Stanford University Undergraduate College Application Essays

Roommate,

The following is an account of one of my most memorable experiences - I hope you can use it to gauge what kind of person I am. Last summer, I went with my family and a friend's family to Italy. After an early dinner in Florence, my friend...

If I were to follow Henry David Thoreau's advice to simplify my life and eliminate any unnecessary possessions, I would find myself with perhaps half a dozen of the most important left. It is said that one can tell a lot about a person by his most...

My skin. Something biologically insignificant, yet socially so powerful. According to The Scientist magazine on February 18, 2002, those visible traits that humans use to define "race" make up only .01% of our genes. Race, biologically speaking,...

I don't try to deny it. I hate football. Or rather, in stereotypical female fashion, I simply don't understand it. I never bothered to learn because it just didn't appeal to me. So when my brother handed me a ticket to the 86th Rose Bowl game, I...

In the early chill of the morning, as I hug the curvature of the mountain on my bike, my mind is open. The baritone of the whirling wheels, the bass of the humming tires on asphalt, the tenor of the creaky chain, all punctuated by the intermittent...

When Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and unraveled one very small piece of the galactic mystery, he said, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." However, my "small step" in unraveling a different mystery started in a very...

I'm the last one into the room. I was busy responding to an "I remember you" from Airianna, a five-year-old girl I had tutored a few weeks ago. I remembered her too; remembered how much I had liked her name, remembered getting none of her work...

The December breeze seeps through the cracked-open door, but I only feel my heart, throbbing in eerie unison with the clock behind me. At a heartbeat a second, my heart will beat ten thousand eight hundred times before editing of The Oracle...

The announcer called my name.

I walked up to the stage towards the piano. My footsteps echoed like a metronome through the grand performance hall at the University of Georgia. I had woken up early that morning in January 2002 to spend a couple of...

A few years ago, USA Today named the star of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", Sarah Michelle Gellar, the epitome of the modern feminist. Declaring "with her take-no-prisoners attitude...vampire-slaying Buffy Summers has become... a feminist hero who's...

In the summer of 2000, my family traveled to Israel, the birthplace of my father. I performed my Bat Mitzvah, met relatives for the first time, and discovered my heritage in a new light. Yet, one distinct incident left the greatest impact. We were...

As a sixth-grader obsessed with the Seattle Mariners, I read the newspaper only for the sports page. One morning, however, I came upon a special pullout section as I thumbed for my section. It was entitled "Into the Heart of Darkness," and I...

Paul Samuelson once told a joke about a physicist, a chemist and an economist who were stranded on an island with only a can of soup. The physicist suggested smashing it open with a rock, the chemist wanted to heat it with a fire, and the...

Have you ever thought about having children? I've come to realize that most girls assume they will be mothers sometime in the nebulous future, but I used to be bewildered that my peers could say things like, "If I have a son, I'll name him Jude."...

As I watched my first black and white print slowly emerge from nothingness, the methodical ticking of the timer behind me, I smiled as a wave of excitement passed through me. Without thinking, I began to dance to the rhythm of the clock. From the...

With the wind in my face, my half-zipped jacket flying behind me, I feel alive. I'm barreling down a powdery hill at a hundred miles per hour on my snowboard, carving turns, jumping over shrubs, alone in the woods on the back of the mountain,...

In a school as small as The College Preparatory School (CPS), I often joke that just from looking at someone's shoes, I can give his or her first and last name and favorite color. Obviously this is an overstatement, but the point is that my...

Leaping over crooked crevices in the sidewalk, my childhood self hopped a few yards ahead of my grandfather. As I paused to scrutinize a colorful candy wrapper, the smell of melting sugar drifted from a small blue cart where an old woman flipped...

I like to play with guns and knives.

It’s not what you think: I’m in color guard. Although events like the Virginia Tech incident have worsened the reputation of weaponry, color guard attempts to transform the traditional connotations of...

“Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes.”

~ Carl Sandburg

It is impossible to convey the art of words with more words. Case in point: try to find another word for “salty.” It isn’t bitter; it isn’t sour; it’s salty. Likewise, the terms “...

There is something about me that I feel obligated to warn you of, something that may or may not surprise, alienate, or even horrify you. I’m an addict—hopelessly addicted to words. I thought you should know.

Due to this constant craving, you may...

I’ll admit it: I’m obsessed with fantasy football. I can vividly remember the call I received from “Pepe” (aka Colin) asking if I wanted to come to his “fantasy football” draft that night. Of course, being a 7th grader, I had never heard of the...

Waving our banner wildly, we counted down the seconds, not at the homecoming game, but rather the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff. With only six weeks to build, wire, and program a 120-pound machine, my team jumped headfirst into...

Three months into my exchange year in Germany, my friend called me, a little dejected. She wanted to go downtown, and it was clear why. There was still something incredibly rousing, mysterious, and exciting about the European city that had...