Stanford Essay: what matters most to you?

lakitty

偶想写我的家庭，我的父母……合适吗？

helenwolfy

我也在写这个。个人觉得不要管是否合适，这个文章的根本是让你写你真心觉得最重要的。我是做市场研究的，我们常用的一个心理学工具是让被访者把认为重要的因素一个个拿掉，看是否会影响选择。

你可以列出来看看：你认为最重要的那些，失去哪个你会觉得人生没有意义了？或者你会因此变成不一样的（可能你也不喜欢的）人？

lz加油：）

lakitty

那肯定是我父母啦……谢谢回复！

xxpatzz

我觉得Stanford的essay挺tricky的。我总觉得你的第一篇(what matters most to you & why)和第二篇（what do you really want to do) 应该有某种联系。

lakitty

有道理哦……越想越tricky,烦恼

helenwolfy

你要写的如果能支持自己的career goal最好，不能的话，价值观上是一致的也可以。我觉得美国人很直接的，如果他需要你去支持CG， 就直接问了。建议你看他们网站上的dean的讲话。这篇文章的潜台词是：
“你要什么，斯坦福都能帮你实现！我们唯一不能的做，是帮你想清楚你要什么！所以，麻烦你想一下，然后告诉我们。”

感觉像阿拉丁神灯，^_^

lakitty

偶再读了一遍，个人觉得第一篇还是比较偏向个人，而第二篇明确提出要career aspiration...

JonFrank

Yes my friend, it is appropriate!  Just remember, MANY people will also write about their families.  It is most likely the most common topic that people choose.  So what does this mean?  Only that you need to write creatively about it!  You need to be clever, you need to do something DIFFERENT than everyone else does.  If you are just another applicant writing about their family, without any sense for what makes your take on family DIFFERENT, you will run into trouble.  Hope this helps, and good luck!

Jon Frank
HBS 2005

lakitty

Thanks! You are very helpful.

cannedpineapple

Don't worry about being different. In my experience, that's where many people run into trouble, trying to 'game the system'.

Instead, focus on trying to properly communicate the most important part of this question: WHY. They don't actually care what matters most to you. They want to know why you think so, so that they understand the way you think, the values you hold dear, and so they can begin to access if you will go out and make an impact in the world like they expect Stanford MBA Alumni to do.

I posted my Stanford essay here: http://forum.chasedream.com/North_American_MBA/thread-373667-22-1.html

This essay took me a long time, but I looked deep within myself and came up with something that truly mattered to me. Learning is an important trait that has been reflected in the major decisions of my life. I answered "why" not by telling them "this is the reason", but by "showing" them an innate passion for learning and curiosity that (I hope) a person, having read the essay, will immediately feel is an important and critical part of me.