What does a Stanford admissions committee ask about you?

IIn Stanford's admissions committee, a reader championing an application has only seconds to make the case, and when the case is thin, colleagues fill the silence with questions that, in the office we learned from, were remarkably predictable. Someone would ask what the student's point of excellence was. Others would ask to hear more about the student's intellectual energy, or ask the reader to read out the best line of writing, or say the student sounded flat and wonder whether the file held any personality.

Then come the specific doubts, the ones that sink strong students. Someone notices the B-minus in chemistry, or points out that the student wants to study biology but earned a weak score on the AP exam in it. Someone asks about a lukewarm teacher letter, or whether the student has the academic firepower to keep up. And then the most dangerous question of all: the reader has a dozen applicants who look just like this one, so why this one.

The usual note on a file that never answered these is four words long. Competitive, but not compelling.

Questions a Stanford committee may ask

Every question the room might ask should have its answer sitting in the file, where the reader can find it in seconds.

• The point of excellence: the first three activities, grouped around one field, so the reader can name it without searching.
• Intellectual energy: at least one activity description that teaches the reader something, and an essay about ideas in the intended field.
• The best line: one sentence, somewhere in the essays, written to be read aloud. Know which one it is.
• Personality: one specific, human detail, a job, a joke, a habit, that a reader can repeat.
• The weak grade or score: a rising trend, a later course in the same subject, or a brief, factual note in additional information if there was a real cause.
• The letters: recommenders who saw the student's work in the intended field, given specific material to write from.

The last question, why this student over the others, has no single answer. It is answered by the sum of the rest. A file with a clear field, a quotable line and a recognizable person in it gives the reader something no similar applicant has.

Every question the room might ask should have its answer sitting in the file, where the reader can find it in seconds.

Run the committee yourself

Before submitting, have someone play the skeptical colleague. Hand them the file and ask them to raise the objection they would raise first. If the student can point to the page that answers it, move to the next. If the student has to explain the answer out loud, it belongs in the application.