Is it okay for the supplemental essay for UChicago to be fictional? I am planning on doing the prompt “If there’s a limited amount of matter in the universe, how can Olive Garden (along with other restaurants and their concepts of food infinity) offer truly unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks?” and I have an idea of using a tear in the fabric of space - kinda like the one that was in Doctor Who - to explain where they get unlimited resources. I’m thinking of telling it from the perspective of a researcher originally involved in studying this phenomenon, as I think attempting to explore the physics of it would be unique and fun.
It probably sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I have it mostly figured out and I think I can pull it off in a way that makes it enjoyable and interesting.
I know UChicago says responses can be wacky/absurd, but I don’t know if this would be going too far, especially since this would be entirely fiction. I’m also concerned they might not like that it doesn’t really show much about me as a person, unlike the other essays I will be writing.
Any opinions, feedback, criticisms, etc. are welcome and appreciated.
“It probably sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I have it mostly figured out and I think I can pull it off in a way that makes it enjoyable and interesting.”
You’ve answered your own question.
Just a tip: don’t post or even share too many details online. You won’t want your unique idea copied in any way.
@85bears46 It won’t let me PM since I am a new member, and apparently PMs are for Junior+. Is there any other way to contact a moderator?
Edit: So the TOS says they don’t delete posts on request. Oh well, my essay will be much more complicated than what I provided, and I can always change it.
I should have thought about the fact that people would try and copy essay ideas
It could be odd enought to attract UChicago. But remember how hard it really is for hs kids to write good fiction. And yes, it somehow needs to tie you to your application. I think many hs kids see fiction as easier than the commitment of first person.
I like it, Riddler. You’ll be taking a chance, but something as original as that, if it works, will have your personality and talents written all over it, whether or not the pronoun “I” appears anywhere.
My advice would be that you concentrate on the humble arts of logic, progression, and even grammar in the elaboration of your concept. Don’t let the strangeness of it run away with the basics of effective English usage and narration. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (he of the “Ancient Mariner”) once had something to say about how imagination at its wildest needs to be tamed and yoked through syntax and idiom. I also suggest that you have your early drafts read by a trusted elder, and indeed that you write multiple drafts and be prepared to abandon your idea if it’s not working on the page. With something like that you’ll either strike out or hit it out of the park. Still, I like your chances.
Almost ANY essay can be well received if it is superbly done, and you get the right reader. The problem with being too whacky or bordering on being offensive or taking a stereotypical subject is that you are taking a chance on the type of reader you are getting that assesses your essay, and really, most teens are not that skilled in pulling off something unusual.
I have downright cringed when I’ve read some desperate attempts to stand out. I have a friend and an acquaintance in Admissions who says the same. So you have to nail it to get 5/5 in an off beat essay or it easily becomes a 2. A well written essay that gives the reader some insight about you, that’s interesting to read can more easily get a 4 and not likely to go to a 2. The vast majority of essays, by statistical definition are 3s.
It’s hard NOT to give the admissions officer reading the wacky essay insight into the reader. That insight might be something as simple as: “wow,” or “ugh.”
There’s a ton of advice out there on how to write the Uncommon Essay, but I’d stick with what’s offered on UChicago’s blog and admissions website. Essay Option #6 probably says everything you need to know about how to do the Uncommon Essay. You don’t even need to pick past prompts - the advice applies to all of them:
[Essay Option 6
“Don’t be afraid to pick past prompts! I liked some of the ones from previous years more than those made newly available for my year. Also, don’t worry about the ‘correct’ way to interpret a question. If there exists a correct way to interpret the prompt I chose, it certainly was not my answer.”
—Matthew Lohrs, Class of 2023
In the spirit of adventurous inquiry (and with the encouragement of one of our current students!) choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun!]
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet: Essay #1: “Why UChicago” will be just as important to your application as the Uncommon Essay will be.
Hello! Not sure if you are still looking at this but just wanted to jump in and say that I am an incoming student at UChicago (class of 2023!) and I wrote a fictional story for my uncommon essay! I chose the prompt to write a story about any path road or street, real or imagined or metaphorical. I wrote a story about a cabin in the woods, a blueberry path, and a little girl. I put in lots of emotional meaning, and it actually helped me deal with emotions going on in my life at the time. When I was writing it, I was also worried it was too crazy, but you shouldn’t be. My favorite advice about the uncommon essay is that they want the crazy idea that popped into your head at midnight right before you were about to fall asleep (but don’t actually write it then haha).
Personally I view the Why UChicago as a depth/level of interest.
Top level, superficial - UChicago is in a great city and has a nice campus
Next level, minor depth- UChicago fits with what I want to major in (e.g. physics and gravitational waves which UChicago is part of a research program I am interested in)
Next level - more depth - interested in a specific professors/courses that I have already studied/done research in and want to continue that research at UChicago
Last level - immersed - I have already worked with a particular professor doing research in a particular area at UChicago and want to continue this research at UChicago.
The “something relevant” would be a showing that you can think for yourself, take a different path, and make it all stick with your powers of expression. When you’re making the pitch in this league you don’t want to leave anything on the field. Don’t be afraid to throw the high heater!
A famously basic rule in fiction-writing is “Show, don’t tell.” That would make a pretty good maxim to follow in any form of persuasive writing, but all the more so when your reader has read hundreds of essays beginning, “I am a very creative person…” Beware all such reflexive assertions lest you join the company of the Cretan who proclaimed that “All Cretans are liars.”
I think that’s good strategy even for the “Why Chicago?” essay. Long years ago I wrote about an uncle of mine, whom I both admired and saw as a cautionary tale - in that for lack of the kind of education I thought he could have got at Chicago (described as I understood it) his very real talents and longings were squandered and degenerated into mere eccentricity. I said very little about myself. That seemed to work - they let me in.
It is always a freeing thing to get outside yourself. Yet the paradox, known to all writers, is that that’s how you find yourself. As a great American poet once said, “The writer’s effort should be to conceal his individuality and personality - but of course only those with individuality and personality know what it means to want to transcend those things.”
Beware concealing so much of yourself that these essays don’t show you, the applicant.
@CU123 No top college wants to be confued with it’s city location. And notice that your other examples all focus on studies- and some of which can just be looked up. Top colleges like to think you noticed more about the community, as well. That you know the college well enough to pick more than major or prof names.
And “show, not tell,” works differently with fiction than its purpose in college app writing. Here, it means the right examples where adcoms can see and believe the writing, not just have to take you on your word.
If the college is a good fit, then one can nail the Why XYZ University essay with little difficulty. Having an understanding of the culture and educational environment will provide a lot more depth than mentioning something that can easily be had elsewhere. UChicago isn’t alone in offering a top-notch major or a Core curriculum or a liberal arts education. But it might be distinct in how it provides those things. Unlock that door, and you will have a roomful of great ideas to work with.
The Uncommon Essay is different. There is no secret door with a special key. They offer a variety of options since they want to admit a variety of students. The artsy-creative, the visionary, the quasi-thesis . . . . it’s all good. That’s why you should pick a topic that interests you - or make up one of your own. The only possible hint here is that if you are replicating one of your “Look At Me” essays from another college application, you should probably change tack. Take a risk, and dare to submit something that’s really different.
There is also this blunt truth: these essays must be simply very good as artifacts, regardless of content. They should of course be grammatically correct, but that’s just the beginning: they must show a lively mind thinking interestingly about the subject, whatever it is. A whiff of the perfunctory or the hackneyed will be fatal. That is why it’s so important to write the Uncommon Essay on something that matters to you and why you need to look into your own heart and really think about what a Chicago education might mean in writing the UChicago essay. In those few words you’ve got to show you have the royal jelly Chicago-style. As George Orwell says in another context, be prepared to throw away all advice - even that being dispensed here - rather than write dully.
@lookingforward I’m giving the very basics here in how to write a UChicago essay for those who don’t know where to start. there are certainly many ways to get the point across.
For what it’s worth, I am strongly with marlowe1 on this one, and pretty strongly against lookingforward. In the simplest possible terms, the goal of the essay is to have the admissions reader think, “This is really interesting. I’d like to talk about it with the author.” Which is significantly different from “This seems like the resume of a pretty interesting person.”
As a 17-year-old or 18-year-old, it’s really hard to accomplish either task, but on the basis of resume it’s virtually impossible to stand out (presuming you aren’t an Olympic athlete or potential Nobel Peace Prize winner). The “accomplishments” of smart high school seniors tend to be pretty generic, when they are not largely fictional. But having interesting ideas, and being able to communicate them in a few paragraphs – that’s something a talented 17-year-old can do. And if they can do it, they can stand out from the pack, because honestly most 17-year-olds aren’t capable of that – even some who get admitted to Chicago maybe on the basis of their resumes, recommendations, and stats.
