I’m working on my St. Olaf application right now and I feel so confused about three short questions (10 words limit).
Fwiw my daughter took a light-hearted approach. Genuine answers, of course, but she didn’t overthink it. She just popped in the first thing that came to mind. I don’t know if this good or bad (her app is pending) but I also don’t think every answer to every question on an app has to be refined to death. Clever and insightful is fine but so is honest and real.
My daughter was accepted for this academic year, and she also took a light-hearted approach, but at the same time her answers reflected her actual interests and obsessions. She mentioned, for example, the fact that St. Olaf had recently produced two of her favorite musicals (she learned about this during our campus tour). So, yes, no need to overthink this, just show a bit of your personality.
Can anybody tell if the 10-words limit includes the prompt? The form itself allows to input (and see in preview) even more than 10 words…
Nobody replied so far… But I do have the answer from admission: "I believe that you have 10 words in addition to the “Everyone knows…”
Hope somebody will see this
my daughter did not use the prompt in her answers. She just filled in the second half of the sentence ( she was accepted last week so I guess that was okay! 
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My sincere congratulations to your D and you!
We’re still waiting for the decision on Feb.1