How to write a college essay about your family

FFamily is one of the most common subjects readers in Stanford's admissions office meet in the personal essay, and one of the hardest to make stand out. It is deeply felt, which is why students choose it, and it is shared by everyone, which is why a reader moving through dozens of files struggles to remember any single one. The grandmother's apartment, the crowded holiday table, the long drive to a new town: each can be moving, and each lands on a pile of essays that sound much the same. The scene alone is not enough. What lifts it is something brought into the room alongside the people, and a reference work most families have never heard of makes finding it far easier than it sounds.