made it clear it was something important to me that I loved.</p>
<p>Essays, for the the most part, did not brag or say anything about ECs (that's what the recs are for) but they were all about different sides of my life that came together to form a person in the adcom's eyes. Same with the recs - each recommendation focused on a different aspect of my academic career (one was on how much I loved to learn, one was about how dedicated I am to the community, one was about how my influence has really made a difference in a club I lead, and one was just a general all-around positive recommendation).</p>
<p>I think the most important thing that you can do now (besides showing that you are DEDICATED and PASSIONATE) is to make sure the adcom understands you as a person.</p>