You may be under the presumption that the Stanford short answer questions are easy to write… too easy. That’s right, if you happened upon this article, you may have been suspicious of how seemingly short the Stanford short answer questions are. After all, 50 words can be done in a few minutes, right?

If you’re wary of how seemingly easy the questions look, you’d be right to be suspicious. After all, Stanford is one of the schools that boasts a haughty 5% acceptance rate. Its transfer rate is 1.15%.

So, can the short answer questions be answered in just a few minutes? Not unless you want to ensure your place in the rejection pile.

One of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen clients make when writing the Stanford essays is not giving them, even the short answer questions, the amount of time and consideration it deserves.

Think back to what we said about the acceptance rate. You’re applying to a school with an acceptance rate of 5%. Thus, you’re trying to beat all the other highly-competitive students in the admissions pool. Therefore, the Stanford Short Answer Questions are a screening tool.

You need to think of the Stanford short answer questions as your opportunity to show the admissions officers that you are a greater investment to make than the rest of the students. This can sound quite…odd. Besides, who would objectify themselves as something to invest in?

Think of the admissions process as a utilitarian process. There are levels of reasonable empathy and equity in the Stanford admissions process. However, like every school, it needs to run on accepting the best of the best. They can’t do that with scores alone. How else would one differentiate between Joe and Bob when they’re both at the top of their class?

The Stanford short answer questions will allow you to open up about yourself as a person. However, this is also a time for them to analyze your deeper personality, and use that to make an informed judgment on your fit for the school. when you’re thinking of responses to these questions, keep this in mind: “how am I providing value to the school?”

Got that? Okay, repeat after me: “How am I providing value to the school?”

One more time for those in the back!

“How am I providing value to the school?”

Great. Now, let’s get on to our guide.

What is the most significant challenge that society faces today? (50 word limit)

Have you ever seen a beauty pageant? If you have, you may be aware of the big outlier in these competitions.

For some unknown and strange reasons, after all the contestants are shown their beauty and glamour, they are asked some strangely philosophical or political questions.

“So, beautiful lady, here’s our question: How would you reconfigure the core structures of Capitalism that exacerbate the brutal Pareto Distribution of inequality in the West? Oh, and you only have a few seconds to answer.”

This is one of the problems with answering the Stanford short answer questions, particularly the societal challenge question. You, a student, only have 50 words to cover a societal issue that with the worldly experience you have in your arsenal. That’s no picnic.

Not only that, but you should be thinking about what your societal challenge of choice demonstrates about your character. Remember that the admissions officers are using the essay questions as a screening process for your fit in their school. What you choose to write about as well as how you write and phrase it will help paint a better picture of your character, and whether it makes you belong in Stanford’s community.

Let’s see some examples.

Example topic 1: You are a male student who has seen the men in your community look at modern feminism with contempt, and you are eager to help men understand the feminist perspective with clever solutions.

This would not only demonstrate that you’re someone with the empathy to sympathize with the opposite gender, but someone with the depth of thought to consider problems that people of your category of class (men) may not be fully exposed to. You have the sophistication of thought to consider problems of those outside your class, and perhaps even the intelligence to hypothesize multiple solutions to the problem.

Okay, now let’s take a look at another one.

Example topic 2: You’ve discovered something about do-gooder types as a whole: the empathy is there, but not the marketing. Everything from cringy anti-bullying campaigns to cheesy “stop being depressed” posters do nothing to solve real problems. Thus, you think a great problem society faces is that empathetic people need to learn to market their goods.

This shows that you have both a big heart and a utilitarian mindset. You have the heart of someone who wants to do good in the world, shown through your interests in do-gooder topics. However, you temper your empathy with the kind of utilitarianism that comes with engineering real solutions. This doesn’t mean the feel-good donations sort, though that can still be useful; rather, you have a practical personality that is also conscientious and willing to achieve goals.

In these analyses, notice that there are positive attributes to both? The first one shows the applicant as a sophisticated perspective and an open-mindedness that helps them see multiple angles; they may even help others do the same. The second one shows that the applicant is someone who is not only empathetic but also someone with the grit and determination to truly fulfill the goals of said empathy.

These attributes would need to be woven into the Stanford short answer essays. Analyze yourself. How does my societal challenge of choice show good characteristics? Then, insinuate those in your essay through soft implications.

Note: it would also be wise to either show what you’ve done to tackle the problem, or what your unique perspective (something deeper than what most people say) is on solving the problem. It shows that you’re not just a judge, but a problem solver.

How did you spend your last two summers? (50 word limit)

Okay, the Stanford summer essay isn’t exactly easy either.

Yeah, we’re probably not really selling these essays here. But hey, we’re honest! This essay isn’t easy to answer because there is in fact a better way to approach it other than just telling them what you did. There’s a way to write this to stand out amongst the rest, and you know what that means!

*cue streamers* That’s right: another reason for more work!

So, the first thing to understand is that there are two different versions of things we do: value-free action and value-based action.

Value-free action is just the things we do in and of itself. It’s the physical surface-level actions that one can see at face value. Here’s an example. The night before a test, you decide to get lost in a YouTube rabbit hole instead of studying. The value-free action is you opening up YouTube on your computer and watching videos.

Value-based action, on the other hand, includes the metaphysical and societal implications of an action. It dives deeper into what is just on the surface. So, let’s take the YouTube example again. On the surface, we see that you’re opening up videos and scrolling to find the next best video. On a deeper level, you’re abdicating the responsibilities that you know you need to uphold. You’re cowering away from the goals you need to fulfill because you’re afraid of the failure that may come with studying and failing. So you fall into a pit of distractions to keep yourself blind to the real problem –the test.

To answer the Stanford summer essay correctly, focus on value-based action. Look past the surface-level things you’ve done over the summer, and zero in on what your actions entailed on a deeper level.

Taught your sister to rollerblade? You spent the summer bonding with your sister and teaching her to trust you in times of unbalance.

Went fishing with your buddies? You spent the summer learning to appreciate being in silence with your friends and, for the first time, experienced a meditative state with those you love outside of crude jokes and teenage anxiety.

Also, don’t forget to consider how your value-based action demonstrates something valuable about you as an asset to the school.

What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed? (50 word limit)

Alright, the Stanford historical moment essay is going to be segregated into two parts.

There’s the summary of what historical moment you’re referring to and there’s its significance to your character.

Let’s cover the summary first.

With only fifty words, you’re going to need to write with a hammer. You need to be short and sweet with your words to clarify to the admissions officers what topic you’re choosing without losing too many words. We find that certain events can be narrowed down to their most important and significant parts. You don’t need to waste word space on useless details because the parts you write after that will be more important.

After that, there’s the invisible question attached to it: “Why did you choose this topic?”

Remember what we said earlier about choosing a topic that shows something about your character? Yup, here we go again. You need to imply what this says about your character. This principle still applies to the Stanford historical moment essay. Well, it really applies to all of them!

So, why does the historic moment you chose sway the admissions decision? Does it show your interest in your ethnic history? Does it demonstrate your strong desire for leadership in the face of adversity? Does it insinuate how you have parallels with those who were oppressed?

Let’s say you chose to witness the moment Alice Paul was wrongfully imprisoned and force-fed during her protest for the right for women to vote. Maybe you wanted to see the kinds of things that were going on in her mind, and perhaps the kind of determination it takes to fight for the rights of women. Perhaps you’re fascinated with the idea that someone had every reason to quit their pursuit of women’s right to vote yet persisted nonetheless.

This would show that you’re someone who has a deep respect for those who fight with a fiery passion against societal oppression. It would also show you’re someone who values the rights of freedom of speech for all, regardless of gender. You should fit this into your Stanford historic moment essay.

So, it should look like this…

“Summary of historic moment” + “Why that’s important to you” + “Implication of what that says about you.”

Briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities, a job you hold, or responsibilities you have for your family. (50 word limit)

Before we get to the Stanford extracurricular essay, we’re going to provide you with a recommendation.

If you do not know if you have anything worthwhile to write about in this essay, you’re not alone. This is not an essay that is easy to answer; after all, not everyone has meaningful experiences or to talk about.

If you’re struggling to come up with an answer, we would highly recommend you schedule a free brainstorming session with us. Within 15 minutes, we can typically help students look for a good answer to write in the Stanford extracurricular essay. Coming up with one on your own is fine, but we often notice that working with someone works much better when you don’t know what topic to write about.

Alright, now let’s say you already know the topic you want to write your essay about.

If you already have an extracurricular activity, job, or family responsibility to write about, consider whether what you’re writing about is already in your application. The main point of writing your Stanford essays is to show something about yourself that is not originally on your application.

For the extracurricular activity, you should talk about something that you genuinely feel a connection to. An extracurricular activity is something that you have a choice to explore. You have the freedom to choose any you desire, unlike jobs or familial responsibilities. Thus, it is imperative that you write about an extracurricular activity that speaks to you deeply. If you have an extracurricular activity that you’ve contributed to such as winning awards for a team or managing the logistics of club events, you can talk about them. However, don’t talk about the club whose events you attended once or twice in your academic career.

For jobs you held, you can talk about the responsibilities you held in the job. However, the more important part would be why the job matters to you and what it says about your character. Here’s an example: let’s say you did a part-time working at a restaurant. You didn’t do it for any meaningful platitude like “leadership” or “the true meaning of teamwork”. Instead, you’ve done it to raise enough money to help your family. This action shows your value as a candidate because you’re willing to put in the work if it means the betterment of your family and those who you love. It also shows that you’re someone who isn’t afraid to put in the extra hours to build a good nest egg for the future: a characteristic that would be very useful for those looking to pursue business or entrepreneurship in the future.

Now, let’s think about the family responsibility option. In some ways, you have to be a bit careful about this one. Often time, we’ve seen clients write that they take care of their parents or siblings as a result of their good nature and heart. However, the problem with this is that many familial issues are inevitable. If you have family responsibilities, the likelihood that you needed to help out as a result of sheer necessity is very high; thus, it’s hard to argue that it was done solely from goodwill. Instead, you may want to talk about how your family responsibilities have molded you into someone who is a good candidate for Stanford. Here’s an example. As an Asian American student, you must serve as the translator for your family. This was not a major issue until you realized your mother and father had gone through major financial issues during the COVID pandemic; now, you are the sole communicator between them and the government. Translating takes patience and a proclivity not to get frustrated. You will exercise these virtues at Stanford, especially when you are collaborating with others when you develop your own SaaS program.

Name one thing you are looking forward to experiencing at Stanford. (50 word limit)

Okay, so this final Stanford short answer question is essentially just another “Why Us” essay question. Though, you should be very careful with this one.

Note that Stanford is going to attract only the best of the best students. Taking probability into consideration, what is the likelihood that students primed for Stanford are going to be reading all the online tutorials, guides, and forums they can get their hands on?

Yup, it’s pretty high. We’ve asked clients who have reached out to us too. They have their hands on, well… Just. About. Everything.

So, you probably aren’t going to get away with writing something like this for your last Stanford short answer essay.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with Stanford’s world-class professors, and the chance to fulfilll my future career here. I hope to have the opportunity to work with professor (insert some poor soul here) as an intern to learn more about my major.

–Probably someone

To rain on the parade even further, you should avoid talking about the traditions and quirks that are offered at Stanford. Most students do not go to Stanford for the little quirks. Most people go to fulfill a great desire, which spans everything from a great career path to a successful opportunity to work with future cofounders. Of course, you can’t write about those either since they’re overdone as well.

Okay, so that begs the question: “What on earth can I even talk about in the last Stanford short answer question?!”

Here’s what we would recommend. We suggest being honest when answering the question, but look deeper into your answer. The topic you should write about is not something you already have the answer to; rather, it’s something to be discovered. Yeah, we know. It sounds New Agey. It’s true, though! You should look deeper into your answer and see what the psychological and perhaps even philosophical undertones flow beneath your answers.

Here’s an example. You plan to major in computer science and create a startup. But, what do you REALLY look forward to? Your desire to use the best resources you could possibly find to maximize your chances of success with your startup is rooted in a deep, deep sense of empathy –the willingness to help others. After some introspection, you may realize you don’t want to bootstrap a startup at Stanford for some vain reason of glory. Instead, you wanted to do it to help as many people in the world as possible. That’s what you look forward to. You look forward to attending a school knowing that every day you wake up in the dorms, you’re set up with everything you need to help as many people in the world as you can.

Alright, this is what the formula looks like.

Your surface-level reason for attending Stanford. –> What are these reasons rooted in? –> What you look forward to at Stanford is fulfilling these deeply-rooted reasons.

Here’s another example.

You’ve lived in a community that favored career success and money above all else. You can see it in the school and neighborhood. Students are pressured into “high-paying STEM fields”, parents are signing their kids up for superficial clubs to get them into the best schools, everyone has a panic attack over how many AP courses they have and whether a low number would make them homeless, etc. However, at school, you’ve always loved learning. It wasn’t about the tests and it wasn’t about the competition of beating out the rest of the students; instead, you truly loved learning for the sake of it. There isn’t a place truly out there that you can say is the paragon of true learning. You truly love learning because you have an insatiable desire to discover and explore the unknown, and you believe that the modern education system is a perversion of that virtue. To learn and discover from the unknown is a quest; it runs deep in the archetype of being, as seen in Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. Your soul always called for it. It always had a thirst for knowledge and discovery of the unknown, and modern institutions have forgotten this very human desire. Thus, the thing you truly look forward to at Stanford is to become yourself; that is, you want to learn like you were truly meant to.

If you have any other questions about how to answer the Stanford short answer questions, don’t be afraid to seek out free essay advising services! Try scheduling a free consultation with us! We’ll get back to you within 24 hours, and we’ll give you free advising on how to improve your Stanford essays!