I actually like the GT prompt in the sense that it pushes kids to get a little more creative and specific, something I struggled to get my kid to do. But WHOLLY eliminating factors like sports as options does seem a little harsh. There should be a happy medium.
Not an essay prompt, but the best interview question my daughter got, the one that really made her have to think was “why do you want to go to college?”
I dropped my Wisconsin - Madison app because it was a ridiculous length, and the questions were just things I looked at and went “ughhhh” - not me at all.
Georgetown
I decided not to apply to Pomona simply because of their essay prompt. It’s just too hard to write a compelling essay using the topic and I was already tired of writing essays.
@gearsstudio I did the exact same thing!! It hadn’t been my top school to begin with and seeing an essay prompt that was completely different from all my other supplements AND didn’t really ask me about myself as a person at all just completely put me off applying
My DS dropped one school because they require 3 Sat Subjects tests of homeschoolers but not anyone else. They wanted one in math, one in science and one other of applicants choice. He has a 5 in an AP chemistry, a 5 in AP Calc BC, a 5 in AP stats and a 4 in AP Comp Science as well as completed Multivariable Calc and Differential Equations… He is also enrolled in 4 AP classes this year. Nope they still wanted subject tests, AP classes and college courses aren’t acceptable. To take the tests he would have had to give up a day where he normally does his community volunteer work. The school lost and the volunteer work won. I can’t blame him for choosing not to jump through those hoops.
Every school that made it feel like it was a privilege for you to attend there (and by the way, pay full price).
Schools that obviously had their PR firms write their prompts so they could reuse quotes for marketing materials (aka tell us why you love us).
Early on in the college selection, I dropped MIT and Caltech because I didn’t want to write more SAT 2 subject tests. I’m glad I decided this, because later I realized I definitely wanted a more liberal education.
Dropped UChicago because of the weird essay prompts that wouldn’t fit anything I’d already written.
I dropped Princeton because of its 600 word supplement, which had a variety of needlessly convoluted prompt options. I’m assuming they designed it specifically to weed out the less-interested, and in my case, at least, they were successful.
It sounds like they’re “weeding out the less-interested” while simultaneously also eliminating those who prefer to find an efficient way to complete a task - much like the people who’d create computer scripts for repetitive tasks their bosses would give them to do on a computer, instead of doing it all by hand.