<p>I was wondering if it is ok to be funny on the short takes if that is legitimately your personality or will the admissions officers think you're not taking the question seriously? For example under the question about disappointment I was going to write about a TV show I liked that has been deleted from Netflix, and I have responded by recording every single episode. That legitimately was disappointing for me, but will the admissions officers think I'm not taking the questions seriously? </p>
<p>Being funny is tough to pull off in a college application – that’s true regardless of whether it’s an essay or short take. That’s because what’s funny to an 18-year old, is often met by a cold, hard stare from an adult. </p>
<p>What’s the take-away an Admissions Officer is going to have after reading your response? What impression are you making? These just aren’t throw-away questions. Yale is looking for authentic responses, not just funny one liners. They want to learn something about your “character.” Given your description, I would run the idea by an adult, preferably your recommendation writer.</p>
<p>FWIW: my son used humor in his responses for the short takes four years ago, but it was humor that an Admissions Director would immediately “get” and his responses were genuine, authentic and “painted a picture” of the type of person Admissions would have on their campus if they accepted him, which they did. For example:</p>
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<p>I’m conflicted about how to answer this. I want to say that you should be yourself 100%, but I also I think its really important that if you’re humorous it still adds value to your application. Imagine a worst case scenario where the admissions officer does not find your response funny; you need to make sure that without the humor the actual content of your response reveals something else about you as an individual - it is debatable whether you recording your netflix does this. I would also test it out on an adult - show your essay to your guidance counselor or a parent. I used humor in my common app and both my counselor and mom were bawling from laughter. They both also said that my personality really shines through, which that was the best thing about my essay. Humor is great if its part of who you are, but you need to be careful with it. </p>
<p>My suggestion for humor is that you show the piece to a sensible adult who is not one of your parents–perhaps a teacher who doesn’t know you extremely well. If they think it’s funny–or at least, don’t think it’s annoying or offensive–use it.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t use that particular joke for college (or job) admissions</p>
<p>Okay, I’m going to disagree with the other parents on here. I actually think that is a good response and exactly what would rank as a disappointment to a 17 year old in today’s world. Since there are more than one short answer question, I wouldn’t make all of them flippant ones, but throwing that one in with others that may be more serious I don’t think would harm anything.</p>
<p>I agree with them that you should let an adult read it. They will tell you whether the answers as a whole come off well or obnoxious.</p>
<p>^^ Except, when colleges (or employers) ask about disappointment, they don’t really care what you were disappointed about. Instead, they are looking to see how you bounce back from adversity. They want to know something about your character, your stamina, your willpower, your drive, and your resilience. IMHO, the OP’s response doesn’t address these issues, but instead is a flippant (trying to be funny) response to what is a standard interview question: <a href=“What Has Been the Greatest Disappointment in Your Life? interview question”>http://interviewarea.com/interview-questions/greatest-disappointment-in-your-life/</a></p>
<p>Well, I just decided to stay away from the humor and I talked about an experience that got me interested in medicine as a future career plan. Thank you for all the responses. I have to say as little an event as that Netflix scenario was, I really thought that was genuine because that was legitimately disappointing. I also thought on a small scale it showed some degree of determination for something I cared about. I didn’t really want to discuss something very big because my common app essay was pretty much the exact same prompt and I discussed a disappointment in sports. </p>
<p>On one of my yale short answers i said I would bring my game cube so me and my roommates could play super smash bros, and I got in. At the end of the day, just be yourself. The worst feeling is that you tried to present yourself in a way that doesn’t completely reflect who you are and then you don’t end up being admitted. (However for the dissaponment one you might want to put a serious response).</p>
I agree with #5. It is a tough call. In response to the what do you want to do better question my DD said “Park”. That is funny and genuinely what a teen might be concerned with. Still she wouldn’t want more than one answer to read that way.
I got in SCEA and two of my short takes were jokingly sincere and the other two were pretty serious. I’m generally a really joking person, so it would have been weird for my application not to reflect that. If your Common App essay or your other big supplement had any humorous bits, I think it would make sense for your short takes to show similar levels of humor!