<p>My essay for the prompt: “At present you need to live the question.”, according to teachers who have read it, is extremely good; like, beyond good (and its only 3/4 done). </p>
<p>My problem is only that it is not really “creative”. It’s not about beans, underwear, or ice cream. It’s more of a philosophical essay with a serious tone.</p>
<p>I’m starting to feel lost (being rejected from Stanford [1st choice school] ED today) and I feel that UChicago (2nd choice) will not like this essay because of its lack of creativity.</p>
<p>I’m not an expert on UChicago (seeing as I don’t even know if I got in yet) but my take on it is you should be true to who you are. They don’t only want essays about ice cream and beans. They would welcome a serious philosophical essay on the topic, as long as your personality shines through and you are telling them something with your essay. The essay is nto about being as wacky as possibly, it’s about answering the prompt in the way that best seems fit. If you write an essay in a way that’s not you, that’s going to show in what you write and you have less of a chance of being accepted. And if you’re not accepted with what you right, it’s not the end of the world (even though it may seem like it) and I’m sure you’ll get in somewhere else that is perhaps a better fit and that you can be just as happy at as you would have at Stanford or Chicago.</p>
<p>I am curious what pushes you towards Chicago in the first place, to me it seems fairly different then how I would imagine Stanford.</p>
<p>Keep in mind my word’s not law, or anything close to it. Unalove or someone else might have much better advice to offer you then I did.</p>
<p>Whatever you write says something to Chicago about who you are and how you think. S’s essays were great, but not particularly creative or wacky. They very much reflected who he is, however, and that’s what came shining through.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people here (meaning Chicago, not CC) that have written serious philosophical things. I think it would be a mistake to assume that the tone of your response and the tone of the question has to be the same. They ask you a weird question to trigger a response from YOU. YOUR RESPONSE to that question is what’s interesting.</p>
<p>And if you write something philosophical, then they’ll know you’re the kind of person who likes to think deeply. That’s a good thing, particularly for Chicago.</p>
<p>My own essay was very, very ,very normal and true to life, and I took one of the more bizarre prompts from my year to write it.</p>
<p>If what you are is a solid, serious thinker, write solid, serious essays. </p>
<p>There is room for lots of different types in academia, and academia wants them all. While I appreciate Richard Feynman and Chris Buckley (two different varieties of wacky/creative) as much as the next guy, a university populated entirely with their clones would be a monkey house. And nothing makes a bigger thud upon landing than a non-comedian trying to be funny. </p>
<p>Be true to yourself and your strengths. Really, that’s plenty good enough; that’s great.</p>
<p>So, does that whole thing, “you need to write your essay in some way that the admissions officer will remember you” not apply as much to UChicago?</p>
<p>I don’t really have a definite answer as to why I want to go to Chicago. I haven’t even visited the campus (that’s probably a really bad thing). There’s just something attractive about it.</p>
<p>My suggestion would be to try to apply some words and thoughts to that “something.” Try to peel back your ambitions to go to a prestigious school (if you have them) and tell yourself, “I could apply to about 4,000 different colleges in the country. Why am I applying to THIS ONE?”</p>
<p>I’m sure the Chicago adcoms have similar questions of you. They want to know why you want to go to Chicago and what appeals to you about Chicago specifically. This doesn’t mean that Chicago has to be your super-duper first choice and you write love letters to it every night, but it does mean you should put some serious thought into why you think you might belong here. It’s important for the application, but it’s also important for you as a person to have a grip on that.</p>
<p>i asked a similar question before. the response i got, which i’ve tried to apply to all of my college essays was this: “whatever you write, you should be able to look at it and go ‘yeah…that’s badass.’” if you can do that, you’ll be ok.</p>
<p>Ok, I’m contrasting my writing. My main essay has a serious tone, but my “How does the University of Chicago, satisfy…?” piece is much more lively, almost as if it were written thoughts.</p>