<p>I really don't want to right the typical "I admire my mother because blah blah" or "I want to go to ____ university because I want to meet people from all backgrounds and blah blah blah". Do you think you'll take the more traditional route in your essays? I think I will do that for the common app but I want my supplements to be kind of quirky, especially my uchicago supplement. Is that a bad idea?</p>
<p>That’s a great idea! It will keep the admissions people entertained.
For my “why Northwestern?” essay, I wrote about how I liked Northwestern because I like their school color (purple). However, I made the color purple more symbolic of individuality and self-expression. Apparently they liked my essay since I was accepted! (But I will be attending University of Miami in the fall. Go canes!)</p>
<p>Provocative is excellent. As long as there is substance behind the quirkiness, you’ll be at an advantage.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school though. The way an admissions office presents itself should give you a feel for how to approach your essays. The vibe I got was that quirky works at UChicago, but the stuffy Harvard admissions website gave me the impression that they preferred something more serious. (I can attest to this; my out-of-the-box essays got me into UChicago, but I was rejected from Harvard.)</p>
<p>I wrote about my favorite pizza for the U Chicago supplement and re-used it for HY. Yale probably did not appreciate the subject, I was outright rejected from there, but Harvard miraculously waitlisted me.</p>
<p>I’m a huge fan of writing out-of-the-box essays. Admissions officers read hundreds of essays every day, and I’m willing to bet that the majority of them are boring. A unique or interesting essay can really help convince an admissions officer to vouch for you in the committees. One really important thing to remember though is that one should NEVER sacrifice content for quirkiness/out-of-the-box-ness (lol). What I mean is that you shouldn’t try so hard to be quirky/funny/etc that you don’t get your main idea across as well as you could. Plus, if you try too hard to make a “unique” essay, that could also turn out poorly.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Nah. My Common App essay, which Harvard received, was very, very strange–I guess you’d say it was about getting lost in my car–and I got a handwritten letter saying it was one of the best they’d read. Which conveniently answers the OP’s question: Absolutely be interesting (“provocative” is too, well, provocative a word for what I mean).</p>