<p>Hi all. I was wondering how appropriate it is to use a Chicago essay as the personal statement on the Common App. I already applied EA, and I'm pretty sure that my essay sheds a lot of light on me and the way I think and that it would work alright as the personal statement, but I'm not sure how to go about doing it.</p>
<p>First, would colleges be offended at all or really care that I'm using an essay clearly intended for another school? (the only clear thing would be the prompt, though).</p>
<p>And second, I wrote the Picture essay. When I put the question at the top of my essay, should I include both parts of the prompt (including the part that talks about a book written by a Chicago professor), or just the part that says "Describe a picture and explore what it wants"? I'm afraid that if I do both, it'll be painfully obvious and perhaps not tactful, but I'm also worried about giving credit where credit is due if I were to rip the prompt off without putting it in its entirety, that could be bad as well. And it's not like putting in the first part would be the dead giveaway I'm sure the schools I'm applying to are well aware of the Chicago prompts for this year, so there really isn't anything to hide. But I just want to be tactful about this.</p>
<p>Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I would not re-use an essay for a specific topic from one college for another. If nothing else, it says "you are not my first choice" (whether this is your intention or not), and everyone wants a little love, including adcoms. If you really, really want to do this, you have to make an effort to "depersonalize" the essay to an extent where it is not traceable to UChicago. Just MO...</p>
<p>Can you fit the essay into one of the existing categories? for instance, i also wrote on the picture prompt, but it dealt with an international issue i am particularly passionate about (from a picture and chicago-ish i think, i didn't just do a typical commonapp essay). I'm putting it under the international issue prompt on the common app, so i don't have to write a prompt that might reveal the original prompt. maybe yours would work the same way?</p>
<p>Actually, I see now that it could work – it could fit under the fictional character, historical figure, or creative work. The essay is about a particular painting that has been in my parents' room since as long as I can remember. They might suspect stuff as I occasionally say what the picture wants (answering the question directly), but hey, it's better than posting Chicago's prompt. And I might even be able to de-emphasize that. Thanks guys!</p>
<p>As another user said a while ago (was it unalove?):</p>
<p>"DO NOT USE [UCHICAGO'S ESSAYS] FOR THE COMMON APP. DARTMOUTH, BROWN, YALE, DUKE, PRINCETON, AND NORTHWESTERN WILL ALL THINK THAT YOU'RE ON LSD."</p>
<p>I just searched for that phuriku, and she said that about prompt 4. She said that the picture essay could probably work as a common app one. But yeah, I see your point.</p>
<p>You're right GroovyGeek, it really shouldn't be that hard. I guess I'm just wary of messing with the essay, now that I'm done with it. But, again, you're right, and I'll do that.</p>
<p>I would think that you could twist the picture essay to where it could pass as a common app essay. But, if you chose something like #4, it'd have to be an incredible coincide to include four of those elements that coincided exactly with the U of C prompt.</p>