<p>The latter two essays are definitely not supposed to only be 1/2 paragraph long. They are legit essays. My last one was actually 2.5 pages…</p>
<p>I meant 1 or 2 paragraphs, not 0.5 if that wasn’t clear. And yeah, that’s the recommended length. There is no hard limit, of course, for any of the UofC essays, but that’s what you should aim for.</p>
<p>From the commonapp instructions:</p>
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<p>The only gimmick in that vain that has ever worked was on the Oxford All Souls’ famous “One Word Exam” in which the candidates are given one word to write an essay on. Anyway story goes that one year it one of the words was “courage” legend has it that one of the candidates just wrote “This” handed in his paper and walked off.</p>
<p>wow…very interesting essay prompts this year…esp question1 find x. haha. =)</p>
<p>the 5th essay option of creating your own question is still valid right?</p>
<p>Yes, it is. But if you talk to adcoms, they say that it should be a really good prompt (aka not one that another college would use) for you to use it.</p>
<p>^ Yeah, they don’t want you to take advantage of their flexibility by just copy and pasting an essay for another school. I would also add that it better be creative, and not just something random that another college wouldn’t use, because you want to show that you’re not choosing the 5th option because you can’t think of anything to write for the other 4 questions, but that you just knew you could write a much better one in response to your own question.</p>
<p>I think my topic is creative enough but who knows really. I’ll know in December.</p>
<p>Ambivalent!!!</p>
<p>Things are surging into my mind but all of them sound too cliched or too pretentious for UChicago!!! </p>
<p>Hopefully I’ll have something fixed before July!!! Option 1 and 2 are my favorites right now!</p>
<p>I really really like number 1. “Find x”. I already started pre writing on that one and i must say that its coming along pretty well… does anyone have any idea of an acceptable word limit on these? Im thinking under 600 (thats what these people did <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/164537-post-your-essay.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/164537-post-your-essay.html</a>) But there are some that cracked 1000. And Im guessing regular personal statements shouldnt be longer than uno pagina.</p>
<p>^uno pagina single spaced? I think you can definitely go a bit longer than that… it’s about 500 words right? 800 words is probably a good limit before you start getting wordy. You can almost always find something to cut, or even just wording to condense and… concise-ify before you hit 1000.</p>
<p>I definitely will be doing the first prompt. I love the amount of flexibility and creativity it offers and I just wrote a rough draft.</p>
<p>If I submit a picture to accompany my supplemental essay, will it be accepted or disregarded?</p>
<p>At first I looked at them and was like, ***? I have no idea! But then I looked at the Post your Essay thread and got excited to write something, and 3am in the morning and here we are. I did option 2 and mine’s about 780 words. It’s pretty rough and definitely needs some tightening up, but I’m fairly happy with its general shape. Haha that WAS fun.</p>
<p>The essay questions were what originally drew me to Chicago a year ago, and after various drafts of various prompts, I just made up my own (choice #5). I agree with everyone though that the prompts this year are great, I’m kind of jealous. Maybe I should apply to college again this year! (and for anyone wondering if their essay is too short based on the number of words, mine was 462 words last year, and I got in. If you’ve written what you needed to write, don’t write anything else.)</p>
<p>^ I did that last year for the CA essay - it worked. :D</p>
<p>But yeah, it took me MONTHS to push out an essay I was satisfied with last year (for Chicago - I finally picked the first prompt after a dozen drafts). Now I just read the prompts and I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to write about 3 days later. I’m jealous of everyone applying this year. :</p>
<p>Their prompts are really creative. I like prompts like these instead of the usual “describe an influential person” or “what book has changed your life.”</p>
<p>Would anyone who is admitted or a current student want to read my essay and give me some feedback on it?</p>