When colleges ask for graded essays, original work, additional essays without giving topics what kinds of things has everyone else been submitting?
I couldn’t choose and submitted 4 essays!
As a general rule, when an admissions board asks for something, they want to see if you’re able to deliver that something within their parameters. That is to say, if an essay is supposed to be 500 words or less, they want to see if you can work within the guidelines that they’ve given you to deliver the information that they’ve requested. If you go over, you’re already at a disadvantage to the people who were able to correctly do the exercise.
If an admissions board asks for one assignment, they don’t just want to see the assignment. They understand that you’ve got to decide on one to represent your work. The know that any assignment submitted to them has gone through that process in YOUR mind and they’ll judge it accordingly. If you can’t choose one, then you’re at a disadvantage to the applicants who were able to correctly do the exercise.
I agree with hellojan. However, if the rest of your application is stellar, they may just chalk that up to an over-enthusiastic applicant. It just depends on the actual school and what their guiding principles are in finding/creating their “freshman class”. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!