<p>How creative can you get on your Common App Essay? Like for prompt number one "a essential story one" can you write about some romantic experience you went through to show how you are a gooey-eyed, hopeless romantic and really show off your personality? or is that too irrelevant?</p>
<p>Also, same question apply on UChicago's essay. Since they look for creativity, i make up my own prompt "why I check out hot girls" and wrote it like a letter. Is that good or going to far?</p>
<p>While the University of Chicago embraces originality and wit, I’m not entirely sure “hot girls” will go over nicely with them. The prompt seems rather childish, unless you can spin it in an incredible fashion. I think the “make up your own prompt” option is risky enough, and with your particular choice, it seems likely to backfire. I think that your prompt would fall under the “childish humor” category, not wit, as they’re looking for.</p>
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<p>I’d have to see it to know for sure, but I imagine that being an immature, vaguely sexist wink-wink-nudge-nudge kind of essay - unless what you mean by “hot girl” is something different from what it usually is.
I think essays dealing with romance/sexuality are almost inherently awkward and inappropriate, but I suppose it’s possible that one could be done well. But I don’t think you should write an essay about “checking out” women who meet conventional beauty standards, because that’s not especially revolutionary anyway.</p>
<p>okay, okay i got it. So exactly how creative can you get with essays before annoying the readers?</p>
<p>There’s no limit to *creativity<a href=“though%20I%20don’t%20think%20you%20should%20submit%20a%20poem%20instead%20of%20an%20essay%20or%20anything%20like%20that”>/i</a>, but you’ll want to avoid being immature, gimmicky, inappropriate, offensive, or extremely controversial. And it’s hard to tell from the topic alone whether an essay will be okay or not. If you’re particularly skilled as a writer, you might be able to write about a topic people would typically advise you not to write about.</p>
<p>I’ve read that when writing college essays, there are a few things you shouldn’t do–you shouldn’t write about sex (so I wouldn’t recommend writing about hot girls), you shouldn’t mention doing drugs/illegal things, you shouldn’t try to use it as an opportunity to justify your bad grades, and you shouldn’t use it as an opportunity to complain about your family.</p>
<p>These are topic guidelines, not necessarily a block on creativity. I think that in style, you can write as creatively as you want, but some topics just don’t make you look for college admissions.</p>
<p>Skip the hot girls one unless you’ve already written it and want someone to read it. You can do the romantic idea but just don’t make it a moping story.</p>
<p>halcyonheather hit the nail on the head: Don’t be gimmicky.</p>
<p>If you have a specific story you could write about being in a romance or checking out hot girls and could then spin the story so it shows what you learned and how you changed through the experience, I would say it’s risky but you could possibly pull it off. If the essay seems sexist or typical-teenage-hormoney it probably won’t get you anywhere.</p>
<p>Let’s put it this way - when you try to be creative, it basically looks like you are trying too hard to be creative. Which mostly doesn’t work as intended.</p>
<p>A better approach is to start with a plain, old-fashioned, good-to-read story. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here. It should be a given that every student is trying to be creative and unique with their personal statement. </p>
<p>A lot of students find the UChicago application endearing, but I’ll be the first to say that from a writing standpoint and from an actual admissions standpoint, the kind of culture and vibe they try to promote isn’t particularly helpful or useful. Their prompts are gimmicky and (IMO) compromise the relevance of the personal statement. </p>
<p>Don’t get sucked too deeply into their ‘special snowflake’ mentality, especially since it’ll affect your other applications too. Just write a good story.</p>
<p>If you need more help brainstorming a topic, you can check my guide out here - </p>
<p>[To</a> Greener Pastures - The App Style](<a href=“http://theappstyle.com/to-greener-pastures/]To”>The App Style - A College Application Guide)</p>