<p>@brbrbr, I finished proofing my UChicago essay at 11:50 on January 1st, and it was the best essay I think I’ve ever written. (extended). Although UChicago is one of my top choices, I’m not bitter about them extending their deadline… I applied to 25 schools (I think; I’m a bit hazy with the numbers), and I decided I was applying to more than just my public flagship on December 2nd. So, I had a month to write a good 40 essays. Over winter break, I sacrificed time with my family and shut myself in various coffee shops and libraries for ~15 hours a day (I made a schedule–8-12 work, 12-1 eat, 1-3 work, 3-4 walk around/break, 5-9 work, 9pm-1am research/do schoolwork/read) to work on my applications. After I followed my schedule, I finished my essays (due Jan 1st) with a day to spare, and spent the last day proofreading. I knew UChicago was “loosey-goosey” towards deadlines from my research (UChicago said that if the app is due in any time zone in the world, you can submit it, etc.) and was hoping for more time to proofread, but frankly didn’t care whether or not they extended. </p>
<p>Now, after all of that rambling, I’ll get to the point: it’s not really useful to criticize UChicago on the basis that you crossed other schools off your list for them, as it wasn’t exactly necessary to cross other schools off your list; if you wanted to apply to all of those schools, you could’ve still made time to write the essays. Keep in mind, I don’t mean to come across in an unkind way :p</p>