is it alright to write an essay about academics?

College Essays
1

<p>One of the Stanford short essay questions asks:</p>

<p>Virtually all of Stanford’s undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about you or that will help your roommate–and us–know you better.</p>

<p>I am planning on writing about how my experience in Running Start (college during high school) helped prepare me for college life. </p>

<p>I have heard that its not a good idea to talk about school or academics in your essay, do you think I should keep my topic? or should I change it? thanks</p>

2

<p>I don’t see anything wrong with it as long as you present it in a way that shows something about YOU.</p>

3

<p>well i am going to talk about how it helped me become more independant and responsible. does that work? would it be good to mention that the classes were tougher than taking ap classes at my hs because that would be based off of what i have heard from my friends, not personal experience?</p>

4

<p>Would you actually write/tell your roommate these things?</p>

5

<p>well no, but if i was really writing this letter to a roomate, i would talk about my interests and tell him/her a little background information on me. but a lot of that is evident in the rest of the application. the reason i chose to write about Running Start is because it was a rather unique experience and it did a lot for me.</p>

6

<p>Good point about material being available on the rest of the application.</p>

<p>But still write as if it were actually to a roommate, that is the prompt.</p>

<p>So, in telling your roommate about Running Start, would you actually say the classes were tougher than AP classes? Or might that come across as pretentious or bragging, even if true?</p>

7

<p>your right, what i think ill do is just mention how it helped prepare me for college and how he/she can benifit from my experience. i can help my roomate by giving him or her advice on what to do or what not to do during the first year in college or even about college life in general. im not implying that i am some expert about college, afterall i was only at a community college and i lived at home lol. but what do you think of that idea? thanks a lot for helping me with this.</p>

8

<p>It is hard to evaluate another person’s topic. The goal imo is writing that is personal, detailed, honest and revealing. You would best know whether your proposed topic will allow you such writing. It does sound plausible to me.</p>

9

<p>ok Ill give it a shot and see what happens. thank you for the help</p>