#TopTipThursday: Keep an eye out for colleges' release of essay prompts!
- elanadvising
- Jun 4, 2015
- 3 min read
All high school students know the importance of SUMMER--it's the time to celebrate another school year's worth of achievements and hard work, and to finally get to relax a little and UNWIND.
That being said, there's no rest for the truly ambitious: for those rising Seniors (and even Juniors) who wish to keep ahead of the game, summer is also the time when many colleges release their supplemental essay prompts for, for example, the Common App (which released their revised essay prompts for 2015-2016 in March).
Tip: Keep an eye out for your favorite colleges' announcements of their supplemental essay prompts! Once they're released, print them out, set them aside in a designated space, and jot down ideas whenever they come to you. You get the benefits of starting early, as well as thinking about them with less pressure.
Today, the University of Chicago, famous for always having out-of-the-box--if not wholly box-obliterating--essay prompts, released their supplemental questions for the 2015-2016 applications season:
2015-16 UChicago Supplement:
Question 1 (Required):
How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.
Question 2 (Optional):
Share with us a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, blogs, magazines, or newspapers. Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own.
Extended Essay Questions:
(Required; Choose one)
Essay Option 1.
Orange is the new black, fifty’s the new thirty, comedy is the new rock ‘n’ roll, ____ is the new ____. What’s in, what’s out, and why is it being replaced? —Inspired by Payton Weidenbacher, Class of 2015
Essay Option 2.
“I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.” –Maxine Hong Kingston. What paradoxes do you live with? —Inspired by Danna Shen, Class of 2019
Essay Option 3.
Joan of Arkansas. Queen Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Babe Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mash up a historical figure with a new time period, environment, location, or occupation, and tell us their story. —Inspired by Drew Donaldson, Class of 2016
Essay Option 4.
“Art is either plagiarism or revolution.” –Paul Gauguin. What is your “art”? Is it plagiarism or revolution? —Inspired by Kaitlyn Shen, Class of 2018.
Essay Option 5.
Rerhceseras say it’s siltl plisbsoe to raed txet wtih olny the frist and lsat ltteres in palce. This is beaucse the hamun mnid can fnid oderr in dorsdier. Give us your best example of finding order in disorder. (For your reader’s sake, please use full sentences with conventional spelling). —Also inspired by Payton Weidenbacher, Class of 2015. Payton is extra-inspirational this year!
Essay Option 6.
In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose a question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful, then you should have little trouble writing a great essay. 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.
Essay Option 7.
In the spirit of historically adventurous inquiry, to celebrate the University of Chicago’s 125th anniversary, please feel free to select from any of our past essay questions.
Isn't it sweet that U of Chicago used their current students as inspiration? Our fave is Essay Option 1.
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