<p>This is an essay prompt from The University of Texas:</p>
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Many students expand their view of the world during their time in college. Such growth often results from encounters between students who have lived different cultural, economic, or academic experiences. With your future growth in mind, describe a potential classmate that you believe you could learn from either within or outside a formal classroom environment.
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<p>My S and I were talking about different ways you could handle this. Make up a fictional classmate? Talk in general about the qualities you hope you'll see in future classmates? It's a really dumb prompt in my opinion. Any ideas on how to go about this?</p>
<p>Maybe you could find a former alumni/us/ae (lol I dont know) who went to that school (especially if they majored in what your son wishes to major) and write how they inspired him, or he could see himself benefiting from a classmate who's like the former student blah blah blah</p>
<p>I'm afraid that may not have made much sense. pm if u need clarification</p>
<p>It seems like they want you to describe a fictional classmate, most likely one that is the exact opposite of your son in all aspects that they list (cultural, economic, academic). However, you could always describe a person you actually know, because they do say "potential" classmate. If anyone has had a unique impact on him, he could always incorporate that person into his essay as the classmate.</p>