<p>My essay has some tongue-in-cheek, nerdy humor that is really out there... Is it too risky or cliche for the admissions committee?</p>
<p>They have a sense of humor… but the problem is that what a lot of applicants think is funny doesn’t seem so funny to admissions officers who are 10 years older and read hundreds of essays/day. So you need to get a second opinion from an adult who knows about essays…</p>
<p>Nerdy and tongue in cheek should be fine. Chicago likes creativity.</p>
<p>Have someone you trust read it, to make sure there is nothing offensive and that you made it personal and sold yourself, not just an entertaining read.</p>
<p>Here’s a common misconception. “Witty, academically adventurous, quirky,” or whatever the College identifies its students as does not mean “weird, unnecessarily random, or dorky.” It can be off-putting to admissions counselors as well as downright perplexing.</p>
<p>No one on campus is going around talking about alien invasions.</p>
<p>As long as you understand that, it should be fine.</p>
<p>They generally have a sense of humor but to a certain extent. Whatever type of humor you use (whether it is sarcasm, wordplay exaggeration, incidental humor, irony, ect) do it within the context of your piece and make sure you are getting your message across in a way that it doesn’t overtake the piece. My best friend wrote a story about her dog dying and her experience with it, and managed to make it VERY humorous (even to adults) so definitely check with other people to get their first impressions of it.</p>
<p>If you want anyone on CC to look at it, I can take a look if you’d like</p>