<p>@YellowDaisies, I am a current student as well in 2014, and for my favorite things essay, it was a very short, one-paragraph, 250 ish word essay. However, I totally missed the part where they said “one to two paragraphs” for why UChicago and wrote about two full pages…oops haha. But I think you are correct, and word counts are somewhat artificial and UChicago is looking more for creativity and skilled writing than meeting a 2 paragraph limit.</p>