Hmm, I was replying about the Why Us, which another brought up. And fwiw, I agree wholeheartedly with JBStillFlying, starting with, “If the college is a good fit, then one can nail the Why XYZ University essay with little difficulty.” But I defer to the UChicago experts re: the Uncommon Essay.
And I suppose ideas about standing out for “interesting ideas,” othern than this particular challenge, would lead to debate. First task is to “stand out” for matching, something many kids find difficult to present. Hence, my nag to learn all you can about your targets. Etc. Etc.
I’ll add my 2 cents, since my daughter just went through the essay process and will be attending this Fall. Write your uncommon essay in a style that you are comfortable in writing and that you write well. My daughter spent her first few weeks trying to write a humorous and witty essay because that is what she thought would get her accepted into Chicago. After struggling with that, she realized that she didn’t need to be funny to write an awesome essay. She ended up writing a fictional fantasy story that had a plot twist in the end that involved herself. This adventure story filled with descriptive language is the type of writing that my daughter has always done well… and I’m biased because I’m her mom, but it was an amazing essay.
Don’t be afraid to take a chance on your uncommon essay - just make sure you are writing something that you enjoy writing and shows your personality - whether it be wacky, scientific, witty, serious or fantastical.
A plot twist at the end is a classic literary device and can work well if it relates back to the body of work. If it doesn’t, well it comes off poorly. DD had the same type of essay, except it was more of a witty funny essay with the point not apparent until the last sentence where it tied it all together (yes I am also biased). It was also the only essay I had no input to, nada. Didn’t even get to edit.
This bodes an interesting question. Do talented writers have a better chance of admission at top schools (as apposed to other academic talents)?
That’s an interesting speculation, @cue123 . Writing skills are essential to success at any school but especially one like the U of C. So it makes intuitive sense that thoughtful young writers would have an edge. The historic emphasis on the UnCommon Essay and the famously idiosyncratic and thought-inducing topoi for those essays must also be telegraphing this. If you’ve got those chops you might as well demonstrate them. My hunch is that it could make the difference if your other metrics and qualities are at least sufficient to get you to the final cut but not enough in themselves to push you over the top. As @JHS says, there’s probably quite a large number in that category, especially the many unhooked but studious types. The reports of the parents and current students above seem to bear out the surmise that good essays could have made the difference in their cases.
I do in part, however, agree with @lookingforward if she is saying that the readers of these essays (especially the “Why UChicago” one) will be looking also for evidence that the writer has some knowledge of the educational culture of the University of Chicago and can convincingly show in the essay that he or she embraces that culture. Making that more pointed case will also bring one’s expressive skills into play.
All that said, I agree entirely that kids shouldn’t strain to say what is beyond them at this young age or, even worse, something contrived to please someone else’s expectation, whether real or only perceived. A great failing in young writers is ponderosity masquerading as thoughtfulness. As a great poet once said, “look into thy heart and write.” If you have the stuff they want, they will see it, even if it’s a bit rough. Rough truthfulness beats smooth falseness every time.
Hum, Civ and Sosc can smooth out those rough edges. My D’s arts core was writing-intensive as well. It will be hard for anyone to graduate from UChicago w/o doing a whole lot of writing.
Being a talented writer has to help in the application process; after all, essays are considered a crucial component and it’s the best opportunity to let yourself do the “talking” (as opposed to letting your accomplishments - many of which will be shared by others - dictate for you). The stronger the writer, the better the opportunity to express your thoughts coherently. But writing isn’t everything, because sometimes those eloquently-expressed thoughts can be tired, repetitive, unoriginal or contrived, as several posts above have pointed out. So talented writing is probably helpful, but talented thinking seems crucial to a place like UChicago. Someone with an original idea but awkward expression might be able to polish that latter part up after a few courses with a heavy writing component. But someone with excellent writing skills who can’t break out of the thought-bubble may well have a strong distaste for having their ideas questioned or challenged. UChicago can become an exercise in frustration for them. The Uncommon Essay is the one opportunity to show a bit of “breakout” thinking. Doesn’t have to be a comfortable exercise by any means and they will hold you to a high standard. But it’s a standard that includes more than just writing talent.
Neither of my kids attempted to be witty or humorous with the Uncommon Essay.* Both are excellent analytical writers and that’s where they are most comfortable dwelling, although neither chose a prompt that led to an analytical piece. And neither thought this was an easy exercise, either. Each chose to write about familiar things, but the Uncommon prompts provided a new, fresh way of thinking, so they got to reflect and explore a bit, rather than prepare a pat answer to an expected question. My kids can go on and on about the standard “college’y” topics: why do your program of study, what do you plan to do with your education, what’s important to you/excites you/thrills you, how have you connected with others, etc. They had ready answers to those questions, and they were very good and thoughtful answers (says yet another biased parent). But the Uncommon prompts made them step back and think for a bit. They didn’t have ready answers. So it was a real exercise that stretched their minds. Whether that’s the primary motivation behind the Uncommon Essay in the first place, or whether UChicago Admissions simply enjoys asking slightly wacky questions just to see what happens, the outcome surely has to be that it becomes an exercise in thinking for a whole lot of applicants.
The style-content problem is almost as vexing as the mind-body one, but though there have been smooth and mellifluous wordsmiths with nothing of interest to say, I don’t call that good writing. And, similarly, promising thoughts that are shapelessly flung on to the page can’t be called products of an interesting mind. Cartesianism is a fallacy in either the writing life or the thinking one! (Check your Immanuel Kant on this.)
The question is, @Marlowe1 - if one is better in one thing than the other (style vs. content), which will more likely be forgiven in the admissions process? Just a guess here, but speculating that original but clumsily-worded essays might still win out over carefully crafted and predictable ones. Nevertheless, looking at this issue practically, UChicago is so selective that most, if not all, admitted are probably considered to be “good writers” by your definition.