I’m a rising senior starting my college process, and it’s daunting, to say the least. The UChicago supplementary questions, on the other hand, are pretty interesting! I’ve noticed that the questions are presented with an informal tone. Would it be appropriate for me to answer a supplementary question with that same informal-ish tone? Thanks.
Ask yourself which one you’d want to read at 4 PM, seven hours and 83 essays into your day.
Yes. Ultimately, it’s about the content. If what you want to say is best expressed in an informal tone, do that. I’ve seen plenty of examples of well-received essays that have been informal.
I wrote my essay with a very formal tone…almost like a response to a high school paper. But the prompt I chose was scholarly.
At the accepted student receptions, Nondorf referred to the essays which he thought were the best. And the humorous ones were clearly his favorite.
Somewhere on CC is the Essay Nondorf sent to all the prospies as a good example. It caused a ton of controversy at the time because it wigged out a bunch of applicants because some had not written theirs that way and others had ones that basically looked the same and they were worried they would look unoriginal. Oh and this was like a week before the early application deadline.
However, I read the essay a couple months ago and it will give you an example of style and level of formality (or lack there of) that he at one time thought was an exceptional essay. I don’t know if the author ever attended UChicago, but it was good (of course that is my opinion).
^^^I think this was about 9 years ago. It was very early in the Nondorf reign.
Oh yeah that was the love letter to UChicago where the kid sounded like a stalker. Nondorf really liked that.