<p>yeah do we actually have to write the short answers in two lines or less?</p>
<p>I think given that it says “you have 300 characters left in your response”, underneath where you paste your answers, that means we’ve got 300 characters. So… two lines in whatever weird font/size/spacing theyll see it when they receive it?</p>
<p>the essay question about the roommate is slightly changed from the one they gave last year, which was “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>For a writing course I’m taking right now I got to answer THAT essay, would it still fit the prompt for this year? I wrote a note to a fictional roommate as if I were already a student at Stanford and we’d been living together for a few months. I really love the essay…I’d hate to have to trash it. Could I make it work as a creative interpretation? silly Stanford and their minor rephrasings…</p>
<p>The Part 1 short answers (two sentence replies) are not very important. They just help the admissions officers get a picture for who you are. Don’t be scared, tell the truth, they aren’t really judging you here. The Part 2 short answers (300 words) are really important. Consider them as such. Especially since you don’t have a huge amount of room to write, make sure you make your sentences count. Still though, show who you really are, this is where they are “really judging you”.</p>
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<p>I’m confused–this was last year’s, so what’s this year’s? How has it changed?</p>
<p>It also really amuses me that Stanford’s site lists its essay topic like this:</p>
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<p>I always giggle on tests when the problem is a command (“Write a paragraph on…”), not a question, but it still ends in a question mark.</p>
<p>oh sorry! I should’ve posted them side by side to make it clearer.</p>
<p>current Stanford roommate question:
“Virtually all of Stanford’s undergraduates live on campus. What would you want your freshman roommate to know about you? Tell us something about you that would help your roommate – and us – know you better.”
same vein but slightly different. would a letter to a fictional roommate still fit, if interpreted creatively…?</p>
<p>if it includes something about you that would help them know you better than yeah it should be fine</p>
<p>One thing to remember about the supplement. I found that through editing, drafting, and writing all my essays, they became very dense and thoroughly confusing. I found the character limit to be a godsend, because it forced me to use concise language in order to communicate all my ideas. Upenn’s essays, for instance, simply gave a page as a length limit. As a result, I always felt that my Stanford app was unique among the essays I wrote, and lo and behold here I am Cardinal class of 2012.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the short, sweet, and efficient use of language is a major plus for the application. Ideas become clearer, humor becomes more powerful, and passions speak louder through concise language. This was a major challenge for me in my applications, and I realized that character limits were Stanford’s hint as to the essay content. Not that someone with bigger words is automatically at a disadvantage, but realize that the more concise your language, the more ideas you can convey. When you have to count every period and space, you really think hard about word choice and even the most minute details of organizing a sentence.</p>
<p>My 2 cents.</p>
<p>you’re given 300 characters for “what 5 words best describe you” so are you supposed to explain why you chose those words?</p>
<p>nah. I doubt it. It’s just a left over thing from the other short answers, I’m guessing.</p>
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<p>No, just the words. The 300-character limit is put on all the short short answers.</p>
<p>Just to get an idea of the range of topics, what have people here written about for the ‘intellectual vitality’ question?</p>
<p>does it have to be 5 separate words???</p>
<p>sorry if its foolish …</p>
<p>Probably? I’d just try to stay within the guidelines on those basic questions as much as possible.</p>
<p>It shouldn’t matter too much. I put an adverb and an adjective together for a small phrase, rather than using just one word.</p>
<p>and 5 means 5??</p>
<p>My S used only 5 words for that question, and he got in. This is only a very small part of the application, so it may not matter much, but I would follow the directions as closely as possible. If explanations were wanted, I think that Stanford would have requested them.</p>
<p>i’m still confused as to whether the limit is 2 lines or 300 characters
does anyone have an answer?</p>
<p>edit: nevermind i think it’s 2 lines on the print preview</p>
<p>My s used 5 words too.</p>
<p>For the note to your future roommate question, do we write formally/informally? Also, do we write about one thing or can we talk about a bunch of stuff that conveys who you are? I find it kind of difficult to talk about just one thing about me for that much. Help!</p>