<p>^ lol, mini, . . . and other relatives, friends, acquaintances, and anyone else I <em>personally</em> think should be admitted.</p>
<p>On a different tack, I think an admissions office is doing a really good job if the applicant learns something in the course of the application. This was relatively rare, in our experience. QuantMechPrime learned several things from last year’s Northwestern application, which referred to Hans Holbeins’ painting, The Ambassadors, and asked applicants to identify objects with which they might be pictured, in a similar formal portrait. The painting includes an anamorphic figure low in the foreground (easily found on Google images), and it has appreciable symbolic depth. As a drawback of this particular choice of painting, part of its symbolism is explicitly Christian–the Dean of Admissions posted a disclaimer and explanation on the web site after receiving comments. While I can understand that some might question the appropriateness of the choice of painting for that reason, I thought that there was a real attempt by the admissions office to engage the applicants intellectually, while at the same time gaining personal information about them–a rarity in the applications process.</p>
<p>The application for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also had interesting questions that repaid thought.</p>
<p>Even the “Why X University?” questions can cause an applicant to learn something, while rooting around the X University web site.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you have a fluent writer who unexpectedly has writer’s block with an application essay, it might be the general uncertainty of the process, or it might be the eleventh essay that has to be cranked out, but it might actually be “dud” questions.</p>