<p>"DO NOT USE THIS ESSAY FOR THE COMMON APP. DARTMOUTH, BROWN, YALE, DUKE, PRINCETON, AND NORTHWESTERN WILL ALL THINK THAT YOU'RE ON LSD."</p>
<p>Haha. Intellectual LSD, that is. Perhaps even "smart 'shrooms."</p>
<p>In all seriousness, though, my friends who wrote satires and short stories and such for Chicago and sent them elsewhere had terrible luck getting in elsewhere.</p>
<p>That's not to say that your common app essay needs to be boring, but it should be more directly about you.</p>
<p>Thanks unalove, you always give very insightful and helpful advice. I'm totally making you read my essays.</p>
<p>I'll be happy to read your and anybody else's essays.</p>
<p>unalove, you get my vote for best person on here. I'm sure I'll be sharing my essay with you when the time comes.</p>
<p>hahahahaha. hooray!</p>
<p>I'm not really editing essays for a public service, as much as I used to be EIC of my school newspaper and I miss editing dearly. I also like seeing how people interpret these questions, and I like hearing the voices of my future classmates :-)</p>
<p>I'm not the only one, either. One of my good friends is intermittently on the Harvard boards and volunteered himself to read over essays.</p>
<p>Yeah unalove, it's cool how you help Chicago out by representing them so well on this board! Thanks again for reading my "Why Chicago?" essay! And I'll pm you my long one (I think I'll do Borges y yo) when I'm done!</p>
<p>unalove, I don't understand what you mean about the Borges y yo essay. What do you mean by "the knot is already there for you," That essay seems like the most vague one, in my opinion. I realize the prompts are up for interpretation, but I'm just wondering what you meant by that.</p>
<p>Meaning that the problem for you to figure out is already posed, and your job is to come up with a solution. Sure, the solution (or a solution, rather) won't be easy, but at the same time the problem itself is an interesting one and an easy one to give insights to after you've puzzled through the scenario a bit. However you choose to approach the topic, I think it's nearly foolproof in giving you a good essay.</p>
<p>The other options have more obvious traps.</p>
<p>That makes sense. Thanks.</p>
<p>Two questions about these essays...maybe people will have answers, maybe they won't, but it's worth asking:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is there a word limit on these? (it says "a typewritten page or two"...I hope that means they're not TOO strict on this, because I've chosen essay four and I need a little room for creative license)</p></li>
<li><p>Does anyone think essay 4 actually has to be humorous? Again, there doesn't seem to be real stipulations on this but they do talk about improvisational comedy at the beginning of the question, after all...</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>Go back in the thread-- we discuss this a bit. The answer is no, but at the same time, keep it as short as you can, for the sake of the people reading your application. Don't sacrifice brevity for quality, though.</p></li>
<li><p>I don't think it has to be humorous. I think they were using the idea of improv comedy, when audience members shout out disparate elements to the troupe and the troupe has to put them together, as the inspiration for the essay, not as a model for how it should be.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So... I've come up with a couple ideas for Essay Option 4. But, my ideas are just stories. They say nothing about my academic aspirations, personality, etc... they are simply stories! Am I supposed to somehow shape the topic to reflect me, or is writing a story that includes the required elements okay? I like the ideas that I've come up with, but I would hate to miss the entire point of this option, as I could probably come up with topics that include me, as well...</p>
<p>Post #1, Point #3.</p>
<p>3) FOR THE UNCOMMON ESSAY, DON'T WORRY IF YOU'RE NOT WRITING DIRECTLY ABOUT YOURSELF. DON'T WORRY IF YOU ARE.</p>
<p>And, if I may reference myself, the reason I say it's okay NOT to write about yourself directly is that many people don't realize how much they say about themselves when they write a story.</p>
<p>When you write a story, you are showing somebody your creative abilities and how you link ideas. Depending on how you choose to write your story, you are also showing the reader what is important, valuable, meaningful, etc. and you are also showing off your snazzy writing abilities. Believe it or not, these elements are all the admissions people at Chicago need to see from you to help them make a decision (along with testimony about you as a student and as a person from your GC and teachers, your grades and scores and workload, your involvement in activities, and your statements about your favorite things and why you want to go to Chicago).</p>
<p>I love UChicago, but I find myself worrying about my essays and the eccentricities of them. Unalove, would you mind looking over my rough (can not stress how *rough *it is) and tell me if you like the idea I am going with?</p>
<p>Okay... thanks! I figured that, but I also wanted to make the most out of my essay as possible!</p>
<p>Although it would be suicide to send my (option 4) essay to any other school, it would be ALSO be pretty darn funny to watch an admissions officer's reaction to my story! =D</p>
<p>That's when you know you have a good essay... it's so right for Chicago and so wrong for every other school on your list :-P</p>
<p>I will also add that I've read a few rough drafts at this point... what's really terrific about the uncommon prompts and the responses to them is how differently a few people can approach the same topic. At this point, I've read over many, many college essays, both common and uncommon, and I've seen how different people approach the same prompt in completely different ways. For my year, one prompt inspired one of my friends to write about a particularly memorable classroom experience, another of my friends to go on a philosophical rant, and yet another of my friends to write a pastiche about Bob Dylan.</p>
<p>"3) FOR THE UNCOMMON ESSAY, DON'T WORRY IF YOU'RE NOT WRITING DIRECTLY ABOUT YOURSELF. DON'T WORRY IF YOU ARE."</p>
<p>I think this is the best advice unalove has given.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I would say think for yourself. Your essay is not "supposed to be" anything... funny, a particular number of pages, about you, about the cure for cancer, etc. That is what is so great about having new questions every year -- we have no expectations when we begin reading in November. Any preconceived notions we have when we read the questions in the summer usually fly out the door when we read the first ten essays of the year.</p>
<p>Wow, this is an amazing thread. </p>
<p>I just have a question about the list some of your favorite books/authors/composers/etc. should it be more of a laundry list or should we go into depth? I'm really tempted to just list things, but then again, I feel I should probably explain so my choices make sense.</p>