Supplemental essays are part of the admission applications. The intended purpose of this essay is to reflect your personality and expertise. Highly selective and competitive universities like Stanford require a well-formatted Stanford supplemental essay. It reflects a strong demonstration of your values and strengths to become the best fit for the college.
Stanford University is synonymous with innovation and entrepreneurship. It is considered one of the most competitive universities in the heart of Silicon Valley, California.
- The university attracts competitive students with GPAs of 3.75 or higher.
- The Stanford College Board reports that the acceptance ratio is 4%, which is considered highly selective.
As published by Stanford Daily on Feb 28, 2023,
- The class of 2026 has an acceptance rate of 68% and is thus considered second most competitive to Harvard.
The statistics underline the university’s competence and standards, while grades and marks hold significance in admissions. Supplemental essays provide insight into your personality, aiding admission officers in selecting the best candidates.
Crafting compelling essays amidst strict guidelines poses challenges, increasing the risk of rejection. Students struggle to balance time to create winning essays, often lacking innovative ideas and strong research and writing skills. Consequently, they ask online essay writers for immediate, precise assistance. These writers understand instructions thoroughly, delivering well-edited, researched, and innovative essays.
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What Is a Stanford Supplemental Essay?
Stanford supplemental essay is the additional piece of writing required by highly selective Stanford University. Students mention their preferred courses and professors of their interest. Demonstrates their career goals, academic qualifications and extracurricular competencies.
Be detailed in the described goals and interest to get selected by the institute. Stanford supplemental essays 2023-24 permits applicants to include the following questions:
- Clearly describe the idea or interest that genuinely makes you excited about learning new things.
- Virtually all Stanford students come on campus. Therefore, write a short note for your future roommate to develop a good understanding.
- Briefly explain about aspects of your life, interests, character and experiences to contribute distinctively.
How to Write Stanford Supplemental Essays? Top 8 Strategies to Follow
A Stanford supplemental essay gives the admission committee a better understanding of what and why you want to study. Undoubtedly, it is an essential part of the application process; therefore, it must be written with utmost sincerity. Many students copy-paste and submit it to the committee, which results in bad rejection.
The reason is a lack of basic research skills and the implementation of effective strategies to compose an original essay. We care about students’ concerns; therefore, we have gathered a list of the top eight strategies for writing an excellent supplemental essay. Let us read some of them explained below.
1. Write It Creatively Using Facts
The best way to write is to merge creativity with logical facts. Maintaining a professional demeanour is important. While writing a supplemental essay, you should align the facts with your story’s interest in an orderly manner. Look for the academic which is of interest.
Try to write logically proven justifications. Include background information, financial and academic information. Moreover, also mentions the major reason for choosing a particular institution.
You can see Stanford supplemental essay examples for better understanding.
- Stanford Computer Science PhD program Riashat Islam
- Swapnil Gandhi CS, PhD, Fall 2022
- Statement of Purpose (MIT)
2. Research Well
Another important strategy to follow is to conduct deep and effective research for writing a Stanford supplemental essay. Research helps you to entail to positively mention the university’s core principles and comprehend the basic framework. Performed detailed web browsing and extracted valuable information from various credible online resources.
The authentic research resources include Stanford University’s official site for writing outstanding Stanford supplemental essays in 2024 etc. Read different samples relevant to your field. It will help you in adopting the writing style and points to include in your essay. Moreover, it helps in comprehending your research idea.
3. Describe Your academic experience
While writing a Stanford supplemental essay, confidently mention your previous academic experience. The purpose of describing it is to spark relevancy in accordance with the applied field. Every department has its own criteria and research facilities. Suppose you want to pursue future research in sustainability at Stanford, then you must follow the below guidelines:
- What skills do you have a grip on, including marine sciences, geosciences and paleoclimate?
- Did you experience different research opportunities?
- What classes have you taken?
- What are your practical experiences in the sustainability field?
- Also, consider the hard skills that you have acquired.
4. Describe your goals
While planning the Stanford supplemental essay, articulate your future goals. No matter what experience you hold, either it:
- Online
- Industrial
- Academic
Try to convince how the knowledge, expertise and skills gained from the resources will contribute to further research. Lead the career trajectory by showcasing your research interests in the particular department.
For example, your field is chemistry, and you want to contribute further to recycling and manufacturing materials. In this section, mention the polymerisation process and the benefits it adds to the real world. Additionally, you can broaden your goal to recycle the materials to eradicate pollution concerns.
Also, propose some fundamental strategies that reflect your knowledge and expertise. A clear methodology impresses the admission committee and eventually leads to successful acceptance.
5. Stick To the Word Limit
While writing your Stanford supplemental essay, don’t exceed the word limit. The maximum recommended length is 1000 words. This whole context comprises two pages. It should clearly demonstrate the following:
- Academic qualifications
- Proven work experience
- Perspectives and activities of being a scholar
- Future career plans
- Relevant research interests
Select any department, i.e., engineering at Stanford. Afterwards, browse the university’s official site and read about the latest research. Interlink your research with the innovation and advancement in their departments. Explore the various research facilities to strengthen your supplemental essay. Browse the profiles of professors and jot down the one who matches your research interest.
6. Write coherently
Don’t forget to follow the organised structure while composing a Stanford supplementary essay. A well-organised structure helps you flow information in a chronological sequence. For clarity, you can see the following template mentioned below:
Image Source: Board Research Communication Lab
This structured diagram will help you comprehend research aims, objectives and reasons to pursue the specific field at Stanford. Moreover, it derives your scientific motivation to collaborate with advanced and upgraded research departments.
7. Use a Formal Tone
A formal tone is considered the most concise and clear form of language. Use it in your Stanford supplemental essay. Don’t tell the information instead, show it. Make the writing style a bit conversational yet clear. Try to apply professional, academic and confident accompanies with the enthusiasm for learning the new research. Some of the phrasal examples are mentioned below:
- Motivated by my interest in chemical engineering…
- In future work, I am interested in continuing…
- As far as back, I remember I have been fascinated with…
8. Proofread, Edit and Get Feedback
Severe typos can detract from the real purpose of a supplementary essay. After writing, review and proofread your essay meticulously. Look for grammatical errors, punctuation flaws, and sentence structure. Similarly, cross-check your font style and size; they should be as per the advised criteria. For example, the Stanford graduate admission website has advised the following criteria to crosscheck the following:
- Word length should be 1000.
- Don’t exceed two pages.
Once you have done raw editing, ask for constructive feedback from your professors, colleagues and friends. This will help you re-consider and mention the details that you skip. Perform multiple proofreading until it conveys the real message effectively.
Students often lack the necessary writing skills to produce an impressive essay, a requirement for securing admission to Stanford University, known for its competitive standards. Writing a winning essay demands time and critical thinking, making it a challenging task for many. To streamline the admission process, students seek expert assistance from essay writing services. These professionals specialise in crafting compelling and persuasive supplemental essays.
How Many Supplemental Essays Does Stanford Have?
Stanford has a total of eight supplements. It mainly includes three short essays of 100-250 words each. Similarly, it contains five short questions with a limit of 50 words. To secure admission, students have to complete all eight elements of an essay.
Does Stanford Give 100% Scholarships to International Students?
Yes, Stanford awards merit and financial scholarships irrespective of which citizenship or nationality they hold. There are different types of scholarships as per Stanford:
- University Scholarship
- State Grants
- Federal Grants
- Outside scholarship
- Student Employment
- Loans
Conclusion
Following the above eight strategies, you can easily compose a winning Stanford supplemental essay. Explain your goals, research objectives and academic background to impress the admission committee. Remember that your main goal is to inform the committee about who you are, your values and how effectively you will contribute to the academic community. So, it is essential to be thoughtful, genuine and deliberately focused on your objective.
