minvisifire
Nov 27, 2012
Letters / "9 Truths of Rooming with Marissa"-Stanford-letter to a future roomate [2]
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.
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Nine Truths of Rooming with Marissa (Because 10 is just too tidy)
1. If that usage of "tidy" makes no sense, it's because I'm not too familiar with the word. I can clean my room until it's spotless, do nothing but sit in one place for 12 hours, and when I stand up the room somehow looks to be just as much of a disaster as when I started. It's a curse.
2. There will always be a large, available stockpile of Nutella in the dorm. If this fails to be true, something is wrong.
3. If we were allowed to keep cats in the room, I would manage to fit over a hundred of them. Depending on your reaction to this, you either have excellent luck or excellent taste.
4. Feel free to borrow anything of mine whenever you want, as long as it eventually finds its way back.
5. That last point is not as exciting as it could be; I tend to be minimalist about owning things, and I buy the majority of my clothes at the thrift store.
6. I hope you like plants. I don't know how people can live in a closed room devoid of nature. We have to at least have a cactus or something.
7. If I'm ever reading a novel and suddenly throw it across the room, don't worry too much. I love books, and when you get emotionally invested in the characters, these things do tend to happen.
8. You're in charge of any spiders! It's less that I don't want to deal with them, and more that I'm positive you don't want to see me try.
9. It turns out my parents bought me a blue and purple dorm set for Christmas, so if you already own, say, pink and orange bedding and decorations, then our room is going to look hilarious. We can always get a bright red rug and some yellow curtains to play it off as though it were the plan all along.
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This is a rough draft for the prompt.
I already know the first point needs some rewording, and I would love some suggestions on how to do it. That's going to be the hardest part for me, because I need it to flow a specific way.
On the last point, I'm pretty sure "as though it were" is correct, but every so often my mind tells me to change it to "as though it was" ?
Is this a formal enough/good layout for the Stanford app? I've read some others, and this doesn't seem too far off, but I'd still like some input. I wanted it to be more like a letter I would write to a classmate, rather than something I did for the admissions officers.
Alsooo, I don't know how the tone comes off on some of them. It's "truths" so I want it in a to-the-point style... Thing is, I always feel like it'd be possible for someone who has no idea who I am to find it a little pushy, even though I'm actually just joking and would totally take care of spiders by myself if I had to and would never force cacti on anyone. Could it seem like that at all, or am I overthinking?
Any other things would you change?
Thanks so much!
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.
--------
Nine Truths of Rooming with Marissa (Because 10 is just too tidy)
1. If that usage of "tidy" makes no sense, it's because I'm not too familiar with the word. I can clean my room until it's spotless, do nothing but sit in one place for 12 hours, and when I stand up the room somehow looks to be just as much of a disaster as when I started. It's a curse.
2. There will always be a large, available stockpile of Nutella in the dorm. If this fails to be true, something is wrong.
3. If we were allowed to keep cats in the room, I would manage to fit over a hundred of them. Depending on your reaction to this, you either have excellent luck or excellent taste.
4. Feel free to borrow anything of mine whenever you want, as long as it eventually finds its way back.
5. That last point is not as exciting as it could be; I tend to be minimalist about owning things, and I buy the majority of my clothes at the thrift store.
6. I hope you like plants. I don't know how people can live in a closed room devoid of nature. We have to at least have a cactus or something.
7. If I'm ever reading a novel and suddenly throw it across the room, don't worry too much. I love books, and when you get emotionally invested in the characters, these things do tend to happen.
8. You're in charge of any spiders! It's less that I don't want to deal with them, and more that I'm positive you don't want to see me try.
9. It turns out my parents bought me a blue and purple dorm set for Christmas, so if you already own, say, pink and orange bedding and decorations, then our room is going to look hilarious. We can always get a bright red rug and some yellow curtains to play it off as though it were the plan all along.
------------------
This is a rough draft for the prompt.
I already know the first point needs some rewording, and I would love some suggestions on how to do it. That's going to be the hardest part for me, because I need it to flow a specific way.
On the last point, I'm pretty sure "as though it were" is correct, but every so often my mind tells me to change it to "as though it was" ?
Is this a formal enough/good layout for the Stanford app? I've read some others, and this doesn't seem too far off, but I'd still like some input. I wanted it to be more like a letter I would write to a classmate, rather than something I did for the admissions officers.
Alsooo, I don't know how the tone comes off on some of them. It's "truths" so I want it in a to-the-point style... Thing is, I always feel like it'd be possible for someone who has no idea who I am to find it a little pushy, even though I'm actually just joking and would totally take care of spiders by myself if I had to and would never force cacti on anyone. Could it seem like that at all, or am I overthinking?
Any other things would you change?
Thanks so much!