Introspection in 5 Words
By Will Lieber, 18, Illinois
Among the roughly five-thousand universities in the United States, Stanford is arguably one of the most prestigious and coveted. It receives thousands of applications a year from some of the most promising students internationally.
Stanford is surely proud of their highly competitive applicant pool, but sorting through all of their applicants can be a difficult task. How does one discriminate between such extreme levels of excellence? Stanford attempts to do so with numerous essays covering a plethora of topics, one of which is an essay with a word limit of five. That’s right. Five words.
How could an applicant possibly add something of substance to their application when limited to only five words? It seems impossible, if not a waste of time. However, this essay represents the ultimate test of conciseness in writing. With applications, and especially competitive ones, every word matters. This essay is the ultimate example of that. Some students carefully weigh out five individual words that represent them, while others choose to string together five words in a sentence or phrase.
Here are some examples from Stanford Youtubers:
“Spontaneous professionist; bubbly non-conformist; ambivert” – Jasmine Tea
‘Chrysalism, Redhead, Sculptor, Kugleblitz, “Why?”’- Eva Smerekanych
“Go har(d) or go home” – Gohar Khan
Many of these are very outside the box. These applicants (who ended up being admitted to Stanford) also stated in their videos that they tried to avoid cliches at all costs. Although the essay is only 5 words, each one has meaning.
The reason these essays fascinate me is because they force precise introspection. Describing yourself is a difficult task, but with a five word limit, it becomes much harder. One of the most important parts of a solid application is building a theme and a story behind your achievements and academic statistics. If you can thoughtfully contribute to this theme in only five words, you show a strong understanding of yourself and your goals.
You don’t have to apply to or attend Stanford to try this exercise. Try it for yourself and see how difficult it is. Pretend you are applying, and once you spend time coming up with what might be seen as cliche adjectives, try and come up with a more unique set of 5 words.
It is difficult to represent what we value and who we are in an essay. It is even harder to sum up those concepts in 5 words. It’s harder still to make those 5 words unique or catchy. The English language is vast, and at times daunting. However, language is our identity. We use words to describe who we are. While this essay may seem like a waste of time, spelling yourself out in 5 words is an extremely valuable exercise in denoting identity and values. So go ahead, try giving people you don’t know a thoughtful piece of yourself in 5 words. The journey might surprise you.
I have always been intrigued by applications and the unfair dynamic of trying to convey all of who you are to a cabinet of strangers in a few essays. When I came across Stanford’s five word essay, I found it difficult to pick five words I would hypothetically use for myself. It truly is the ultimate test of concision, and I found it to be worth sharing with others.
