Unlike its distant East Coast cousins Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, which like to admit applicants who are finished products or sure things, Stanford actively seeks out the most compelling applicant over the finished product. As such, Stanford weighs the supplemental essays more heavily than the top Ivies.
At Solomon Admissions, we give our clients an extensive primer on how to tackle the three main Stanford supplemental essays. Here’s a brief excerpt from our recommended approach to the all-important Stanford intellectual vitality essay:
1. Stanford students possess intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development. (100 to 250 words)
The Stanford intellectual vitality essay is used to weed out countless 4.0 students who lack a true love of learning. This essay impacts the Intellectual Vitality Rating and can be seen as the never-ending dinner conversation essay (if you can’t talk endlessly about an intellectual idea that excites you, then you will struggle with this essay).
Stanford uses the intellectual vitality essay to cull perfect students who are not intellectuals and who get perfect grades and test scores for the sake of getting into Stanford and getting a high-paying job, not because they love learning.
A bad answer to this question addresses ideas that interested you because they impacted your grades in a class. Stanford actively seeks students who take ownership of their education outside of the classroom because they love learning. A great answer addresses one intellectual idea which reveals your love of learning far beyond the classroom walls for the sake of learning - one idea that can be translated to undergraduate research and academic publication at Stanford and is hopefully related to your academic major.
