Resources1. Packet of Information and Essays2. College Presidents Pen College Essays . Pomona's David Oxtoby. The question that Oxtoby answers: Although it may appear to the contrary, we do know that people have a life beyond what they do to get into college. Tell us about an experience you've had outside your formal classroom and extracurricular activities that was just plain fun and why.
New Common App Questions Instructions. The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don’t feel obligated to do so. (The application won’t accept a response shorter than 250 words.) • Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. • Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn? • Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? • Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you? • Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family. |
More ResourcesSome non-standard prompts from this 2013/2014. From this Washington Post article.
Here are some of the more unusual ones for the 2013-14 college application season. Tufts University One of the prompts for a short supplemental essay: The ancient Romans started it when they coined the phrase “Carpe diem.” Jonathan Larson proclaimed “No day but today!” and most recently, Drake explained You Only Live Once (YOLO). Have you ever seized the day? Lived like there was no tomorrow? Or perhaps you plan to shout YOLO while jumping into something in the future. What does #YOLO mean to you? The University of Chicago prides itself on its provocative essay questions, inspired by newly admitted students who are asked to contribute ideas for new prompts. Here are the ones for this admissions cycle: Essay Option 1. Winston Churchill believed “a joke is a very serious thing.” From Off-Off Campus’s improvisations to the Shady Dealer humor magazine to the renowned Latke-Hamantash debate, we take humor very seriously here at The University of Chicago (and we have since 1959, when our alums helped found the renowned comedy theater The Second City). Tell us your favorite joke and try to explain the joke without ruining it. Inspired by Chelsea Fine, Class of 2016 Essay Option 2. In a famous quote by José Ortega y Gasset, the Spanish philosopher proclaims, “Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia” (1914). José Quintans, master of the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago, sees it another way: “Yo soy yo y mi microbioma” (2012). You are you and your..? Inspired by Maria Viteri, Class of 2016 Essay Option 3. “This is what history consists of. It’s the sum total of all the things they aren’t telling us.” — Don DeLillo, Libra. What is history, who are “they,” and what aren’t they telling us? Inspired by Amy Estersohn, Class of 2010 Essay Option 4. The mantis shrimp can perceive both polarized light and multispectral images; they have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. Human eyes have color receptors for three colors (red, green, and blue); the mantis shrimp has receptors for sixteen types of color, enabling them to see a spectrum far beyond the capacity of the human brain. Seriously, how cool is the mantis shrimp: mantisshrimp.uchicago.edu What might they be able to see that we cannot? What are we missing? Inspired by Tess Moran, Class of 2016 Essay Option 5. How are apples and oranges supposed to be compared? Possible answers involve, but are not limited to, statistics, chemistry, physics, linguistics, and philosophy. Inspired by Florence Chan, Class of 2015 Essay Option 6. In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose a question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful, then you should have little trouble writing a great essay. Draw on your best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, or future citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun. University of Virginia Here are some of the supplemental essay prompts from the 2013-2014 freshman application. Limit: Half a page or roughly 250 words. – What’s your favorite word and why? – In 2006, graduate student Robert Stilling discovered an unpublished poem by Robert Frost while doing research in U.Va.’s Small Collections Library. Where will your Stilling moment be in college? – “To tweet or not to tweet.” Brandeis University –You are required to spend the next year of your life in either the past or the future. What year would you travel to and why? Bucknell University Imagine that you are backpacking through a country you have never been to before. You are interested in engaging with the local population and your backpack includes three items that will help them learn about your family and culture. What are those three items and how do they represent your background? University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Choose one and respond in an essay of 400-500 words. Most of us have one or more personality quirks. Explain one of yours and what it says about you. What do you hope to find over the rainbow? Why do you do what you do? If you could travel anywhere in time or space, either real or imagined, where would you go and why? Tell us about a time when your curiosity led you someplace you weren’t expecting to go. Wake Forest University Give us your top ten list. Lafayette College There’s a difference between being busy and being engaged. Lafayette comes alive each day with the energy of students who are deeply engaged in their academic, co-curricular, and extracurricular explorations. In response to the … prompt, keep it simple—choose one activity and add depth to our understanding of your involvement. What do you do? Why do you do it? (Optional and 20-200 words in length) |