# I pit Stanford's "Personal History Statement" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 27, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258 "2012-11-27T12:28:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/1 "2012-11-27T12:28:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Stanford University regards the diversity of its graduate student body as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the university. We encourage you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as work and life experiences, special interests, culture, socioeconomic status, the quality of your early educational environment, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. Please discuss how such factors would contribute to the diversity of the entering class, and hence to the experience of your Stanford classmates. …(700 characters max) Really? 700 characters? 700 measly characters? Your damn question is 579 characters! What the hell is this? A challenge to describe and **discuss** diversity in 5 tweets or less? Regards diversity as an important factor my ass. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/2 "2012-11-27T12:51:44Z")
Tell us, in 700 words, why you’re a special little snowflake and will make the student body–and thereby Stanford–more interesting. Then, in about four years, tell me in 700 seconds or less why you’re such a special little snowflake and why I should hire you. Then, in 700 moments or less summarize the project you’ve been working on all year and help me decide whether I should keep funding your department or restructure your priorities. A while later, you’ll have 700 beats to hold my attention while you convince me to take the company in a different direction. At some point, you’ll be responsible for a division of the company and will need to make innumerable decisions–and will face a host of employees who need your attention in order to transform your plans and ideas into reality. One of them, responsible for developing a crucial aspect of your overall strategy, will need to convey to you the status, direction, outlook, problems, goals, and ideas as developed by her fifteen-person team. Because you have seven similar appointments that day and seven other objectives to accomplish before you can go home, you can afford to give her just 700 seconds–a little over ten minutes–to provide you with enough information to base a series of decisions on. Then you go home and have pie. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/3 "2012-11-27T12:58:36Z")
I would have been grateful for that kind of limitation on my college application’s “personal statement”. And I suspect the admissions people are now much less tempted to rip their eyes out after reading a few hundred of these self-serving tripefests. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/4 "2012-11-27T13:02:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Stanford University regards the diversity of its graduate student body as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the university. We encourage you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as work and life experiences, special interests, culture, socioeconomic status, the quality of your early educational environment, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. Please discuss how such factors would contribute to the diversity of the entering class, and hence to the experience of your Stanford classmates. “I am _ **not** _ a bum; I’m a jerk. I once had wealth, power, and the love of a beautiful woman. Now I only have two things: my friends, and, uh, my thermos. Huh? My story? Okay. It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child. I remember the days, sittin’ on the porch with my family, singin’ and dancin’ down in Mississippi…” ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/5 "2012-11-27T13:13:36Z")
Navin? Is that you?! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/6 "2012-11-27T13:14:30Z")
Although I hate the term, I believe this is the definition of “First World Problems.” ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/7 "2012-11-27T13:19:19Z")
Lord knows I’m not Ivy League material, but it took about 10 seconds to search [Stanford’s website](http://med.stanford.edu/md-mph/documents/Fall%202012%20checklist%20-%20Stanford.pdf). > [@](#): > > Compose your Personal History Statement (limit 4800 characters). Although this second essay is optional, it is required if you are applying for funding. Submit your Personal History Statement under the “Additional Questions” portion of the SOPHAS Application Maybe the OP needs to go to school someplace where 700 = 4800 for sufficiently large values of 700. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/8 "2012-11-27T13:37:06Z")
One of the most important skills you can learn is to write concisely. I write grants. A couple of months ago I had a grant for thousands of dollars that allowed 5,000 words to make the pitch. After I worked feverishly all week to complete my masterpiece, I learned that the directions actually allowed 5,000 _characters._ I had to hack that poor thing to one tenth of its original size, but I did get the grant (my first grant ever, in fact.) In your professional life you may find you have an incredibly short amount of time or space to communicate important and complex ideas. Learn to do this well, and you will succeed. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/9 "2012-11-27T13:51:32Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Lord knows I’m not Ivy League material, but it took about 10 seconds to search [Stanford’s website](http://med.stanford.edu/md-mph/documents/Fall%202012%20checklist%20-%20Stanford.pdf). > > Maybe the OP needs to go to school someplace where 700 = 4800 for sufficiently large values of 700. Curse on you! That’s an application for Cal, not Stanford. It’s actually pretty confusing. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/10 "2012-11-27T14:19:21Z")
The really confusing thing is that the quote in the OP only occurs in a [single post on a different message board](http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/35231-ahhh-diversity/). I’m pretty sure someone made it up just to be angry about it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/11 "2012-11-27T14:26:35Z")
Well, I thought the OP was going to Pit Stanford for blatantly soliciting applicants to list their race as part of their admissions packet. I thought those days were long gone. But the part about 700 “characters” is very odd. 700 words, maybe. But I’ve never seen an essay like this limited by characters. I’m finding myself not believing it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/12 "2012-11-27T14:37:45Z")
[Here](http://admission.stanford.edu/application/freshman/essays.html) is the page from Stanford’s website listing the essay requirements for freshmen applicants. The three essay questions required by Stanford (in addition to the ones from the Common App) require _at least_ 250 words. BTW, kids today have it _so_ much easier with this online common app thing. In my day we had to do separate applications for each school and we had to either hand-write the damned things or use an _actual typewriter_. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/13 "2012-11-27T14:52:12Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > BTW, kids today have it _so_ much easier with this online common app thing. In my day we had to do separate applications for each school and we had to either hand-write the damned things or use an _actual typewriter_. You had it easy. I had to chisel my application on stone tablets! ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/14 "2012-11-27T14:52:55Z")
“He’s just zis guy, you know?” ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/15 "2012-11-27T14:56:12Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You had it easy. I had to chisel my application on stone tablets! You had chisels? _Luxury!_ I had to scratch my applications on the side of a mammoth with my fingernail. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/16 "2012-11-27T14:58:06Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You had it easy. I had to chisel my application on stone tablets! I had to paint my application onto the wall of the university cave, in the still-wet blood of a mammoth. _And we liked it_! ETA: Damn you, **silenus**! ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/17 "2012-11-27T15:01:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > You had it easy. I had to chisel my application on stone tablets! Postage for my applications cost more than tuition! ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/18 "2012-11-27T15:07:10Z")
**Background:** This is for a Ph.D application, not undergraduate. I’m expecting to realistically be competing against a hundred people, not 10’s of thousands. It is in fact 700 _characters_. You can look for yourself on page 10 of their Ph.D App. I’m 29, quite a bit older than the average applicant. I grew up poor, went to a top university, dropped out, but got back up and finished. I’ve had a strange career path with internships, jobs and consulting positions in a university, 3 hospitals, no less than 10 biotechnology firms and even a U.S Air Force base. I’ve made good money, but learned it wasn’t what drove me. I gave away all my things and I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world with my life stuffed in nothing but a 35 pound backpack. I could write just this tiny blurb, but I like to think that I actually have something to say that isn’t the same old trite crap. (yes, I am considering changing my answer to a cleaned up version of this). **Rhythmdvl** Your point is masterfully made. I applaud you. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/19 "2012-11-27T15:11:57Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > You had chisels? _Luxury!_ I had to scratch my applications on the side of a mammoth with my fingernail. You had the luxury of me having had to invent language for you! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258/20 "2012-11-27T15:24:28Z")
I’m very surprised this is part of a graduate school application. I went to Stanford for graduate school quite a few years ago (late 70s/early 80s), and there wasn’t any of that diversity nonsense on the application back then. I thought that was reserved for the precious little undergrads. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stanfords-personal-history-statement/642258.md?page=2)