This is kind of a weird question, but I keep hearing things related to the word “quirky.” (Such as “Rice students are very quirky” or “I wrote about a quirk that I have in my commonapp essay”). While I understand what this word means, I’m just wondering – what are some examples of quirky students or quirky essay topics? Also, since everyone has quirks, what are some ways to express your quirks in your college applications?
Here are examples: One of my kids has ( secretly, at least secret from me) been trying to emulate Sherlock Holmes since she first learned about him in middle school. She wrote an essay about the impact of this over the years. Same kid collected insects for fun – not a common hobby. Another one of my kids studied a language for several years that is spoken only in a very small place in the world, and we have no family ties to that language or place. You are looking for things that stand out as not what everyone else is doing. They didn’t do these things for college admissions purposes, it is just part of who they are. Second kid LOVES public speaking and spent a lot of time researching historical speeches for her Speech competition category – not many people truly like public speaking, or spend time for fun reading other people’s speeches.