Stanford Essays 2025-2026

Stanford University Supplemental Essay Prompts: 2025-2026

Stanford recently released its supplemental essays for the 2025-2026 admissions cycle. In this article, we will explain exactly what they are looking for in responses from applicants, so you can write an essay that will get you admitted there.

1. What is the most significant challenge that society faces today? (50 words)

For this answer, you want to pick a problem that intersects directly with your hook, or at least your intended area of study at Stanford. The problem should not be a massive, multifaceted issue like climate change. If you are going to write about a topic like climate change, focus on a niche subproblem associated with climate change that aligns with what you want to study. You want to establish some kind of personal connection to this problem. Remember, the reader always wants to hear about you, the applicant, and not just the problem itself. Explaining why it matters to you is key.

2. How did you spend your last two summers? (50 words)

Avoid simply listing your activities, they already have that information in your Common Application. Instead, focus on your personal growth over the past two summers, using your activities as vehicles to illustrate that development rather than as the main focus of this 50-word response.

3. What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed? (50 words)

There are almost no wrong answers when choosing which historical moment to explore. You can select something monumental, or something seemingly insignificant, such as the first time someone became annoyed that a wheel rolled with excessive friction. The key is to demonstrate how your lived experiences enable you to form a personal connection with that moment and explain how witnessing it would further your education.

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

This question has a clear purpose. If you come from a disadvantaged background, this is your chance to highlight any time-consuming responsibilities that took time you could have spent on academics and extracurriculars. If you are the target audience for this question, show the reader how important this responsibility was to you and how it was necessary for helping your family or loved ones.

If you did not come from such a background, it is perfectly acceptable to discuss an academic extracurricular or even one that requires privilege to participate in. The key is ensuring you are not repeating what you will list in your activity section or additional information section.

You want to paint a vivid picture of yourself engaged in this activity and explain how this experience shaped you and your life aspirations. Focus on showing rather than telling, and demonstrate the meaningful impact this experience had on your personal development.

5. List five things that are important to you (50 words)

For this question, use all 50 words. Don't simply list single words. Instead, describe brief moments in your life that are important to you. These moments should include a mix of experiences related to your academic interests and instances that demonstrate your commitment to kindness toward others.

6. The Stanford community is deeply curious and driven to learn in and out of the classroom. Reflect on an idea or experience that makes you genuinely excited about learning. (250 words)

For this essay, open with a strong, vivid personal anecdote that you can use to explain why a particular academic idea interests you so deeply. From there, explain how this anecdote either introduced you to this idea or how it made you light up when you first encountered it. The idea should be directly related to your intended area of study at Stanford.

Next, dive deeper into this idea and try to convince the reader that they should care about it as well. let your passion shine through. Then, cite specific academic opportunities at Stanford that you'd love to participate in to continue exploring this concept.

To conclude the essay, either explain how learning more about this idea will recontextualize the lived experiences that first sparked your interest, or describe how your deeper understanding will help you make a positive impact on the world in a way that remains narratively consistent with your personal motivations.

7. Virtually all of Stanford's undergraduates live on campus. Write a note to your future roommate that reveals something about you or that will help your roommate—and us—get to know you better. (250 words)

This is a challenging essay. Students are tempted to write this essay like a TikTok video introducing themselves, or bypass the roommate altogether to write what they think the admissions officer wants to hear. There are many directions one can take with this essay. Given that this essay is asking you to reveal "something" as opposed to "things," I'd focus on revealing just one aspect of yourself. This aspect could be the core value you hold most dear, the one you'd fight for. I'd explain the lived experiences that led you to develop this value, and then explain how this value will influence the kinds of activities you'd like to do with your roommate. Including how this value will impact how you interact with your roommate is critical. Stanford wants to see that whatever you bring to the table in terms of your perspectives or lived experiences helps elevate the academic and social experience of your roommate and the students on campus you will interact with.

Whatever you do, don't start the essay with "Dear Roommate." Stanford admissions officers read that phrase so much, they get sick of it. Go straight into writing about yourself or explaining the purpose of the note. When a great author writes a book, it doesn't begin with "Dear Reader,” it begins with a preface that draws you in immediately.

8. Please describe what aspects of your life experiences, interests and character would help you make a distinctive contribution as an undergraduate to Stanford University. (250 words)

For this essay, you want to explicitly show the reader how you will contribute to Stanford. The admissions committee is looking for students with vision, and they want to see your specific plans for contributing to the university in multiple ways. This means you should write an essay that envisions your time at Stanford through hypothetical scenarios where you are actively contributing to campus life, joining specific clubs, asking thoughtful questions in class, participating in traditions, engaging meaningfully in student spaces, attending events hosted by research institutes, and contributing to faculty research efforts.

Be specific by naming actual clubs, classes, student spaces, professors, on-campus research institutes, and events. As you vividly describe in first person how you will contribute to these Stanford communities, explain how engaging in these activities connects to your lived experiences. Convey these formative experiences and demonstrate how they motivated you to pursue these particular ways of contributing to Stanford.

If you want your college admissions essays to be the decisive factor that gets you into your dream school, schedule a free consultation with an admissions expert today to have all of your questions answered.