<p>hmmm a resounding NO to using essay option 4 for commonapp would be my humble advice. It’s whacky and Chicago is like that but most other colleges aren’t. They’ll probably wonder what kind of hallucinogen you were on while taking it and if not, the essay’s so blatantly chicago that personally, i’d be embarassed to send an essay that screams “I belong at Chicago!” to another school.</p>
<p>But I totally empathize with you, yellowmonkey, because there’s practically only two days left and there are several essays to START, at least for me. But luckily, I chose the borges prompt and hope to make up my own common prompt that sounds less “Chicago” and tweak the essay to reveal less about what I think, which is what I thought chicago wanted, and more of who I am, which is more of what other colleges want (???). Good luck!</p>
<p>DS created his own prompt for UChicago (VERY Chicago-esque, as it turned out). Also 1300+ words, and no references to Chicago, if I recall. He trimmed it to 1,000 for two other schools, but it absolutely did not work for a 500 word essay. Too much muscle and bone removed and it made no sense. </p>
<p>He has recycled a couple of his other EA school essays for other places as well. They are the essays he spent the most time crafting and it shows. His rationale is that if the essays are too weird for the schools where he sent them, then he obviously doesn’t belong there. ;)</p>
<p>I was thinking of doing this. . . for MIT’s “end of the world” prompt. It is not about me, but it blantantly parallels me, and I think it shows how I handled my “end of the world” moment in a witty way. </p>
<p>I don’t even want to re-use it just for the sake of re-using it; I think it’s quirky, witty, and my “fanciful explanation of the phythagorean theorum” is pretty cool. </p>
<p>If I did, I would write a little introduction on how this is a fictional story dealing with how I dealt with my “end of the world”.</p>
<p>Also. . . for a certain college due today that I could honestly care less about. . . could I use it as an “additional essay”? I love it soooo dearly.</p>
<p>I did essay topic 5… and I was actually very proud of my topic: “And now, a variation on a theme: [Chinese characters] means ‘The mind that does stick… sometimes.’” It’s a variation on the old UChicago prompt.</p>
<p>Luckily, although it was really UChicago-ish, it could definitely be a Common App essay, too.</p>
<p>Katia, please don’t say “Sorry I’m a bit blond to-nite” on this message board. I think Ohio_mom meant that they want to read about your personality, rather than just admitting a bunch of robots.</p>
<p>Well, I have blond moments, too … though I suppose they’re getting to be gray moments by now. </p>
<p>By real person I mean that you don’t come across as ‘packaged’ - either by yourself (in trying too hard to reverse-engineer what colleges want) or by a counselor or parent overthinking and editing everything.</p>