What matters to you most and why?  

While everyone else seems to be enthralled with the Scoretop controversy, I've been perplexing over something quite different. Stanford's hallmark What matters to you most and why? essay question is surely the most gut-wrenching question since the career goals question, which in itself took me several weeks to figure out for myself.The most useful advise I've been able to find on the internet seems to be this little segment from here:

    * What matters to you most and why? (Stanford's first question)
          o Apparently, the most common answer is 'balance in life'. Maybe you should try something different..
          o There are no right or wrong answers or approaches to this; it was my favorite essay question actually for this reason. You can write just about anything. However, I would suggest you look over the accomplishments that you want to talk about in your essays and you career goals. Then find a basic thread that can intertwine all of them. This will be something vague but poignant: 'helping other people' or 'taking on new challenges'. Then there's your essay structure: open with how you like to take on new challenges and use all of your essay material as proof of that. If you write something too specific such as: 'What's most important to me is bringing potable water to this village in eastern Africa' then a good part of your essays will probably be irrelvant to this thesis statement.

A second item which may help some is the following exercise from here:

As Stephen Covey says, clarify what is most important in your life. Decide what is most worthwhile to you. Knowing what is most valuable to you gives you direction in life. Rank each in order from 1-10 (1 being least important and 10 being most important).

* Career

* Health

* Home

* Family

* Spirituality

* Finances

* Leisure

* Learning

* Creativity

* Communication

This should give you a fair assessment of what your priorities are and where you want to be. Now what are you most grateful for? Make a list of 10 things and write them down. Finally don't forget how far you’ve come. Make a list of 10 of your proudest accomplishments for this year.

For me, simply thinking about other essay questions is giving me food for thought on this Stanford question. Particularly other essay questions from other schools. These ones in particular, all for 2008/9, might provide some areas of overlap:

Harvard:

1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)

3.2 Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization. (400-word limit)

Kellogg:

2: Describe how your background, values, academics, activities and/or leadership skills will enhance the experience of other Kellogg students. (One to two pages double-spaced)

3: Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experience. (One to two pages double-spaced)