How to Respond to Quirky, Odd, and Bizarre College Essay Prompts

what do you do if one of the schools are applying to throws you an oddball there are certain schools like the University of Chicago who have always taken a special pride in developing crafty questions for their applicants to answer in recent years more schools are jumping on the bandwagon luring students to their applications with questions like what does Yolo mean to you this is both fun and exhausting for applicants who are grateful for an injection of modern quirky inspiration but who’s creative wells are at this point running dry we’re right there with you and again we’re going to help let’s look at a couple of these oddball questions together consider this example from a recent u of Chicago batch of prompts the ball is in your court a penny for your thoughts but say it don’t spray it so long as you don’t bite off more than you can chew beat around the bush or cut corners writing this essay should be a piece of cake create your own idiom and tell us its origin you know the whole nine yards PS a picture is worth a thousand words or what is square one and can you actually go back to it breathe you know how to do this consider the question that is being asked and then dig back into your repertoire of subjects you haven’t yet discussed maybe it’s as black and white as a panda is your shorthand for talking about things that are more dynamic and complex than they initially seem after all pandas aren’t just black and white they’re also endangered and adorable a square one the moment before you catch a wave and is the fact that you can go back there again and again one of the things you love most about surfing a square one life before you discover jazz calling your own interests and passions will help a lot for these questions or take this option from UVA supplements what is your favorite word and why is your favorite word triple soy caramel latte because when you worked at Starbucks last summer your favorite customer Lauretta age 90 ordered one every day sparking your friendship maybe your favorite word is hamburger you tell us why the trick to these essays is so simple you’re gonna kick yourself when we say it start early brainstorming time is key for cracking the code to these puzzles read through the prompts that have been thrown at you and remember what you learned in Chapter three go outside live your life the ideas will come maybe even go back to your common app free writing ideas and scour for a new subject matter you have so many stories to tell and now you get to tell even more of them thanks to the Supplemental essays