Advice on UChicago essays and college essays in general

College Essays
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<p>(Cross-posted on UChicago boards...)</p>

<p>I'm far from an expert on admissions at UChicago, but after having read and talked to lots of students about their essays (both in response to common and uncommon prompts), I want to post some advice about UChicago essays and college essays in general.</p>

<p>1) BE HONEST. This is true for any college essay that you write. Don't use big words to showcase what vocabulary you know. Don't even make yourself out to be an infallible creature... if you do, you will come off in your writing as ignorant, removed, and cocky. One of my good friends (a Harvard admit) wrote poignant college essays about relatively normal things... a fight with her father, her experiences at Weight Watchers. If you discuss one of your weaknesses through your essay or otherwise acknowledge that you are imperfect, you're much more likely to come off as sympathetic to the reader. I will add, though, that you do want your essay to end on a positive note. In both of the example essays for my friend, she talked about how a fight with her father taught her how to listen to others better, and how going to Weight Watchers helped her self-image.</p>

<p>2) KEEP IT SHORT. If you can. Use short paragraphs, dialogue, etc. Admissions officers have a ton of these to read, and you'll be helping them out if you stick to the point and make sure that every sentence and every word is essential to your essay. Also, start off with a REALLY CATCHY opening... especially if an admissions officer is marathon-reading applications, you want to make sure your voice is capturing and compelling (if your scores and grades haven't bored them enough!).</p>

<p>3) FOR THE UNCOMMON ESSAY, DON'T WORRY IF YOU'RE NOT WRITING DIRECTLY ABOUT YOURSELF. DON'T WORRY IF YOU ARE. When we talk about writing a "good" essay here, I don't think any of us equate that with "an off-the-wall treatise on the meaning of life." Though I've read my share of essays of the latter category, what makes both an essay about you directly and an essay about something else significant for the admissions office is that both show something about YOU. If you're writing about yourself, you are able to tell a story about yourself, and you are also able to convey more subtle things about you through your narration. If you write about whom you'd invite to dinner and what would happen, you are letting the admissions office know how you put together thoughts and how you look at the world.</p>

<p>In uncommon essays are fun because there is no guideline as to how the prompts should be interpreted. In past years, they even try to make direct interpretation difficult: think about prompts like "Mind that does not stick," or "How do you feel about Wednesday?" Though I do know kids who wrote literally about minds sticking (some sci-fi stories and one of my friends wrote about dissecting a frog in biology class) and I'm sure there was a kid or two who wrote about Wednesday Adams, you can interpret these prompts any way you like. When I wrote my essay in the year of the String, I compared something very important in my life to a string, even though the object I used had no physical properties in common with a string. I was able to use the idea of the string, though, as a launchpad into my big "wow" moment in my essay.</p>

<p>Some of my friends have used their common app essay to fit the uncommon prompt or have made a prompt for their essay. For them, they felt connected to their common app essay for having worked on it for so long that they were unwilling to try to write another essay that they feared would not be as good. They were accepted. I have other friends who used the uncommon for common app, with mixed results admissions-wise... these were friends who had so much fun writing the uncommon essay that they didn't want to bother writing a run-of-the-mill essay.</p>

<p>One of my friends decided to send in BOTH his uncommon and common essay to Chicago, using the common as a failsafe if his uncommon attempts didn't come out right... some of my friends have used their uncommon essay on supplements for other colleges if they have a "free choice" essay.</p>

<p>What you should NOT do is take another school's specific prompt (Hopkins' 10 dollar question, for example) and use it for Chicago's. If you have a brilliant idea, try to write a spin-off for Chicago instead of copy-pasting the essay exactly. I recommend this because Chicago KNOWS its peer schools' prompts, and your using one essay to answer one specific question from another application is akin to saying that you think Chicago is not worth your while.</p>

<p>4) Most importantly... HAVE FUN. If you think writing your essay is boring, what are admissions people going to think??? A college essay is your chance to write about who you are and what makes you tick. If it's not ladleing out soup or petting puppies, don't write about those experiences. If it has to do with Space Invaders and hot dogs, write about it. You don't need to even be a good writer to be able to pick a topic that is important to you and get out some ideas about it.</p>

<p>I'll be around most of the summer to read and help edit college essays. PM me and we'll be in business.</p>

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<p>Thanks =) I'm inspired to start writing!!!</p>

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<p>Your post is just great! But you said in KEEP IT SHORT to use dialogue. Are we allowed to do so? No essay I have read had any dialogue and I assumed we are not allowed.</p>

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<p>It all depends what kind of essay you are writing. If you are writing something in which you're having a conversation with a teacher, a parent, a friend, I imagine you want to use some dialogue.</p>

<p>I really mention dialogue as a way to break up large paragraphs, though. You know as well as anybody else that it's much easier to read dialogue than it is to read chunks of narrative.</p>

<p>As for things that are off-limits in college essays, I can't really think of much. I would say no curse words, but I could think of exceptions where a curse word would add to the essay, and no blatantly negative statements or hate statements.</p>

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<p>screw UChicago. there need to be different just lost my application. Why not have the same prompts as every other school, so it's not a pain to apply there. yes, it roots out those who are not interested, but I am never even going to visit the school or learn more about after I saw that they had to be different.</p>

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<p>My main problem is with the fact that, THAT's THE ESSAY. They give an esoteric topic, and hope that you give them a sense of who you are.</p>

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<p>First of all, 1MX, you do not need to use the given prompts. The given prompts are esoteric to get your brainwaves pumping a bit, but if those prompts are not working for you, you can make your own up. There's no law that says that you can't use your common application essay along with your own prompt, in fact, if you feel very connected to your common app essay and you feel it says a lot about you, I would encourage you to use it. I would also encourage you, though, to think of a question that your prompt answers that is much more stirring and more specific than the bland common application prompts. </p>

<p>You're also free to come up with the question first and answer it next... you could make a prompt for yourself in which you travel back in time, in which you have a perfect day, in which you talk about your favorite childhood toy, in which you talk about something you learned in school that amazed you. The options are open for a reason. You give a sense of who you are by the way you answer the question.</p>

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<p>angelutz-there is no such thing as allowed. a kid from my school wrote about how he grows marijuana/did some scientific research with it-he got into harvard. Also, i have seen dialogue used successfully and highly effectively in numerous college essays.</p>

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<p>Just thinking about the writing part of it, think about how boring it would be if your essay read like the following.</p>

<p>"I had a conversation with my brother about why he broke the lamp and I forgave him."</p>

<p>Versus:</p>

<p>"Hey Mark, did you break the lamp?"
"Yeah."
"It's all right. I forgive you."</p>

<p>Stupid example, but I think you can see that the second method is much more engaging than the first.</p>

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<p>I feel much better now, since I am not afraid of using dialogues! Thanks, guys!</p>

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<p>Silly question, but now UChicago uses the common app, right? Their supplement includes the Uncommon Essay, but they will also read the common app essay–or will they not?</p>

<p>The above post suggests adapting your common app essay to fit the uncommon essay, but as far as I understand UChicago will see your common app essay anyway. Is that right?</p>