<p>I consider myself a good writer and a creative, imaginative person. I know a lot of students have trouble writing personal essays, but once I get going I seem to have no problem and all the other essays I'm writing are coming out the way I want them to. The problem? What ARE these Chicago prompts? I'm terrified. The extended essays seem ready to eat me in my sleep. I'm just looking for advice or company from anyone writing them. The questions are quirky. Do the answers have to be quirky too? I love quirky but I'm strongest elsewhere. Do you think it would be a bad idea to spin the prompts to make them more serious? I just don't want to write a humorous essay; it's a good idea for some people but not for me! Also, one to two pages is so vague. I know it's vague on purpose but... double spaced pages? Because that makes a huge difference! And does anyone know how much space we have for the first two prompts, the ones about UC and your favorite books? All advice/anecdotes appreciated. Sorry if this is out of place; does it belong in the UC thread? Thanks!</p>
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<p>Probably around 500 words, maybe a couple hundred more, but be as concise as possible.</p>
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<p>They both have 500-word maximums. This means exactly 500 words, because the Common App will cut you off if you write more than that.
But IMO they should both be shorter than that. They’re not extended essays.
(The extended essay, by the way, is uploaded in the form of a PDF file…not typed into a text box. So there’s no actual word limit, though there is a kilobyte limit for the file you upload.)</p>
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<p>Your ideas should be reasonably original, and you shouldn’t be boring or overly formal. But you don’t need to (and probably shouldn’t) write a weird-for-the-sake-of-weird hipster essay, if that’s what you’re asking.</p>
<p>I emailed them about the first 2 prompts, and it’s around 250 for each. For the crazy prompt, you can write however you want, that’s how UChicago stresses it, and how the kids on this forum will. Now whether being dead serious is just as strong as creative/quirky, I’m not sure, but you just have to pick the writing style you are the best at.</p>
<p>Did you not know what you were getting yourself into?
I think UChi is looking for students who have no fear of their essays and eat the essay prompts in THEIR sleep. Don’t be afraid of anything. Be fearless. The point of the essays are to learn about you as a person and you should utilize them in anyway you desire, whether that be humorous or serious.</p>
<p>“The University of Chicago has long been renowned for its provocative essay questions. We think of them as an opportunity for students to tell us about themselves, their tastes, and their ambitions. They can be approached with utter seriousness, complete fancy, or something in between.” </p>
<p>I would keep the first two between 250-400 words. And I believe the extended essay is a maximum of two pages double-spaced.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, you’re right I’m panicking. Does anyone have an specific approaches they took that they’d like to share? I don’t want to write a dead serious essay, but I want it to say something about me and I don’t know, relate to my life in some way. There’s a lot I want to tell UChicago that isn’t quirky, but it’s interesting.</p>
<p>I wrote mine in the form of a short story…it’s not directly about me or my experiences, but it’s about me on some level and it works as an essay even if they don’t realize it.</p>
<p>Can anyone please help me with the last essay prompt.“In the spirit of adventurous inquiry…”.Any help would be appreciated.Thanks.</p>
<p>My kid mulled her answers for a few weeks before settling down to do much writing. And she abandoned the original prompt she wanted to write on because she just couldn’t craft a good essay about it. For what it is worth, there also always seems to be one prompt a ton of people gravitate to. Last year it was “Where’s Waldo?”. She did NOT write on that prompt (never meant to).</p>
<p>Her essay was not especially quirky. She picked a prompt on the meaning of silence and wrote an essay about experiences in a classroom with a teacher who started the semester with a Latin quote about silence, and how it affected her participation for the rest of the semester. She had some specific incidents & anecdotes, and also talked about her own approach to learning and the classroom that may have been telling to U of Chicago about how she would respond in their environment. She was admitted EA in spite of an only okay GPA and no hook (except great test scores).</p>
<p>For her, taking the prompts and just mulling over the way the concepts touched on her life and experiences finally gave her the idea for her essay. But it was not an “Aha!” right when she read the prompts. They want you to think deeply and have your own story to tell, IMHO.</p>