How To Get Into Stanford in 2026 | Feat. Example Profiles & Essays!

Main Ideas

The presenter, Kevin, says that strong grades and test scores alone do not distinguish Stanford applicants. Drawing on profiles of more than 45 students his firm helped get admitted, he identifies three recurring qualities. These are his observations, not official Stanford admissions criteria:

1. Happy visionaries: They create or build things while showing humor, playfulness, and genuine enjoyment. Their projects need not be companies or nonprofits; examples include a newsletter, a device to help a blind dog, or children’s board games.
2. Creatively curious: They pursue questions through distinctive combinations of formal and informal learning. Examples include building telescopes, analyzing anime in colorful tables, or following an interest beyond coursework.
3. Humble but bold: They take creative risks in their activities and writing without presenting themselves as flawless or boasting about accomplishments. Their essays show an individual voice, specific interests, and a willingness to be a work in progress.

Advice for Stanford Essays

Short-Answer Questions

Kevin argues that Stanford’s short answers are opportunities to show creativity and personality—not merely to list conventional achievements.

• For a prompt about what matters to you: Consider an unusual structure or organizing idea, such as the five parts of a story, rather than a predictable list. The structure should still communicate real values.
• Use a distinctive mix of serious and light details. Examples include pairing civic or academic interests with origami, a first fishing trip, work, anime, or a skating competition.
• Choose specific, unexpected subjects. One student wrote about the six-second “Amen Break” in music history rather than a more commonly chosen historical event.
• Let the writing reflect the subject. The presenter praises vivid, rhythmic prose about the drum break and an extracurricular response that begins with the shouted rhythm of a dragon-boat race.
• Consider a less obvious activity or responsibility, such as a family role or unusual hobby, if it reveals something meaningful about you.
• Use humor and self-awareness without forcing them. Examples include acknowledging that someone learned to swim “sort of” or describing an experiment with technically accurate but amusing phrasing.

Essays About Intellectual Interests

The presenter recommends showing how curiosity develops, rather than simply declaring an interest in a subject or field.

• Begin with a feeling, question, or specific moment. One computer-science-oriented student began with sadness after reading educator Ken Robinson’s book The Element, then wondered whether he could recreate Robinson’s voice.
• Show the steps of exploration. The student researched open-source speech-generation projects, found Tacotron, tried it with recordings, and then pursued online courses and further ideas.
• Include concrete details that make the experience personal. The example mentions an iPhone screen-time warning appearing during late-night study.
• Let enthusiasm come through in the language and examples. The essay’s “what if” ideas convey excitement about possible applications.
• Connect future plans at Stanford to what you have already explored. Name specific Stanford opportunities only when they form a credible continuation of the story.
• Consider a less expected subject, including one outside your intended major. A student interested in computer science wrote about Brazilian politics, learned Portuguese, and formed a friendship with a Brazilian teenager. The essay showed curiosity evolving from a documentary to language learning and conversations about politics, culture, and geography.
• Show humility as well as interest. The student acknowledged not yet being fluent and described attempting to argue a position, rather than claiming to have mastered the language or won a debate.
• Use a recurring metaphor or image thoughtfully. In the Brazil essay, the idea of hunger connects the student’s desire to learn across the narrative.

Roommate Essay

Kevin interprets the roommate prompt as a chance to show that an applicant is a real, personable individual—not just an impressive résumé.

• Share distinctive habits, interests, quirks, or stories that a roommate could imagine encountering.
• Be specific and playful, but avoid bragging or writing as though the essay were an unfiltered diary.
• Turn a quirky detail into an invitation to connect. One student’s difficulty growing tomatoes leads to a suggestion to grow basil together.
• Use a character you admire to reveal your values. A student compares himself to the determined, imperfect protagonist of Fantastic Mr. Fox.
• A useful opening pattern is to describe something a roommate might see or hear, reassure them, and then invite them to join in.
• The examples include researching old family records, unusual food habits, and sleep-related quirks.

Other Points

• Kevin mentions a free admissions rubric modeled on Stanford and Harvard approaches and tested against students admitted to selective universities.
• The video also promotes the presenter’s essay-editing service and admissions resources.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Kevin: The video’s presenter and narrator, who identifies himself as a Yale graduate and college admissions consultant.
• Anonymous student essay writers and applicants: Several successful applicants are discussed, including students described as an international student, a math-focused student, a former recruit, a computer nerd, a dragon-boat percussionist, a drummer, a deep-learning enthusiast, a student interested in Brazilian politics, and students called Joey, Bianca, and Emily. Their essays are quoted or paraphrased; they do not speak directly in the video.
• People, works, and resources referenced: Sir Ken Robinson and his book The Element; Andrew Ng and his deep-learning courses; GitHub and the Tacotron speech-generation model; deeplearning.ai and Coursera; the documentary The Edge of Democracy; the song sample known as the Amen Break and drummer G.C. Coleman; Fantastic Mr. Fox; and the Tandem language-learning app.