<p>Has someone who got in done this? I feel like the people sitting there reading mine would be smug and look down on me for not wanting to write about something useless like Waldo.</p>
<p>Both my DS and DD wrote to the pose your own question prompt and were accepted to UC. OTOH, they both flirted with several of the suggestions offered, too. Most recently DD was interested in both “Where’s Waldo” and “Past for a Present” prompts. They both liked the variety offered by UC and the fun they could have creating an essay around them. Ultimately, though, they both decided that they could best write about things that interested them and reflected their enthusiasms and personalities by asking their own questions.</p>
<p>Yeah, it’s fine - 70%+ of people write on the Where’s Waldo question (I did and got in, but still) and I’m sure the admit readers are getting just a liiiitle bit annoyed.</p>
<p>The only caveat is that your question should not be something that could have been an answer to a different essay. Chicago is really buthurt @ being a safety for top level schools for the past few decades and they really wanted to maintain their individuality, which is why they had quirky questions and until recently were not on the common app. If you pick a question that is common or you write an answer that they think was originally written for a harvard/princeton/yale/etc supplement, they <em>will</em> hold it against you.</p>
<p>My S wrote his own question and was accepted. To be honest, I loved his question more than I liked his essay (LOL). The question was amazing, the answer was risky. I teased him that I think he got accepted just so they can use his prompt in the future :)</p>
<p>Can you share the question (mommaof5)?</p>
<p>Sorry, he wouldn’t like that. If you ever see a future prompt with a quote from the movie “A Beautiful Mind” that was his. ;)</p>
<p>I’d imagine it’s far more important to produce a good piece of writing, whatever the topic or prompt. The Waldo question is meant to inspire an original, thoughtful response; for that, coming up with a question of your own doesn’t seem a bad place to start. You could write a really boring piece on Waldo or anything else in the world. But you could write something really compelling on anything, too.</p>
<p>Just a quick note on the issue of other essay questions: I know at least few people here who “made up” their own prompt to fit an essay they used for multiple applications. And I’m sure there are more (people don’t tend to talk about college applications very much once they’re in college). Admissions would probably frown on an obvious attempt to consolidate essays out of laziness–especially if that laziness is evident in the actual writing–but I doubt they’re as strict or perceptive about it as people on CC would generally make them out to be.</p>
<p>I created my own question, which I really liked. I don’t know if I liked my essay quite as much, but I think it at least shows who I am. <em>shrug</em> I’ve turned everything in, and now it’s time to wait…</p>
<p>go for it. I wrote my own question and just got accepted EA (And it was the most cerebral, least creative essay one could possibly think of… not bad, just not the typical creative UChicago fare). In fact, my essay WAS common, and exceedingly typical, but my passions showed through, which is why I was accepted.</p>
<p>mommaof5,</p>
<p>That was a fantastic movie! Perhaps he wrote about the speech at the award ceremony, about love. Maybe the scene in the bar where he has his epiphany about getting the blonde :O</p>
<p>Honestly, if you think that you can write a great essay with your prompt, and you listen to learning lover, then it should be fine.</p>