<p>Hi there!
So I've been working on all of my Stanford short essays and now my last one to go is my college roommate letter... I'm really nervous for it for some reason, and am unsure of how personal/casual to make it as well as how formal/ impressive to make it. Is my primary audience my roommate or Stanford? I started it off with a little bit of humor, which I hope is okay., but then continued with a little bit of back story and such. I'd appreciate any general advice from those of you who have gotten in, and if anyone is willing to read it and tell me what you think I will GLADLY private message it to you!
Thanks for anything you can do!</p>
<p>Your audience is of course Stanford. Roommate never sees it (I think, going to be a freshman there). What you really want to show is your amiable, yet unique personality. That’s what they are going for there. What would your personality be like 3 or 4 months down the road with your roommate? Humor is good. Back story not so much unless it shows how you behave with a roommate or someone living with you (perhaps a story with a sibling?). </p>
<p>@Sabrina2372. You are on the right track. There is no “perfect” or “one size fits all” approach …each student who was successful in getting in brought in their unique voice by providing different textures, nuances, humor, sincerity, and even frankness to the reader (their potential new friend/room-mate/Stanford)…make it your own and don’t worry too much!</p>
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<p>Stanford… I’ll be a sophomore this fall and I never saw my roommate’s essay. Don’t waste time and crucial space making it seem like you are corresponding with someone else your age (because you aren’t!)-- just use it as another essay that you can show off your personality and experiences to the admissions officers. If you are the quirky kind of person who would write an interesting letter to their roommate, then perhaps go with it. </p>
<p>Just be who you are in your essays, best of luck.</p>
<p>Like others before have said, your actual audience is the admissions officer, as stated before, and your roommate will never see it unless you personally show him/her. That said, you should still write it “as if” your roommate is the one it’s addressed to and the one reading it. I liked this essay because it was pretty open ended yet still focused (unlike the “What matters to you and why?” which took me a good three weeks of brainstorming and two weeks to write and revise). I personally approached it with a much more casual writing style and tone, and decided to talk about one of my artsy hobbies that they would undoubtedly find me doing in the room.</p>
<p>Hi guys,</p>
<p>I’m a Stanford student and was scrolling through these forums. I remember writing this essay. Although I will not show you guys my essay, I’m willing to answer any questions about if you have any! My best advice is to make it as unique as possible.</p>
<p>I basically did the same thing @Radiata16, writing about a hobby I do that didn’t fit into any of my other essays, but is still essential to my personality. So is it all right if my essay is just about ONE thing- for me, yoga nidra- and not about my whole person? Since you have gotten into Stanford @merovingian and @doyouknowwhoiam did you anything like that in your essay? Just talk about one thing that wasn’t in the other parts of your application?</p>
<p>@Sabrina2372
You can write about just one thing… but most people I know including myself wrote about a whole bunch of things. But one thing can be effective, it just depends on if you can pull it off. </p>
<p>I’m a Stanford parent and I don’t agree with those of you saying your audience is Stanford. Of course it’s not meant to be handed to your roommate, but you’re addressing the letter to your fictional roommate and that’s what admissions people want to see. They want to know how you present yourself to a peer. They want to know whether you’re a likeable person. They want to know you informally. My advice: Write it as if you were actually writing to your future roommate. Forget about the admissions officers for a while. Just pretend you’re really writing to a person you’ll share your room with. This will make your personality come out. You can later edit. </p>
<p>Stanford student here.</p>
<p>It’s normal to make this essay more colloquial. Your audience may be Stanford, but writing it too formally wouldn’t exactly be answering the prompt, would it? Admissions knows how high schoolers speak to each other, so address it as IF you’re talking to a student (but keep it clean!) and remember to be reflective. This goes for all the Stanford prompts.
Apparently, the point of this essay is to see what you’d bring to the campus, or at least this is what my admissions officer told me, so try your best to convey that in an interesting way. If you need any essay help, feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>PM me it, I’m curious as to what you wrote. I’ll help you edit it</p>