<p>I really like this comment by diana on p. 4:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Here’s another interesting perspective, from Becky, p. 5:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh, brother. Does everything have to be about class/race? It’s one friggin’ essay! And, yes, a lot of applicants to schools like Chicago are from fairly affluent families. A lot of readers of the NYT are as well. I think we get to read plenty about kids overcoming difficult backgrounds. This just isn’t one of those times. I don’t think class is the great elephant in the room at all. There IS no elephant in the room!</p>
<p>I don’t understand why diana needs to make this into a class divide issue. How does she know that Rohan wasn’t an URM who already got a nice FA from another school, and Chicago was just a why not. At the same time, what if Rohan was a well to do white kid (is that a common name for a white kid)? What NYT was focusing was on the essay, and why U Chicago did it. I am sure NYT covers other college related issues in other articles. Not every article needs to be focused on “difficulty on getting into elite schools,” “how to fund college tuition,” “college options for rich vs poor.”</p>
<p>Cross posted with MoWC.</p>
<p>“By sharing a “sample” essay of an already admitted student to UChicago to show “the sort of clever, creative spirit that tends to thrive at UChicago” totally defeats the purpose of the college essays to begin with. If by sharing this essay the goal was to encourage creativity and to decrease “stress about essay writing”, it could only serve to do the opposite. Students would read it, then possibly rewrite their own using the essay of the admitted student as a sort of template, squelching their own, inner voice. Only more gut-wrenching rewrites and additional late nights would ensue. (If Dean Nondorf has a college-bound son or daughter, he could have simply polled them before publishing the essay and my guess is that they would have probably offered a resounding no.)”</p>
<p>I disagree that Rohan’s essay would discourage creativity in all who read it. I’m sure that there are some creative students who read it and felt relieved to know that Chicago does welcome students who are creative. They also probably had the good sense to realize that Chicago doesn’t only appreciate Rohan’s brand of creativity.</p>
<p>The students whom Rohan’s essay discouraged probably are students who wouldn’t be admitted to or happy at Chicago anyway.</p>
<p>“Leaving aside the merits of the letter, it is almost certainly written by an upper income white person. How do I know? A lower income person would not have the comfort, the devil-may-care attitude that this person obviously has–”</p>
<p>We have no idea about Rohan’s race or class. However, students who attend low performing schools are more likely to be taught at home and in school to produce the conventional. Unless such students are shown examples like the one Chicago publicized, any of the rare such students applying to U Chicago would probably think that writing something conventional would be what Chicago wants. Sending Rohan’s essay likely would help, not hurt them as they wrote their applications.</p>
<p>If anyone really cares about the nationality or financial status of Rohan (and I agree with oldfort and MOWC that making this a “class” issue is inappropriate) , why don’t you just ask the poster (radiokvetch) who claims, in the other thread about this essay (in the college essays forum, started by the same OP) to be Rohan’s girlfriend <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063784538-post69.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063784538-post69.html</a> Then no more need for baseless hypotheses or pot-stirring.</p>
<p>Re post #221. I think that comment is far off the mark. Four years ago, my d. also submitted a humorous and light-hearted, “risk” essay to Chicago. I can’t comment on the whole “white” assumption, given that my d. is indeed white – but my d. definitely needed a LOT of financial aid to get into college, was ultimately accepted to Chicago, and received an award that would not have made it possible to attend. (She got a far better offer from a college she preferred to Chicago in any event – if that had not been the case I would have tried to appeal the Chicago award). </p>
<p>Then again, I’m knowledgeable enough about financial aid to understand that the essay is about getting accepted, it has nothing whatsoever to do with financial aid consideration – at least except for the very limited amount of merit aid Chicago offers to its very top applicants, and clearly “Rohan” didn’t think he was in that league.</p>
<p>In fact, “Rohan” – like my daughter – probably realized that it was precisely because of being unremarkable in the applicant pool that a “risk” essay might be useful. The risk essay is the one – like this - that gets noticed and gets people talking. It is a “risk” precisely because it is hard to know whether the reader will be delighted or offended.</p>
<p>I do think it is questionable to assume that minorities cannot be risk-takers with a sense of humor. I think that unfortunately that comment reflects a parent projecting her own anxieties onto her daughter. Unfortunately the writer misperceives the competitive admission process as one in which the goal is to seek approval by conforming to expectations. I have a feeling that idea is more personality-based than class-based.</p>
<p>I agree I don’t see the racial aspect (I envisioned Rohan to be Indian, not white) but I could see class bias playing a role here. The higher value placed on intellectual (and a certain kind of “intellectual,” mind you) and risque essays probably does favors the more well-off applicants who don’t have as much at stake in admission. Princeton, as intellectual as it is, probably wouldn’t even think about asking applicants the kind of essays UChicago does. Let the applicant choose what to write about and show their intellectuality in their own way. Btw, I’m not just talking about Rohan’s essay here but U of C’s admissions process more generally.</p>
<p>It look to me like Chicago gives students a very wide range of essay topics, and makes it clear that students can write them in any style they wish. I don’t know why people are complaining about the example Chicago sent. Students who didn’t want to write something humorous like that have plenty of other options.</p>
<p>"The University of Chicago has long been renowned for its provocative essay questions. We think of them as an opportunity for students to tell us about themselves, their tastes, and their ambitions. They can be approached with utter seriousness, complete fancy, or something in between.</p>
<p>Each year we email newly admitted and current College students and ask them for essay topics. We receive several hundred responses, many of which were eloquent, intriguing, or downright wacky.</p>
<p>As you can see by the attributions, the questions below were inspired by submissions by your peers.</p>
<p>This Year’s Essay Questions
Essay Option 1</p>
<p>How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.)</p>
<p>Inspired by Kelly Kennedy, a fourth-year in the college.</p>
<p>Essay Option 2</p>
<p>The late-eighteenth-century popular philosopher and cultural critic George Lichtenberg wrote, “Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc. at times before they’re worn out and at times-and this is worst of all-before we have new ones.” Write an essay about something you have outgrown, perhaps before you had a replacement-a friend, a political philosophy, a favorite author, or anything that has had an influence on you. What, if anything, has taken its place?</p>
<p>Essay Option 3</p>
<p>“Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust,” wrote the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” What is “human personality?” Is it obvious what uplifts and what degrades it? Can law be justified on the basis of it? We want to hear your thoughts on justice as it relates to this “human personality.”</p>
<p>Essay Option 4</p>
<p>From game theory to Ultimate Frisbee to the great Chicago Scavenger Hunt, we at the University of Chicago take games seriously. We bet you do, too. Even if “just a game,” sport, play, and other kinds of games seem to share at the very least an insistence that we take seriously a set of rules entirely peculiar to the circumstance of the game. You might say, in order to play a game we must take it seriously. Think playfully-or play thoughtfully-about games: how they distract us or draw us into the world, create community and competition, tease us and test us with stakes both set apart from and meaningful to everyday life. Don’t tell us about The Big Game; rather, tell us about players and games.</p>
<p>Essay Option 5</p>
<p>In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose a question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful then you should have little trouble writing a great essay. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk and have fun."</p>
<p>Why do you say well-off applicants don’t have as much at stake in admissions? Who do you think gets all the pressure from parents and peers? Who do you think feels like a failure if they don’t get into a top 20 school? Haven’t we covered that a million times on the pages of this forum? In fact, didn’t posters recently take target practice against a dad whose daughter was devastated at her admissions results a few years ago and wound up at Chicago?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, but was the Dean expecting these students to re-write their essays at the last minute? Also, writing unconventionally is an acquired skill. You can’t just expect them to learn how to do it just from seeing that example.</p>
<p>I’d add that my observation as a parent is that Chicago applicants often seem to be intimidated by the school’s reputation as an intellectual powerhouse. Even Rohan managed to weave in a reference to Kierkegaard. After all the decisions were in the year my daughter got accepted, there was a CC thread in which all the accepted students posted their essays, or favorite parts. My d posted hers- both the main essay and one or more of the short answers. My d’s were the only ones that were light-hearted, humorous, somewhat flippant … fun to read. The others all seemed to be heady and pretentious, written by 17 year olds desperate to prove how brilliant they were. Of course, since it was an admitted students thread, those students who strove to prove how seriously intellectual they were accepted as well.</p>
<p>But I think maybe the Chicago admissions director got tired of reading all of those very earnest and serious essays, and wanted to let those who had not yet submitted that its o.k. to let down the guard somewhat and take a lighter tone.</p>
<p>I agree with NSM, that on the whole it’s helpful to know that it’s okay and even welcomed to take a risk with an essay, but agree with others that the timing wasn’t so hot. My son wrote some pretty quirky essays too. His reasoning was that he was never going to get in on his stats - if he was going to stand out it was with his essays and safe essays don’t stand out. I’ll let you know in April how it all ends up - but U of Chicago apparently liked his quirky essays. His “why Chicago” essay was just about the opposite of Rohan’s by the way. He started off talking about his initial negative impressions of the place. They sent him a personalized card where they commented on that essay. (My son like calmom’s d did not come off as particularly intellectual, but I did think he came off as someone it would be fun to have dinner with.)</p>
<p>I disagree completely with xiggi, I love the Chicago essay prompts. I think they are a lot more fun for kids to write than yet another essay on “How my grandmother made me what I am” or “I lost the big game but realized it’s how you play the game that counts” or “I went overseas and learned we are all the same underneath”.</p>
<p>“Yes, but was the Dean expecting these students to re-write their essays at the last minute? Also, writing unconventionally is an acquired skill. You can’t just expect them to learn how to do it just from seeing that example.”</p>
<p>Many students write their essays at the last minute.</p>
<p>The essay was just one example of an excellent essay. It would have been most helpful to students who wanted to write an unconventional essay, and were getting bad advice from well-meaning parents, teachers, GCs who were telling them not to go with their instincts.</p>
<p>Given the prompts and directions, there also was plenty of info available refecting that UC appreciates a variety of types of essays.</p>
<p>Writing is a skill that benefits from nurturing. Heck, for all we know, that essay could have been written by a cc’er who had some poster read it backchannel and comment on it. My there sure have been some fascinating hypotheses about a variety of things posted tonight…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>From what I’ve observed, immigrants/first-generation students (the ambitious ones anyway) tend to think of the college admissions process as a measure of how successful they’ve been for the first major part of their lives. It also gives comfort to their parents to know their kids are going somewhere. Those who are “well-off” enough can probably afford colleges that don’t give generous aid, be okay with colleges that are less diverse, have the option of taking time-off to do interesting things before re-applying and take their sweet time graduating, etc.</p>
<p>
Well, obviously, myself included. But I doubt the Dean was only catering to that crowd.</p>
<p>Also, northstarmom, you missed the memo completely. My point was that students who didn’t receive proper training all throughout high school would probably not be as capable of writing these “uncommon essays” and will therefore be disadvantaged in the process. No amount of sample essays sent at the last minute will help much.</p>
<p>Why are we talking about immigrants now? Are we off class divide now?</p>
<p>Well, obviously I was talking about poor immigrants, but what I said applies to low-income students in general.</p>
<p>I think middle class or affluent students often have the exact same pressures and even more since they are living up to their parents’ achievements. It starts very young, too. It’s not a matter of “affording colleges that don’t give generous aid”. It’s a matter of getting into your “dream school” which often is one with an acceptance rate of 10-20 %!</p>