Stanford: Roommate note
100-250 words
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, know you better.
What it’s really asking
A voice and livability test. Stanford wants to hear a real person and decide whether you would be good to share a small room with for a year.
Why they ask it
Roommates see who you are off paper. This is the one essay where being warm and human beats being accomplished.
Three ways in
The honest warnings
Your real habits, quirks, and rituals, written with affection and humor, not a list of virtues.
A small invented ritual
One specific thing you would actually bring to the room that says everything about you.
Care, shown not stated
Reveal how you treat people through a concrete detail, never by claiming to be a great friend.
✕ Weak opening
“Dear roommate, I am a hardworking, friendly, and organized person who loves to meet new people.”
✓ Strong opening
“Dear roommate, three warnings and a promise.”
Dear future roommate,
I should warn you that I narrate. Not loudly, but I talk to objects while I work. The stapler gets encouragement. A stubborn math problem gets called names I would never use on a person. If you hear me at my desk saying "absolutely not" to nobody, I am losing an argument with a chemistry problem and winning is close.1I keep a shoebox of other people's grocery lists. I find them in carts, in library books, in the wind, and I keep the good ones. "Milk, lightbulbs, forgiveness" has been on my wall for two years. A grocery list is the most honest thing a stranger ever accidentally tells you, and I am a little addicted to those small windows into other lives. I will probably try to read yours. I will definitely respect it if you say no.2Things I am genuinely good at: making tea for people who are sad, remembering which song you said you liked, and being quiet at the exact moment quiet is needed. Things I am bad at: closing drawers all the way, and ending phone calls with my grandmother in under an hour. I am telling you the drawer thing now so it counts as a warning and not a betrayal.3I cannot wait to find out what you talk to when you think no one is listening. Whatever it is, I promise to act like it is normal, the same way I hope you will for me.
Save me the top bunk if you hate heights. I love them.
- 1A specific, slightly odd habit (narrating to objects) reveals personality instantly and disarmingly. Roommate notes work when they show, not summarize, a real human quirk.
- 2The shoebox of strangers' lists signals a curious, observant nature, and the line about respecting a no quietly shows consideration. It builds a portrait of someone good to live with, not just someone interesting.
- 3Pairing real strengths with honest, harmless flaws makes the writer trustworthy and warm. Owning the flaw in advance is a small joke that also shows emotional maturity.
Dear future roommate,
Before you arrive, three confessions. First, I wake up before the alarm and lie still so I do not wake you, which means I will know an embarrassing amount about how you sleep before you know my name. You snore-talk, probably. Everyone does. I will never tell anyone, including you.1Second, I collect last lines of books. Not first lines, which try too hard, but last lines, which have stopped performing and are just telling you the truth on the way out. I write them on index cards and tape them above my desk. By October our wall will be a small museum of endings, and you are welcome to add yours. If you ever catch me staring at the wall, I am not zoning out, I am rereading the part where someone figured something out.2Third, and most important: I believe a room has two jobs, to be a place you can think out loud and a place you can be silent without explaining why. I will read the room. If you come in and drop your bag a certain way, I will know it was a bad day and I will make the tea and ask nothing. And I will trust you to do the same for me, because I am not very good at saying when I need it.3Bring the loud parts of yourself. I have room for them, and I have been saving the wall.
- 1Opening on a gentle, intimate observation about cohabitation establishes warmth and discretion at once. It speaks directly to the lived reality of sharing a room, which is what the prompt is really probing.
- 2The collection of last lines is distinctive and literary without showing off; it reveals a reflective mind. Inviting the roommate to contribute turns a personal quirk into shared space.
- 3Articulating a small philosophy of how to share space, then admitting a vulnerability (bad at asking for help), shows self-awareness and generosity. It closes the note on genuine emotional honesty rather than a list of facts.
Stuck? Start here
- What would your current friends warn a new roommate about, fondly?
- What small ritual or object would you bring to a shared room?
- How do the people close to you know you care, without you saying it?
Before you submit
- Does it sound spoken, like an actual note, not an essay?
- Did you keep achievements out of it?
- Is there one detail only you could have written?
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