Hello,
I applied to UChicago RD and I had wrote an essay on the odd numbers. My teacher said it was a good idea but too broad and that I shouldn’t use the essay. So I panicked and didn’t even think about using the essay. I looked at the why you are here and not elsewhere and I was stuck on the essay so I wrote about how my life should have been in Asia and then added why I am here in Chicago (dad got a job at UChicago and he liked the city and it was like his new home). But when I reread the essay, I found there was nothing quirky about it and it didn’t really tell them anything about me. And the odd number essay highlighted my quirkiness more. So I want to know, if I get waitlisted, should I send them the odd number essay, explaining my situation? Thank you and sorry if I sound a little hysterical but I feel like I made a great mistake.
IMHO, regarding the essay, you have to hit them with the fest you can and not to change either being deferred or waitlisted. You cannot “amend” you essay.
BTW, waitlisting is equivalent to being rejected, not too much hope there.
Adding to what artloverplus said in his first post, I don’t think quirkiness is a requirement at all. I believe, after reading lots of the essays posted on this forum and my own son’s, that UChicago is looking for a sense of who you are, how you might fit into the UChicago “culture”, and how your essay supports / fleshes out your objective stats and recommendations. There are lots of ways to do this. Offbeat or quirky is certainly one way, but straightforward and / or heartfelt is another way which is just as good.
Good luck to all applicants this year. I know you all can’t be admitted, but there is very little doubt that all of you are highly accomplished and that if you do not end up at UChicago, it will be somewhere great, and that you will do wonderful things in life if you continue to apply yourselves as you did in HS.
Agree with @kaukauna that quirkiness is not a requirement. My D was admitted EA with a very straightforward non-quirky essay.
Please stop torturing yourself. You submitted what you believed was the best when you applied. Leave it at that and don’t second guess yourself.
Thank you so much to all of you. I thought for sure I would rejected. I will see what I get today. Again, thank you so much!