<p>I wanted to try and be unique and satirical with part of my Yale app. The rest of my app is very serious, I just thought it would be interesting to approach these questions in a funny way. Just let me know, is this funny, if so, is it still to risky or not worth sending and if not, anything you would suggest otherwise. Thanks (Each have 250 char limit)</p>
<p>2a.) What excites you intellectually, really?
I am inspired by my ability to think of clever answers to college application prompts. I enjoy using words like transcendent and palpable to express how smart I am, and I'm able sum up my thoughts even with character limits. For, as the great philosi
2b.) Think about a disappointment you have experienced. What was your response?
I tried to think of a funny response to a Yale application question and made a stupid joke instead. I thought of going back and changing it, but part of facing failure is embracing your mistakes and moving on.
2c.) Suite-style living - four to six students sharing a set of rooms - may be an integral part of your Yale College experience. What would you contribute to the dynamic of your suite?
If any of my roommates find themselves filling out a Yale University application, I can help them fill out the short answer questions. Not to brag but I'm pretty good at that.
2d.) What do you wish you were better at being or doing?
Thinking of answers to these short answer questions. These admissions officers may not think it's very funny and then I'd be in trouble. This is rough so far, but I'm pretty sure this is the last one.</p>
<p>I would not recommend it. It looks like these prompts are trying to find out more about you to see how you would fit into the class - but you reveal nothing about yourself in them, therefore defeating the purpose. </p>
<p>Perhaps you should try being honest…and answer the questions seriously. If your personality is funny, then OK, but all of your short takes mentioned the Yale Application process and weren’t all that funny. </p>
<p>You should consider your audience. These are real people reading your application. Not only did you give off a horrible impression of yourself, but I had to force myself to continue reading. You’re better off humbly answering the question. </p>
<p>@craigvs: First off, NEVER publish your essays or short-answers on-line for all to read, as it just encourages plagiarism. That said, flippant answers are the quickest way to the reject pile. </p>
<p>Do not send in these short answers!! I rarely, if ever, do absolutes on CC, but in this case I am making an exception. I have told kids to be funny, be sincere, be creative, but these answers fit non of those categories. They sound very snarky and forced - the antithesis of sincere.</p>
<p>I said once before that my D answered the question of “how she would spend a free afternoon” with: I would spend it perfecting my recipe for vegan bread. Short, sweet and gave a very good sense of who she is. You can look through other posts for other examples and I am sure some other parents will pipe in.</p>
<p>I hope you follow the advice on this thread and have not hit “send” already on your application.</p>
<p>Wow, this might be one of the few times that responses are unanimous on CC. </p>
<p>@craigvs, I notice that you haven’t been back. Please don’t take the responses personally. In a different context, your answers might have made me chuckle, but they were “wrong place, wrong time.”</p>
<p>I agree fully with @Tperry1982. When writing essays, you always have to ask yourself, “What is the admissions officer going to learn about me by reading this?” and “How is this going to fit into my application in the grand scheme of things?”. The answer to these questions, based on your short answers, is 1) nothing and 2) it doesn’t.</p>
<p>The minute I read the first answer I started cringing.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The short answers are actually somewhat clever, but the cumulative effect is one-note repetition. That’s a huge problem when you have four questions that are really trying to elicit different types of information. This strategy turns them all into the same question.</p></li>
<li><p>Tperry1982: Perfecting her recipe for vegan bread? Aren’t most bread recipes vegan? Gluten-free I would be impressed by. Vegan, not so much. Which goes to show that every answer is risky to some extent.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I agree with everyone else. One of these cute answers would be funny and ok, but you have way too many of them. It’s like you are blowing off the whole series of questions. They are really trying to get to know who you are, so give them a little more to go on than you are a smart-ass! LOL. I can tell you are a good writer though, so I’m sure you will come up with something great. :)</p>
<p>Dorothy Parker or Oscar Wilde could get away with it, but their flippancy would be world class, as well as being self-revealing.</p>
<p>To customs upon entering the US, Wilde said, “I have nothing to declare but my genius.”</p>
<p>Parker actually has a response to the OP: "There’s a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.”</p>