unalove

Maybe I should give a vague answer. :-P

But yes, it's vague for a reason. There are many ways in which a picture may "want" something, and part of why it's an interesting question is that there are many valid ways to interpret it.

dangnguyen

Yea, they're really important.

As for my essay, I used the same one as my common app essay; I wrote a narrative about my passion for music and how it has affected different parts of my life. The question wasn't very creative, but I thought it was definitely the best essay I've ever written.

erikjc

And were you accepted?

meow360

dangnguyen was indeed accepted. The prompts seem vague because they don't want cookie cutter responses. Chicago wants to see how you think. They can learn just as much about you by how you answer one of their prompts as they could if you talked directly about yourself.

gracello

I agree with meow- in fact, I think my "big essay" included only one sentence with an "I" statement in it. They want to read how you think and process and decide how to organize something through how the work actually comes together and is presented, not necessarily just through having you write "I'm like this, blah." Keep that in mind as well.