<p>Some college apps give you several short answers to do. Would it be clever and interesting to have a "theme" for your answers (ex. something related to biology, or how Disney has affected you in every applicable question), or would that just be bland, stupid, and one-dimensional?</p>
<p>How far should you go with humor? Admissions officers do want to see a sense of humor in applicants, but I don't know when to use it, especially when I'm answering a potentially serious question.</p>
<p>Ex. One of my short answer questions is, "Tomorrow, you're free to do whatever you want. What would you do?" And I'm really, really, really tempted to answer, "I wouldn't be doing this, that's for sure," but I'm not sure if that would be appropriate.</p>
<p>And last and silliest question of all, would adding a few emoticons in short answers and essays be creative, and show that you have a sense of humor and who you are (because I do use a lot of emoticons when chatting on Facebook), or would that just be unprofessional and detrimental?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I can’t comment on the short questions or emoticons, but regarding humor; if you’re the kind of person who regularly finds the humor in life, then humor would probably come naturally in your essay and it would probably work.</p>
<p>But if you try to use humor for the sake of having humor, it turn out to be humorless, or worse, contrived. </p>
<p>For me, a joke or two occasionally comes out in an essay. I don’t plan for it, and it doesn’t always work. But in some of the essays I’ve seen, the humor is generally pretty light. Don’t try to write a comedy routine.</p>
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Humor is fine, but not if you’re not naturally humorous. Don’t force it, just be yourself and express yourself as the real “you.”</p>
<p>Thank you guys for the tips on humor!</p>
<p>I don’t think I can say this for myself, but I suppose I am relatively funny, as well as a bit sarcastic. Would light sarcasm work, like my answer to the “what would you do on a free weekend” question above?</p>
<p>aslfsalkfjsalkdfsad So sorry, I’m just unbelievably slow with these things. >___></p>