<p>Xiggi, do you know what the ranking was in the years 2003, 2004, & 2005? From the info you posted, it looked like the ranking was #9 in 2002, fell in subsequent years, and that the drop was determined to be in the way Chicago reported and US News evaluated financial info – Chicago changed the way it did its accounting, and in 2006 it s restored to the same spot it had in 2002. </p>
<p>None of which has anything to do with academic quality or admission rates.</p>
<p>Actually, Chicago usually gives applicants at least one experiential option. (“How did you get caught?” “What is your perfect place?”) There seems to be a formula to its choice of prompts: One Zen koan, one personal/experiential, one non-experiential, and one that’s math-y. What it doesn’t give people is an excuse to repeat their resumes.</p>
<p>OK, I finally got that wayback link Xiggi gave to work. Looks like Chicago was ranked #6 back in 1983, dropped below top 10 in 1996-2000 and again from 2003-2006. We know historically that US News made significant changes to its algorithm around 2000, when CalTech managed to jump from #9 to #1 spot, which didn’t please the powers that be, so they fudged with their system to produce the desired Ivies-on-top result for the following year. I’d note that US News has already demonstrated that it will simply change its system if and when the top 3 schools are anything other than Ivy League, and Chicago by definition can never be Ivy League.</p>
<p>I’d argue that “What is your perfect place” calls for ideas rather than experiences… but it doesn’t really matter. Another way of looking at it is simply that Chicago’s essay prompts suggest an anything-goes approach as far as topic, but also suggest that they would like some sort of reasoning to be expressed in the response. It would be hard to answer the “perfect place” or “how did” prompts without expressing a set of reasons to explain the answer. </p>
<p>But then again, as I noted above, my daughter apparently interpreted the set of prompts as meaning “anything goes. surprise us.” which is just as valid a way of looking at them.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to start a different thread on essay topics or short answers that successful applicants wrote that left their parents aghast. (I was amused by my d’s Chicago submission, but I honestly didn’t know whether the ad com would feel the same way – I expected that they would either love it or hate it, and respond accordingly).</p>
<p>I did think that the much referenced big mustard jar prompt was meant to elicit an essay that was about the applicant.
I don’t recall what prompt my S responded to, but I remember his essay was about moving away from an early interest in math and science (he did not take AP classes in any of these subjects!) to becoming interested in what makes people tick. Although written in a very different style than the one for Wes, it basically highlighted the same aspects of his personality.</p>
<p>I was quite surprised by how the Chicago prompt brought out an ability to handle ideas that I had not previously seen in S1’s writing. All three of his Chicago essays, the why Chicago?, favorite things, and extended essay were some of the best pieces of writing he ever did up until that time. The former dean repeatedly said they were interested in seeing how prospective students handled ideas. This will indeed tell a great deal about a student, particularly one who may join Chicago’s environment of inquiry. He would say he wanted students for whom words are important. There is no reason to believe this has changed. I also believe most applicants realize this and do stress about it, and thus occasioning the currents dean’s action. Whether or not it worked as hoped has been the subject of considerable discussion here and elsewhere. :)</p>
<p>Xiggi,
My older S (now a second year at Chicago) wrote his own prompt.
S2 (just accepted EA) actually wrote essays for TWO of the Chicago prompts – Caught was was his main CA essay, and ‘something you grew out of’ was his main Chicago essay.</p>
<p>idad – there are five essays if one writes the Optional…two on Common App, three for Chicago.</p>
<p>I think mathmom made a good point. The “make up your own prompt” allows the applicant to recycle an essay from another application or showcase an essay that might have been written for an English class of which the applicant might be particularly proud. U of C tends to attract students who enjoy writing. Doesn’t seem unusual to me that a student would like to write their own prompt in order to reuse an essay.</p>
<p>So, xiggi, your whole point is that you feel … sorry for Chicago because IYO, their prompts cost them brownie points in the measures that make up USNWR and they are “only” in the top 10, the poor dears?</p>
<p>Boy, am I glad my son didn’t get the “How did I get caught” prompt! His Chicago essays were risky enough (in my opinion)…</p>
<p>He could’ve entitled it: How my Mom got her CC handle.:)</p>
<p>People took that “How did you get caught” prompt in interesting ways. My son used his Georgetown essay, (which described himself as a developer showing off a green building), then tacked on at the end “and then I turn to you and say, ‘So did you catch me?’” I thought it was pretty clever, but wasn’t sure the readers would get the joke. I guess they did, or else they liked the rest of his application which was also a bit cheeky. Another accepted kid wrote about the different ways to be caught between people on a subway ride. I think the kid who wrote about pulling the fire alarm and learned a big lesson, is less likely to get the nod.</p>
<p>MOWC-LOL! (10 char)</p>
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<p>Pizzagirl, if you were not trying so darn hard to find a negative slant in most posts, you might be able to understand the point or the opinion expressed.</p>
<p>I’m a current third year. I was split between two different essay choices (back when it was the uncommon app) so I decided instead to write my own. I came up with an oddball idea of what to write about, something that was definitely indicative of who I am today but not anything that the college counselor could glean from my application: I spent almost as much time in a car as a child as I did outside of a car, as both my sister and I played traveling soccer from the age of 6 and traveled across the U.S. to compete. So I wrote a prompt along the following lines (I don’t remember it exactly):</p>
<p>Cecil B. DeMille said, “Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.” Describe the creativity that consumes your life.</p>
<p>And then I wrote about a game my dad and I would play in the car, a game we called deeps timil (speed limit backwards). For hours on end we would read signs backwards (sneerglaw, tramk, seebelppa) and have a blast with it (at the same time annoying my mother to no end). I then tied that into the way I tackle a particularly difficult problem today, for if something is seemingly unanswerable, I try to look at it from a different angle. </p>
<p>It was a cool essay that I didn’t use for anything other than UChicago’s prompt, but it was something that I was proud of. Yes, it was “risky” writing my own prompt-- who knew what the admissions counselors would like?-- but it was a better choice for me to create my own rather than force myself to answer a prompt I wasn’t quite comfortable with. I know it is nice to have that fifth open-ended prompt for students who might be overwhelmed with applications and thankful for a chance to recycle a prompt, but I think it would be unwise for a prospective student not to tweak their pre-written essay to something more UChicago-y in style. The school creates these four prompts because they like to read something interesting and unique, not as a form of punishment. Using an essay previously written is fine as long as it demonstrates something that the admissions counselor doesn’t already know about you from your app or other essays. Also, be sure not to make it too transparent that you’re using Yale’s or Northwestern’s essay. Admissions counselors tend to be aware of other colleges’ essay prompts!</p>
<p>calmom – Of course you are right that responding to the Chicago prompts without actually addressing ideas is pretty hard. I think that’s one of the reasons they do them. But – like everyone else – they are perfectly happy to hear you discuss ideas in the context of your own experience.</p>
<p>I was wrong, by the way, to put “How did you get caught?” unambiguously in the personal-experience column, since that was this year’s Zen koan entry (although obviously it suggested more personal discussion than the one about mustard or “Play what’s not there” of a few years ago). The clearly personal choice this year was (effectively) “What have you outgrown?” The mathy ones often invite the personal, too: If you were a function, what would you be?, or Discuss games.</p>
<p>I am often dismayed, reading students’ posts here on CC, at how clueless many of them are about what application essays are for. I think the Chicago prompts try to get them to focus on theme and structure, and away from cliche, but judging from what kids say on the forums here they are at best only partially successful at that.</p>
<p>Well, all this confirms that neither of my kids are going to apply to UChicago. D in particular, who is very concrete, would not fare well with those prompts, at all. However, unlike others on this thread, I don’t have to dis UChicago’s essay prompts in the process. Plenty of fish in the sea for all of our kids. I don’t see the need to “critique” Chicago’s essay prompts any more than I see the need to critique BYU for being Mormon or Wheaton for being evangelical Christian. Not our style, ok, carry on. The emotion evoked by Chicago is … something else.</p>
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<p>I don’t know, I see examples of some places routinely being “critiqued” for what they are.
I am not particularly familiar with any of theses schools but it seems that it is okay to “critique” some schools, yes, including BYU, and I would add possibly Princeton, and definitely Dartmouth and Washington & Lee, but others like University of Chicago seem to have some sort of “holy cow” status.</p>
<p><<<< gonna pop a fresh pot of popcorn and grab a ringside seat>>>>></p>
<p>Not for me…I have a doctor appointment in an hour. I’ll check back later though! :)</p>