<p>Just want to get a feel for how people are answering this question. </p>
<p>What are you saying?/ What did you say (and got accepted preferably :P)?</p>
<p>The question is pretty straight forward, and the best piece of advice I can give you is to simply take it from the heart. Discuss something about which you care in a writing style that reflects your own voice. The essays that stand out really are the ones which are GENUINE and SINCERE. </p>
<p>It’s fruitless to ask what others wrote about (even admitted students) not only because different things matter to different people but also because doing so implies that you’re seeking the “magic” topic for this essay. There isn’t one. Plus, the committee is pretty good at detecting essays that are “packaged” or insincere. </p>
<p>Stanford actually introduced this question three years ago in order to reduce applicant anxiety. The question which this one replaced was, “Tell us what makes Stanford a good fit for you.”</p>
<p>Do you have to explicitly state “___ matters to me” ?</p>
<p>Sophomore here
I’m sure you could get away with not putting it in if you do it correctly, but for mine I included it towards the end as sort of a closer.</p>
<p>I wrote about the freedom of self-expression.</p>
<p>It feels like a difficult question to answer, but when you finally know what to write about, it’s actually quite familiar and easy.</p>
<p>Yeesh, I wrote about the freedom of self expression too. I briefly discussed my love of cooking, drawing, and music and how they all allowed for creative exploration, and how the freedom and ability to creatively express oneself matters to me</p>
<p>^ I think that’s a good way to look at it, too. 
Mine’s kind of hard to explain.
I talked about what happens when I feel the limit of self-expression, and why that matters.</p>
<p>I wrote about my love of Carnival in my country, Jamaica!</p>
<p>I talked about reproductive rights.</p>
<p>Hope no one on the adcom is adamantly opposed to a politically controversial topic.</p>
<p>laptop!!!</p>
<p>So I know this is an old thread, but the prompt is still on the application.
I wrote about an animated television show.
I am so not getting in. </p>
<p>Class of 2018, what did you write about?</p>
<p>My religion. I tried not sounding too pushy about it, which I guess made it less personal in return. I did mention my religion in my other essays though, so I thought it’d be too much? Oh well, it’s done.</p>
<p>Anyone else?</p>
<p>I was accepted early. I wrote about time, and how it’s the most valuable resource we have.</p>
<p>home</p>