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Stanford University Admission FAQs

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What is Stanford University's acceptance rate?
This past year, Stanford had a record 55,471 applications and admitted 2,190 students. That gives Stanford an overall admit rate of 3.95%. 
In other words, less than 1 in 25 students are admitted. Just having good stats is not enough to get into schools like Stanford. This makes your essays a critical opportunity to show why you should be accepted.

Stanford University Acceptance Scattergram

What is Stanford's application deadline for this year?

Stanford offers two admissions deadlines for 2022-23: restrictive early action and regular decision.

For this year, Stanford's deadlines are:

  • Restrictive Early Action (REA): November 1st, 2022

  • Regular Decision (RD): January 5th, 2023

How many essays does Stanford require?
This year, Stanford University requires applying students to answer five Short Questions and write three Short Essays. If you're applying with the Common App, you'll also need a strong personal statement essay.

Stanford is notorious for its lengthy and creative writing supplement. The questions are known to be thought-provoking, which is done on purpose. Stanford admissions officers want to dig into your thought process, and learn how you think.

What are the Stanford supplemental essay prompts for 2022-23?

For 2023, the Stanford writing supplement consists of eight questions total:

 

Short Questions

Stanford requires applicants to answer five short answer questions of between 3 and 50 words each.

  1. What is the most significant challenge that society faces today? (3-50 words)

  2. How did you spend your last two summers? (3-50 words)

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

  4. Briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities, a job you hold, or responsibilities you have for your family. (3-50 words)

  5. Name one thing you are looking forward to experiencing at Stanford. (3-50 words)

 

Short Essays

Stanford's short essays are three required essays of between 100 and 250 words each.

  1. 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. (100-250 words)

  2. 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. (100-250 words)

  3. Tell us about something that is meaningful to you and why. (100-250 words)

Stanford's unique prompts give you a lot of freedom in how you choose to respond.

But being so open-ended can also make it difficult to get started.

Because of that, it can be helpful to see how other students wrote answers to Stanford's prompts in recent years.

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