Stanford Essays

<p>Are essays more important for admissions at Stanford than at other schools? I heard they place a lot of weight on the essays, so I was just wondering.</p>

<p>Yes, at Stanford, essays are considered by many to be the most important factor.</p>

<p>I doubt that. Gpa/rank is king.</p>

<p>i do believe that stanford puts a lot more "emphasis" on their essays. while working on their application, i HATED all the writing i had to do. then luckily i was able to "recycle" each of my essays. </p>

<p>even if the essays dont mean as much as what everyone says, i'm glad they were generic enough to re-use. the stanford application saved me on sooo many others.</p>

<p>speaking of rank, what has been the usual range of rank for admitted students?</p>

<p>I agree with you, Pindar. The essay I wrote for Stanford I used on my other applications as well. Now the hard part is which of the 4 schools I applied to will accept me:</p>

<p>Stanford
Yale
Brown
Cornell</p>

<p>I'll either get accepted to one of them or none!</p>

<p>Stanford puts a ton of emphasis on the essays...that's one of the reasons I think I got in.</p>

<p>californiakid did you get in SCEA? </p>

<p>i know redlinekid2. i used my essays for:
Stanford
Cornell
Columbia
Borwn
Georgetown
Tufts
and some easy safety schools</p>

<p>Yeah, I was accepted SCEA for 2010.</p>

<p>i recycled one of my short stanford essays... which might actually end up screwing me over. My common app essay is also my stanford main essay with modifications on the conclusion, and looking back, the common app one is wayyy better than the stanford one, which is why i think i messed up my stanford app. oh well <em>sigh</em></p>

<p>I used my Stanford essay for my presidential scholar application. </p>

<p>Pindar, most acceptees are in the top 1% of their class.</p>

<p>I am proud to say that I wrote different essays for every school I applied to.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I used my Stanford essay for my presidential scholar application.

[/quote]
A fairly logical course of action, since the prompt was the same.</p>

<p>i'm 9/225 = 4%</p>

<p>I've just realized that because my son's class has 40 members, even the top ranked student isn't "Top 1%". <em>laugh</em></p>

<p>I am worried about Stanford more than my Common App schools...</p>

<p>I got a likely letter to Duke, which means at least SOMEONE liked my Common App essay. But my Stanford essays were completely different and probably not as good :(</p>

<p>"I got a likely letter to Duke, which means at least SOMEONE liked my Common App essay. But my Stanford essays were completely different and probably not as good "</p>

<p>I'm in the exact same situation, except I was deferred early.</p>

<p>QuizQuick, you were deferred early, but received a likely letter? I never really considered that kind of situation...congrats!</p>

<p>What is "good", per se? Is "good" merely a whimsy of the admissions officer or do they have a objective criteria for "good" essays? If "good" is simply what admissions officers thinks is "good", then it's a matter of luck and should not really reflect the quality of our essays at all. For instance, what if your essays were read the Friday before the admissions officer flies off to go to his daughter's wedding? But then again, what if they're read the day after his visit to his mom at hospital? Could you say that the reaction to your essays would be the same?</p>

<p>yea there is definetely an element of luck involved with it, as well as anything that is graded subjectively
this is true at any college, and i think they try to reduce the possibility of unfairness by getting multiple people to read through one application
also, college adcoms have had years of experience going through essays, trust me, they will know the diff between a good one and a bad one</p>