<p>I am applying to u of chicago and since none of its essay topics speak to me i want to write my own, would "why smart people do stupid things" be a good one?</p>
<p>If you make a good essay out of it, then it’s a good idea. If you don’t, then it isn’t. Maybe that sounds sarcastic or glib, but I think that’s probably the long and the short of it. With nearly 20,000 essays in the pool, it will be very hard to find a topic that isn’t repeated many times. The execution of the essay probably matters more than the topic.</p>
<p>If that topic doesn’t work out for you, though, you could try to develop something along the lines of “Why Smart People Don’t Punctuate.” (That was intended to be sarcastic.)</p>
<p>Any topic works if you have an interesting and well executed approach.</p>