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Exactly. After reading this, I still didn’t really know why Rohan wanted to go to U of C versus any other highly ranked private U.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to know if this applicant submitted similar essay to other schools.</p>
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<p>Correction: That essay was for NYU</p>
<p>To me, it’s not generic at all. The essay displays a great knowledge and appreciation of what makes U Chicago special. </p>
<p>This sounds like U Chicago, not, for instance, Harvard, Rice, George Washington or Stanford or the public university where I used to teach:</p>
<p>" To be honest, I must confess I had already dreamt of a rosy future together, one filled with late nights and long discussions over the Gothic era and the ethical stage of Kierkegaard, we would watch the sunset together and spend every Christmas snuggled in blankets…originality is really your strongest and most admirable trait."</p>
<p>The tone of the essay also screams, “U Chicago.”</p>
<p>The essay wouldn’t work for other schools because that kind of humor, quirkiness, risk taking, and intimacy wouldn’t reflect their culture.</p>
<p>The essay and reactions to it are examples of why I think it’s a mistake for applicants to the very top schools to show their essays to parents, teachers, GCs, peers, etc. </p>
<p>The best essays to such schools reflect a student’s personality and creativity and aren’t likely to be appreciated by parents, etc. In fact, well-meaning outsiders may discourage the student from sending exactly the kind of essays that admissions officers at top schools would love. </p>
<p>In addition, if students know that people whom they know would be reading their essays, it would be impossible for most students to take the kind of risks that result in this kind of essay that admissions officers at top colleges would love. I doubt if the student who wrote this essay showed it to her (his?) parents.</p>
<p>I really enjoyed the essay. I also thought the grammar and style deficiencies were consistent with being written by a very smart high school student. </p>
<p>I’d guess that either the application warns that essays become the property of the school, or that the University cleared its use in this manner with the writer. Hope the kid got a good scholarship too!</p>
<p>" also thought the grammar and style deficiencies were consistent with being written by a very smart high school student. "</p>
<p>Agree. Those slight deficiencies also were consistent with the student’s having the confidence to not show the essay to parents, GC, teachers, etc.</p>
<p>If we assume he gave permission to publish his essay, then this act supports the claim that UChicago is his first choice; otherwise, it’d seem a waste not using the same format for the other tippy tops in the RD rounds.</p>
<p>Look at these quotes:
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<p>These quotes scream someone who is wooing the U of Chicago and knows precisely who / what he is wooing. I don’t see this essay as generic at all. He “gets” U of Chicago’s own self-image and speaks to it.</p>
<p>^^ agree PG,</p>
<p>Reading it made me nostalgic for the days spent under the gargoyles watchful eyes.</p>
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My son showed me his essays and I was a bit nervous about them, but his reasoning was sound. He felt he had to take a risk with the essays, because he wasn’t getting in on his grades. Mind you I loved his essay, but like this poster he took an off-beat approach and it made me nervous. Partly I was worried that like this poster, he wasn’t very detailed and specific about Chicago’s offerings (except t-shirts).</p>
<p>I agree with the person who said cloying and almost painful to read. Unless one really likes that mop commercial.</p>
<p>Small world is this world of CC. A student who says she’s Rohan (the essay writer’s) girlfriend has posted on this thread that’s posted in the College Essay forum.</p>
<p>I’m wondering who the dean’s letter was sent to. DS is one of those last minute RD applicants whom UC knows is interested and he didn’t get this.</p>
<p>Motherbea332: Probably the email was send to prospects NMS; my son did not apply to UC, but the email was addressed to him. I like the essay very much, but I blushed when I read it…thinking it was send to young teenagers…old fashion me! I wish the best to the applicant and your DS…</p>
<p>S2 is not an NMS prospect and received the email. S1, home on break, thought it captured U of C quite well and the writer will fit in quite well at The University.</p>
<p>To those who questioned my earlier post on page one:</p>
<p>My message was that I thought sharing this essay was done to inspire other writers to be creative (“think outside the box”). Provocative–yes, sexual–no. That is, writing a “why UChicago” as a love letter is certainly a different approach. </p>
<p>But, I also said I thought it was generic because the essay did not cite many specific details about UChicago. Post #49 quotes the only specifics, but there could be many more. At least, I would have thought there could be more, and then less goo.</p>
<p>I also wondered if a marketing committee wrote the essay. I pictured the marketing staff toying with this concept and having lots of fun creating this letter. (Assignment: show applicants how to really have fun with this boring, overused prompt.) But, remember, that’s just my opinion.</p>
<p>It’s a little overdone for my tastes and there are awkward phrases floating around everywhere throughout the essay, but some lines made me smile. For instance:</p>
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<p>I’m also in love with the liberal use of the comma. Wish more people would stop using the comma so strictly.</p>
<p>The ironic thing, of course, is that the “idea” of the essay isn’t very original. I wrote a love letter to Chicago last year as well, and there are several applicants this year who did the exact same thing. However, what separates this one from the others is that there really is an enthusiastic and earnest tone about it that makes it quite endearing.</p>
<p>That’s terrific and very “U of C.” </p>
<p>I enjoyed reading it!</p>
<p>“I also wondered if a marketing committee wrote the essay. I pictured the marketing staff toying with this concept and having lots of fun creating this letter. (Assignment: show applicants how to really have fun with this boring, overused prompt.) But, remember, that’s just my opinion.”</p>
<p>On the thread about this on the College Essay forum, a poster says it is a real essay, and it was written by her boyfriend. Sounds like the truth to me. I doubt that U Chicago would have a marketing expert write this.</p>
<p>That would be silly to do, and also would result in U Chicago’s being found out and ridiculed the same way that U Wisconsin was found out when – in an effort to look diverse – it Photoshopped a black student into a crowd scene in its viewbook about 10 years ago.</p>