@youngster9 I agree that those three things are important, but I think the most important thing (as the original question was about what’s unique about Stanford’s admissions process) is still the personality of the student. This was something that my interviewer also brought up in conversation, and it’s something that I think is important for people to understand as part of an admissions process.
Faking a personality is not going to end up very well for you at most schools, let alone Stanford. Not only do you have to judge your “fit” for a school, but the admissions officers also judge your fit by asking themselves if you’d be a good fit for the school that you’re representing. I think that this concept is very important to understand, because Stanford has an eye for particular students that are intellectually driven, passionate, and genuine about what they do.
However, I’m gonna have to disagree a little with @youngster9 (Sorry! I also hope we can be friends when we get to the Farm! :D) in that I think that one of the important concepts about Stanford (which makes it different from East Coast schooling) is the fact that there’s an air of practicality and real world applicability in its atmosphere. The Innovators makes a point of noting that those who were most successful were not necessarily the dreamers, but the dreamers who had partners or the tools to make things actually happen.
Part of this is reflected in the “start-up” atmosphere of Stanford, which is all about students making new businesses that can do new and interesting things. One of the concepts that Stanford has constantly espoused (and has become well known for) is not necessarily academia for the sake of academia, it’s academia for a better purpose in the real world. That’s kind of reflected in the admissions process, as one of the things that my admissions officer noted was so important for them. The applicants who were successful weren’t just the ones who won awards or placed highly in tests; they were the ones who found meaning in those awards, or used those talents for a better purpose to help themselves or others.
As always, best of luck to you on the application process.