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Colleges & Universities University of Chicago
801

<p>I applied Regular Decision…</p>

<p>Extended Essay Option Five</p>

<p>Prompt: Will one Paul Michael Finger be found esteemed in the eyes of the jury in regards to his admission to the venerable University of Chicago?
The scene unfolds upon a solemn, capacious courtroom teeming with an odd assortment of spectators murmuring among themselves. The audience is seated on raised stone benches whose rows stretch in infinitude to the shadows of the anteroom. Let it be noted that these shadows are not exclusive to the posterior: the entirety of the chamber is bathed in darkness, halfheartedly punctured by unlit torches periodically hung along the walls. The aisle to the head of the room is as wide and enticing as the proverbial path to Tartarus, and at its end lies the sweeping grand bench from whence the judge presides. Surrounding the judge are the twelve apostles (not including Mary Magdalen, who has not received a position of honor due to conspiratorial reasons pertaining to geometry), whose pugnacious behavior (Verily, who is the greatest?) has produced an aura of uneasiness over the proceedings.
An ambivalent man, whose valency is unknown (perhaps Francium), looms over the void, the soul shudd’ring vacuum.
CLERK: Order! (Torches flicker) Order in the courtroom. Let there be light. Disorder! (Crestfallen, the torches dim) Disorder in the courtroom. Let there be entropy. (Subtly covering the range of religious propensities)
A HERALD: The court will now hear the most grievous case against Paul Michael Finger, whose immortal soul is to be countenanced and judged. (Impressively) All rise as the judge leaves the room.
The Majestic One retires in procession, attended by Hyperborean maids and all vestiges of sanity. As mandated by the depiction of Justice, Mr. Finger is made to stand and is blindfolded to ensure impartiality. Out went the candle, and he was left darkling.
CLERK: The Prosecution will now commence. (Rapidly approaches the suspect and extracts a single penny from his vest pocket) Sir, mark me: your descent has begun.
AN IREFUL RABBI: Behold, a voice is heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning:
Paul weeping for his chances
And refusing to be comforted
Because they are no more.
ARISTOPHANES: (Rising from his seat in a fury) I have seen this aloof man haughtily suspended in a basket, wafting about and contemplating the sun. I demand an apology for this grave insolence.
THE STOCK JESTER OF THE COURT: Why, a veritable basket case! (General laughter – numerous bonnets precariously atop the heads of fashionable ladies threaten to fall and endanger the covenant responsible for the rainbow.)
CLERK: How do you account for this charge, Mr. Finger?
FINGER: Scio me nihil scire.
CLERK: Are there any present who wish to defend this detestable man?
LUTHER AND ZWINGLI: Brothers, cease this monstrosity. He is one of us, for I tell you, he denied transubstantiation and has condemned the thieving German peasants.
Enraged, murderous hordes of German peasants riot outside the confines of the room. Eventually, they entrench themselves in Zuccotti Park amid the sulfurous fumes of protest.
ERUDITE SCHOLARS: Say then, what is your interpretation of catharsis, O learned one? (Guffawing like vultures.)
ERUDITE PHARISEES: Furthermore, to whom does the quarter belong: Washington or God? (Guffawing like vultures.)
FINGER: Aristotle was a man of science; thus, I interpret catharsis as a word of medical nature. As for the latter, render unto Washington what is – (A rancorous cry is heard)
GUITEAU: (Wildly brandishing a Schofield revolver) I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts!
A masked Doktor Schnabel von Rom appears to subdue miasmatic Guiteau. A struggle. Pandemonium ensues. The aspiring vigilante fires once and once only, blasting a hole in the thatched roof of the courtroom through which a happy beam of sunlight pervades. This sudden ray underscores a certain androgynous figure lurking towards the bench, and the furtive advance of the being is foiled. All falls to the whim of attention.
CLERK: Who durst defy th’Omnipotent to arms?
AMERICAN CULTURE: (Thundering as if from Sinai) It is I.
CLERK: If thou beest he – but O how fallen, how changed!
AMERICAN CULTURE: Enough. I charge Mr. Finger on the account of salutary neglect – long have I waited for him to adore me amid baseball stadiums, political cynicism, manifest destiny, and apple pies steaming and inviting along idyllic window sills. I did it my way! How could he resist my sprawling national monuments and celebrity scandals as he made me feel the la la la la la? What for the pounding reverberations drowning the accentuated beat pouring across rhythmic lights and yellow noise and pressing of the crowd in the dance floor subway station the day the music died? (Foaming and livid) Ghoul! Chewer of corpses!
CLERK: (Nervously) Mr. Finger, how could you excuse such heinous behavior?
FINGER: (Said unto the former) Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. (Said unto the latter) Sir, I wish to call forth my attorney.
ATTORNEY: I object on the grounds that the witness is incompetent!
FINGER: Au contraire: I object on the grounds of hearsay.
HERE: (Indignantly in a pompous overcoat and rimmed spectacles) Say?
FINGER: I swear on my forefathers – (A snicker)
THUMB: (Smugly) As a rule of thumb, only one have you. (A rapt is gaveled)
CLERK: Mr. Finger, it befalls me to mediate your querulous antics with your neighbor. Certain rumors and rumorous certainty have it that you have resolved to become a writer of the literary disposition. Is this the truth?
CLINTON: (In the singular third) To be, or not to be? That is the disputation.
FINGER: It is clear, Theaetetus, that he who asserts the unity of being will find a difficulty in answering this or any other question.
THEAETETUS: Alas, it is all Greek to me.
CLERK: (Clears throat , daintily sniffs) I believe that we are poised to render a verdict. Jury?
SPOKESMAN OF THE JURY: An unfathomable tie, sir! Gordian in nature. Thirty-three times have we cast ballots, all to no avail. (All hang their heads: a hung jury)
CLERK: I am left with no choice: (Drawing Mr. Finger forward and presenting him to the eager maws of the audience; an evanescent hush) Gentiles and Jews: Idou ho Anthropos
ST. JEROME: (Wearily) O, be vulgar.
CLERK: As you are wont: (Spreads arms in a grandiose gesture) Ecce homo! (The crowd roars)
JEWS: Crucify him, crucify him!
ROMAN CATHOLICS: Canonize him, canonize him!
THE DIGITAL AGE: Minimize him, minimize him!
Softly, a faint “Dies irae! Dies illa solvet saeclum in favilla: teste David cum Sibylla.” echoes with finality. At Mr. Finger’s request, a c*ck is offered to Asclepius. The debt is paid.
CLERK: Lo, the day of reckoning is nigh (Somewhere a southern maid offers counsel: “I reckon.”) Offer this pitiable man his final condolences. (Motions to a cluster of sympathetic weeping mothers)
WEEPING MOTHER: (Offering a bounty of grapes) Pray, make allowance for our northern sun.
FINGER: (Sadly, with the culmination of misericordia in his shimmering eyes) Madame, I never eat muscatel grapes.
HIS FATE IS TO BE DECIDED</p>

<ul>
<li>His fate was to be waitlisted…</li>
</ul>

802

<p>I applied and was accepted RD!</p>

<p>Essay Option 3: Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote, “Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it.” Give us your guess.</p>

<p>The third thing is when you are living so fully, so vividly, so connected to your senses that you almost believe that you are dreaming. When you find your over-priced ticket stub disintegrating in your clenched, pump-fisting hand because you are so immersed in the experience delivered by your favorite rap artist. When your eyes animate as you walk through a seemingly impossible physics quandary with delicate ease. When, after a final smidgen of blue, the seemingly random paint strokes on your canvas reveal to you a masterpiece.
These moments exist as the products of our fleeting connections with the sensuous world. The sensuous world is the domain beyond the ordinary—beyond the mundane. Our connection with this place feels momentary only because it is a state beyond the realm of our understanding of time. It is ephemeral to us yet everlasting to our imaginations.
Why do these instances remain fixed in our minds? Well, because even after the concert’s pungent odor has worn off your jeans, you spend time lying between your sheets attempting to emotionally return to that night. You stroke your disheveled ticket stub at your work desk and nostalgically recall the origins of each of its discolorations. Sometimes, you step outside and the air’s stench immediately returns you to that performance.
Most people, forgetting the pleasure of this sensuous world, regard it as oblivion. Ironically, this alternate universe will bestow upon us the greatest moments of clarity we may experience in our entire lives.<br>
After completing that physics problem, you step into the world with a heightened understanding of the universe’s mathematical harmony. As other facets of your life slowly come undone and tangle, you recall your ability in masterfully conquering the question and it brings you comfort. Against the chaos of your everyday life, the simplicity of this logic provides you with some understanding of your existence.
Unfortunately, we have little contact with this world because we are too accustomed to our ordinary existences. We can usually predict our immediate futures. Alarm clock off. Breakfast on the stove. Showerhead pouring water onto scalp. Motorcycle waiting in the garage.<br>
These actions are so routine. They are monotonous. But we cannot simply renounce this behavior and forever explore our sensational desires. As mentioned before, we are too relaxed in our ordinariness. It would be rash, even, to overlook the comfort and stability that routine itself provides. Diving headfirst into the realm of sensory pleasures might be too much at once for our conventional lives.<br>
Fortunately for us, we can incorporate part of the sensuous world into our everyday existences. I conquer the bellowing alarm clock with my hand’s clumsy blow. My morning omelet softly whispers as each protein molecule embraces the pan’s scorching heat. The torrent of rain streaming from the showerhead reenacts an ancient rainforest ritual. The enormous metal insect waits snoring away in the garage.</p>

<p>These small enrichments of our everyday lives can help us slowly connect with the sensuous world and our imaginative minds. We can come to appreciate how profound the experience of existence is—from the seed to the flower to the disintegrating plant matter that fuels and fertilizes the life cycle.</p>

803

<p>^^Like. (10char)</p>

804

<p>Apply for transfer. </p>

<p>any thought about it?</p>

<p>Essay Option 1: What does Play-Doh have to do with Plato?</p>

<pre><code> The Monologue of a Chinese Rural Teacher
</code></pre>

<p>“Let there be light.” --Genesis 1:3</p>

<pre><code>When the boxes of donated Play-Doh arrived in this isolated village in northwestern China, they decorated the dark village with a colorful light. Play-Doh, the soft and iridescent toy invented in U.S with patent NO.6713624, seemed to come from a completely different world. The village is located deep inside the Asian Continent. The endless drought climate dries the rivers and cracks the soil. The sands resulting from decades of industrialization in Chinese Central Plateau cover the sky with darkness; agricultural activities are nearly impossible in this infertile region. Furthermore, the poverty and myopia of the people here is even more desperate. The isolated village has only one shabby road connecting it to a seemingly unreachable town. The peasants are trapped in this village from generation to generation, without even the incentive to explore the broader world outside; some of them do not even know what the capital of China is. They are like prisoners in a dark cave.

But there is hope. It comes from the children here and their learning potential. Only education can open the mysterious world outside to them, and only their knowledge, incentive, and curiosity can help them escape their elder generation’s fate. This hope was the reason why I chose to become a rural teacher here. My students are all around thirteen years old and are open to any change, unlike their elder’s generation. I taught them Newton’s Laws, the composition of molecules, and astronomy about the endless starry sky. I told them stories about Beijing, about college life, and about the things happen around the globe. I brought newspapers to them every week from the distant town. Although I could see the intellectual curiosity spark in their eyes, the lack of educational resources such as textbooks made the environment extremely difficult for my teaching. Donations are so rare to this remote region that I didn’t always get the books I needed to teach. Instead, I only received toys, like several boxes of used Play-Doh.

But later, these boxes of Play-Doh astonished me. When I distributed them to my students, I found, surprisingly, that these colorful toys from a completely different environment powerfully enlightened the children. This is a village under a heavily polluted, starless sky, but they moved beyond it by creating a space shuttle out of the Play-Doh. They live in an isolated region with poverty, but they used the Play-Doh to construct cars and skyscrapers. This is a barren and infertile land, but they made windmills and pastures out of the Play-Doh. From the Play-Doh, I saw a light shining in the classroom. The children’s living conditions are very difficult to change, but they could change whatever they wanted with the Play-Doh. The Play-Doh bore the creativity of the students. This creativity made the dark village full of colors, and made the desperate environment full of hope.
</code></pre>

<p>When the class ended, I recalled Plato’s famous allegory of the cave. A man is imprisoned in a dark cave and is forced to see only the reflection of the outside world behind him, which is shattered and unreal. Then he is taken by an unknown figure to the world outside the cave. In this world, he sees the real sunlight, the broad sky, and feels freedom. He then has a sense of responsibility to enlighten others imprisoned in the cave by the truth. Like all idealists, Plato believes that the conceptual world is real and perfect, whereas the physical world is merely a transitory reproduction of the “Real.”. He believes there must be mentors, like an array of sunlight, that enlighten the dark world with knowledge. In this village as dark and as desperate as a cave, the land is still infertile, the environment is still isolated, and the yellow sky is still filled with sand storms. But Play-Doh is like the mentor who brings the higher truth to the prisoners inside the cave: even a single piece of it can enlighten curiosity and ingrain hopes like a starry sky and pastures in the minds, </p>

<pre><code>Human beings do not inherit knowledge from their elder generations when they are born. The speed of our primary means of information communication, through sound waves, is very slow (1-10 bits/second). How does such an ineffective and primitive way of communication maintain the development of our high-level civilization, our knowledge passing, and our inventions? The answers are: education and creativity. In our species, there are some individuals that act as the passers-down of knowledge and the enlighteners of creativity. They are teachers like me, and the process is called “education.” In ancient Greece, both Socrates and Plato emphasized the importance and sanctity of education and creativity; they characterized them as the forces that bring people outside the cave. Both of them strived to enlighten the citizens of Athens: Socrates did so by ceaseless philosophical debates and questionings, and Plato did so by creating The Academia. Two thousand years later, on the infertile land deeply inside The Asian Continent, there is a toy called Play-Doh that, in the same way as Plato did, enlightens creativity and leads people to the broader world outside.
</code></pre>

<p>Time will pass. I will leave the village sooner or later, and Play-Doh will eventually become outdated. But there is a force that is perpetual. It is the force that brings people outside the cave, the force of enlightenment, the force of education, and the force of curiosity of the unknown. Plato and Play-Doh are only the forms in which the force incarnates itself. Although thousands of years have passed since Plato wrote his allegory, my students’ creativity inspired by this force is still like the first light of dawn that lights up the dark cave. </p>

<p>Let there be light.</p>

805

<p>@zhangvict</p>

<p>That was brilliant! No wonder you got accepted.</p>

806

<p>Reading some of these as I’m starting my UC essays, and my god. So many of these sound so impossibly intellectual. People are dropping names and concepts, some of which I’ve never heard of, and the writing is so elaborate. I noticed that for the first few pages at least, a lot of the essays take some philosophical concept and just run with it. Not a lot of people focused on one specific experience, which I actually expected would happen, because usually isn’t it better to be very specific to yourself rather than making huge general statements? Is this just a UC thing? When they ask for “quirky” and “fun” they mean this? I’m feeling really bad about my essay now ahhhhh</p>

807

<p>@psiovana: Your essay and you are flawless.</p>

<p>@yetanotherperson: I feel the same exact way as you do! My essay in comparison seems utterly mediocre and I feel lucky to have gotten in with this group of people! When I think of UChicago, I think of a love of learning and thinking outside of the box. Oftentimes, when one does think outside of the box, they can appear “quirky.” My advice to you is to just be yourself! Write the essay the way you want to instead of inserting something that isn’t entirely personal. If it’s your best effort and all your own personality, the admissions officers will like that more that you trying to be someone you’re not. Hope this helps and good luck!!</p>

808

<p>Are either of these quotes “original and thoughtful” enough for me to consider for part of my essay prompt? </p>

<p>“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy.” </p>

<p>“the word ‘intellectual,’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.”</p>

<p>I’m leaning toward the first one right now but I need all of the opinions I can get since this is probably the most important essay I’ve ever written.</p>

809

<p>^Yes, both of those are completely fine provided you can write a good essay in response to them.
Try to have writing the essays! If you do, it will really show through in your writing. :slight_smile: Good luck!</p>

810

<p>Just some advice for any applicants. </p>

<p>Your essays doesn’t need to talk about highly complicated matters or concepts. Nor does it have to be “out of the box crazy.” It doesn’t even have to sound brilliantly intellectual or philosophical or “weird.” </p>

<p>As long as you show UChicago who you are and show a fit for the school, your essay will do it job. Chances are, if you try to write in a way that you are not, it will be, plainly put, bad.</p>

<p>But on the flip side, don’t be afraid to challenge your writing with deep thoughts and sophistication. While it doesn’t have to be a contemplation on the fate of humanity, higher levels of thinking will be appreciated</p>

811

<p>Is anyone else really tempted to turn in a blank essay for option three this year? Do you think I would get accepted?</p>

812

<p>@kayvmg:
No, don’t do it, and no I do not think you would get accepted with that.</p>

813

<p>Any alumni/current students willing to correspond with me about my essay over messages ? Sorry y’all I don’t want to give away all my secrets ;)</p>

814

<p>@kayvmg
I had a similar thought with the reverse psychology prompt last year, if I was applying that year I would’ve just sent in an essay that read “Don’t accept me to UChicago”</p>

<p>I think it has the potential to ruin you, but it could also have the potential to make the admissions officer go “Wow, this kid has balls” and accept you. </p>

<p>If you do go ahead and take that chance, I’d make sure that your other essays are completely kick-ass.</p>

815

<p>I would definitely not do that.</p>

<p>The UChicago prompts are the unique, creative ones. They want to see how you can write and respond to such a topic in your own unique manner. While a blank essay is witty, it doesn’t show who you are and ultimately they may end up being insulted as well.</p>

816

<p>This thread needs a BUMP, it has helped me soo much even though the essay questions are different every year</p>

817

<p>@kayvmg: Write it in invisible ink instead. ;)</p>

818

<p>My essay is running a bit too long, because of a lot of dialogues. Most of the essays with convos/dialogues are a little longer in this thread. Should I be worried?</p>

819

<p>as long as it’s a good essay, don’t worry about it!</p>

820

<p>Hello CC members,
I’m totaly new in this forum and I’m very glad to see something like this. I need your help, I and hope that you will answer me. I hope that I will be a freshmen student in the USA next year, and here is my first draft SAT essay I wrote after my preparation. Please, provide me with some advices and tell me what do you think about. So, here is the topic:
Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.
People’s lives are the result of the choices they make—or fail to make. The path one takes in life
is not arbitrary. Choices and their consequences determine the course of every person’s life. All
people, whatever their circumstances, make the choices on which their lives depend.
Assignment: Are people’s lives the result of the choices they make? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your
point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading,
studies, experience, or observations.</p>

<p>here is my essay
I hold a strong positive opinion on the statement that peoples’s lives are, indeed, the result of the choices they make. These choices represent their personality and beliefs. The decisions people take reflect their will and what they are fighting for.
A peculiar example is Bethany Hamilton, a young American proffesional surfer, famous for surviving a shark attack, at the age of thirteen, that took her left arm and almost cost her life. In spite of the circumstances,she was determined to return to surfing, because that was the choice she has made. She could have changed her mind after the incident, but she stayed still, no matter. This choice was a crucial one in the girl’s life and the future. We can almost say that it gave her the strenght she needed and in just a mouth, she managed to get on the board again and even won the first prize on an International surfying competition.
Another bright example for my previously stated thesis is Amelia Erhart, perhaps the most famous aviatrix in history. When she was young she made a choice- she decided to become one of the very first female pilots in history. This choice led her through the path of becoming one of the America’s most prominent figures, who was a great inspiration for the society, especially for women. She saved money from various jobs she worked in order to pay her flying lessons. Eventually she succeeded in her goal and the choice she made was reflected in her life.
I admire these two American personality, not only because they inspired me to follow my dreams, but also because they are a clear-cut example that the choices we make reflect and result in our lives.<br>
Thank you in advance to all of you who will spend time to answer me.</p>