<p>I am writing my essays for U Mich right now and it seems like none of their questions allow very much creativity. Is anyone else having this problem? The questions are:</p>
<p>"Share an experience through which you have gained respect for intellectual, social or cultural differences. Comment on how your personal experiences and achievements would contribute to the diversity of U of M"</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>"What led you to choose the area(s) of academic interest that you have listed in your application to U of M? If you and undecided what areas are you most interested in, and why?"</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>"Describe a setback that you have faced. How did you resolve it? How did the outcome affect you If something similar happened in the future, how would you react?"</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>"Discuss and issue of local concern. Why is this issue important to you? How do you think it should be addressed?"</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>"Tell us about a book you have read that you found especially challenging, stimulating, or provocative. Explain why it made an impact on you."</p>
<p>Do you have any suggestions on how to make these essays stand out from every other person applying to U Mich?</p>
<p>while none of the prompts inspire creative essays, there is room to make a creative essay. what i've done is started off with a college that has really creative prompts (UChi) and answered some of their prompts. The writing came a lot easier, and I am not working them so that they fit other, more generic, prompts. it has worked well for me.</p>
<p>Yeah but the Umich essays do not generally ask for creative writing. They ask you a question and want you to answer with facts. </p>
<p>Of course you can write the facts in a nice ''creative'' way, but there's no imagination, and this is where it gets tough. My UMich essays were/are creative/strong (rejected/will transfer). First time around I tried to give it the creative go, and they probably didn't like it cause I got deferred, waitlisted, and then rejected:D So this time my essays answer their prompts straight and strong, so I hope it works out.</p>
<p>Whereas U Chicago has prompts like ''imagine you're a mathematical term, what would you be'' (read that about UChic before, unsure if it's true)</p>
<p>But still, prompts like that open so many doors and so many terms to write and expand on.</p>
<p>Oh well, good luck! Sorry for my useless post:)</p>