does "why stanford" have to be abstract/creative?

USNAgolden2014
Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:57:11 +0000

Nothing in the college process HAS to be creative. It just helps IF it works.

In my case, my Why Stanford is the most creative thing I’ve ever written, unless someone else had the same idea it will totally stand out (in a good way, I don’t think that it was risky at all).
However, my roommate essay was more straightforward and I tried to address my unique quirks (though in retrospect I would have written about one particular thing for the whole thing, but I didn’t think about talking about that thing at the time, so I didn’t write about it)

In my mind, your essays should roughly equal 25/30 in your mind if you want to have a good shot.

If I had to self-rate my essays (which is inherently biased XD)
IV: 9/10
R: 7/10
W: 10/10

I’m really that my essays and recs push me out of the same old white kid pile XD