<p>For all RDers, we should all take this to heart; no one is perfect in writing essays. This essay clearly has flaws such as the fact that there are no specifics. Yet, his engaging tone, his flow, his creativity, was a factor in him being accepted. Our essays are no different; I guarantee you mine has several errors that could be remedied. Yet, even though we take the best steps to fix them, we, as human, will still have flawed essays. My point is, your essays, while maybe not as creative, will still be very very well written, provided you put all your effort into them. So don’t sweat it! Do the best you can in your own normal tone and voice, give them to people to give constructive criticism and I guarantee you, your essays will be very very well written.</p>
<p>@lyc0r1s - remember, he also had two extended essays plus the optional “favorite books” short answer. Plenty of space to talk about himself. The little plea to look past his, well, past was undoubtedly a reference that would be apparent if we had the rest of the app with us.</p>
<p>@Citizen - not so much research as an intuitive understanding of the school, I think. The little references.</p>
<p>I must say…it puts my Why UChicago essay to shame, that’s for sure. Of course, a piece of paper with feces smeared on it probably puts my Why UChicago essay to shame, so that’s not saying much I guess.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether it’s a good essay or not (which I think it is, not perfect obviously but good), I don’t think he should have sent it so close to the deadline. Only serves to create added stress for applicants who may have had similarly-styled essays. Yes it could help to jumpstart the creative juices in some people but again their inspired essays may closely resemble this one and I believe it’s too close to the deadline to have any positive effect anyway.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Delete this:
“The intimacy was akin to that of scholar and original text, your depth as a person is astounding! To be honest, I must confess I had already dreamt of a rosy future together, one filled with late nights and long discussions over the Gothic era and the ethical stage of Kierkegaard, we would watch the sunset together and spend every Christmas snuggled in blankets. Eventually we would get older, I would become a well-educated corporate lawyer and you would enrich yourself within the domain of human knowledge.”</p></li>
<li><p>Also, delete any reference to puns or mail, replacing those references with communicative methods used by X College/University.</p></li>
<li><p>Add a few similarly-toned, cohesive sentences about X College/University concerning the future of the relationship in the open area left by step 1.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>And boom, a generic “Why X College/University?” essay.</p>
<p>Honestly, if Rohan visited UChicago three times, I would expect more specifics. However, the style is excellent and consistent (although he needs to learn to use semicolons), the idea is refreshing if not original, and he at least seems very excited about UC. </p>
<p>Even if you use the same basis for your essay, I’m sure the adcoms won’t mind. I bet at least a few essays with similar structures landed in the admissions office this year alone; past years may have seen tens of essays along these lines. If you send in a strong, Chicago-specific essay, then there won’t be any need for comparison on their part or reason for you to worry about having plagiarized or stolen an idea.</p>
<p>DISCLAIMER: There are lots of people who could give better advice than I on this subject.</p>
<p>See? I totally disagree, which just goes to show how subjective all this essay-reading is. I personally like Rohan’s liberal use of the comma.</p>
<p>I will go ahead and try to allay some fears. My essay last year was structured the exact same way as a love letter. I am sure there are many many applicants who do the same thing, so just because you have the same idea as Rohan doesn’t mean you’ll get an automatic reject, guys.</p>
<p>I guess you’re right concerning the semicolons. I was probably expecting something more formal in appearance, but the commas suit the tone much better.</p>
<p>I know a lot of you were worried about writing similar essays in light of this, so I talked to Dean Nondorf about why he decided to send out the essay, and whether or not this has any ill effect on sending in similar responses. </p>
<p>He says,</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with sending similar essays (with our uncommon prompts, it is not “uncommon” to receive similar essays- it is expected- and that it does not reflect poorly on the applicant. For those writing with totally different styles and tones, I tried to point out at the end of the e-mail that this is just one example of a student response to the prompt.</p>
<p>Finally, please pass on a sincere apology if it did not hit the mark on my goal: to lighten the mood when students are stressed about essays. The most frequent questions I get are about the essays and the clear stress students feel in putting them together. Sending out Rohan’s response was an honest attempt to ease that stress without an ulterior motive – really.</p>
<p>Hopefully Dean Nondorf’s response can help with some of the fears many of you had after reading Rohan’s essay and realizing that yours were similar, or that you had also had a similar style in mind. Don’t worry about it! We sent out the essay to lighten the mood, but it seems that it might have backfired a bit. Feel free to respond to the question in any way- whether similar to Rohan’s response or in a form of your own- that you feel best represents you.</p>
Plenty of space to talk about himself. The little plea to look past his, well, past was undoubtedly a reference that would be apparent if we had the rest of the app with us.</p>