uchicago essay prompts 2016

UChicago Supplemental Essay Questions

The University of Chicago has long been renowned for our provocative essay questions. We think of them as an opportunity for students to tell us about themselves, their tastes, and their ambitions. They can be approached with utter seriousness, complete fancy, or something in between.

Each year we email newly admitted and current College students and ask them for essay topics. We receive several hundred responses, many of which are eloquent, intriguing, or downright wacky.

As you can see from the attributions, the questions below were inspired by submissions from UChicago students and alumni.

2024-25 UChicago Supplement

Question 1 (required).

How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

Question 2: Extended Essay (Required; Choose one)

Essay option 1.

We’re all familiar with green-eyed envy or feeling blue, but what about being “caught purple-handed”? Or “tickled orange”? Give an old color-infused expression a new hue and tell us what it represents. – Inspired by Ramsey Bottorff, Class of 2026

Essay Option 2

"Ah, but I was so much older then / I'm younger than that now” – Bob Dylan. In what ways do we become younger as we get older? – Inspired by Joshua Harris, Class of 2016

Essay Option 3

Pluto, the demoted planet. Ophiuchus, the thirteenth Zodiac. Andy Murray, the fourth to tennis's Big Three. Every grouping has something that doesn’t quite fit in. Tell us about a group and its unofficial member, why (or why not) should it be excluded? – Inspired by Veronica Chang, Class of 2022

Essay Option 4

"Daddy-o", "Far Out", "Gnarly": the list of slang terms goes on and on. Sadly, most of these aren’t so "fly" anymore – “as if!” Name an outdated slang from any decade or language that you'd bring back and explain why you totally “dig it.” – Inspired by Napat Sakdibhornssup, Class of 2028

Essay Option 5

How many piano tuners are there in Chicago? What is the total length of chalk used by UChicago professors in a year? How many pages of books are in the Regenstein Library? These questions are among a class of estimation problems named after University of Chicago physicist Enrico Fermi. Create your own Fermi estimation problem, give it your best answer, and show us how you got there. – Inspired by Malhar Manek, Class of 2028

Essay Option 6

And, as always… the classic choose your own adventure option! In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. 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!

Some classic questions from previous years…

Exponents and square roots, pencils and erasers, beta decay and electron capture. Name two things that undo each other and explain why both are necessary. – Inspired by Emmett Cho, Class of 2027

“Where have all the flowers gone?” – Pete Seeger. Pick a question from a song title or lyric and give it your best answer. – Inspired by Ryan Murphy, AB’21

“Vlog,” “Labradoodle,” and “Fauxmage.” Language is filled with portmanteaus. Create a new portmanteau and explain why those two things are a “patch” (perfect match). – Inspired by Garrett Chalfin, Class of 2027

Due to a series of clerical errors, there is exactly one typo (an extra letter, a removed letter, or an altered letter) in the name of every department at the University of Chicago. Oops! Describe your new intended major. Why are you interested in it and what courses or areas of focus within it might you want to explore? Potential options include Commuter Science, Bromance Languages and Literatures, Pundamentals: Issues and Texts, Ant History... a full list of unmodified majors ready for your editor’s eye is available here . —Inspired by Josh Kaufman, AB'18

You are on an expedition to found a colony on Mars, when from a nearby crater, a group of Martians suddenly emerges. They seem eager to communicate, but they're the impatient kind and demand you represent the human race in one song, image, memory, proof, or other idea. What do you share with them to show that humanity is worth their time? —Inspired by Alexander Hastings, Class of 2023, and Olivia Okun-Dubitsky, Class of 2026

Who does Sally sell her seashells to? How much wood can a woodchuck really chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Pick a favorite tongue twister (either originally in English or translated from another language) and consider a resolution to its conundrum using the method of your choice. Math, philosophy, linguistics... it's all up to you (or your woodchuck). —Inspired by Blessing Nnate, Class of 2024

What can actually be divided by zero? —Inspired by Mai Vu, Class of 2024

The seven liberal arts in antiquity consisted of the Quadrivium — astronomy, mathematics, geometry, and music — and the Trivium — rhetoric, grammar, and logic. Describe your own take on the Quadrivium or the Trivium. What do you think is essential for everyone to know? —Inspired by Peter Wang, Class of 2022

Subway maps, evolutionary trees, Lewis diagrams. Each of these schematics tells the relationships and stories of their component parts. Reimagine a map, diagram, or chart. If your work is largely or exclusively visual, please include a cartographer's key of at least 300 words to help us best understand your creation. —Inspired by Maximilian Site, Class of 2020

"Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" - Eleanor Roosevelt. Misattribute a famous quote and explore the implications of doing so. —Inspired by Chris Davey, AB’13

Engineer George de Mestral got frustrated with burrs stuck to his dog’s fur and applied the same mechanic to create Velcro. Scientist Percy Lebaron Spencer found a melted chocolate bar in his magnetron lab and discovered microwave cooking. Dye-works owner Jean Baptiste Jolly found his tablecloth clean after a kerosene lamp was knocked over on it, consequently shaping the future of dry cleaning. Describe a creative or interesting solution, and then find the problem that it solves. —Inspired by Steve Berkowitz, AB’19, and Neeharika Venuturupalli, Class of 2024

Joan of Arkansas. Queen Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Babe Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mash up a historical figure with a new time period, environment, location, or occupation, and tell us their story. —Inspired by Drew Donaldson, AB’16

Alice falls down the rabbit hole. Milo drives through the tollbooth. Dorothy is swept up in the tornado. Neo takes the red pill. Don’t tell us about another world you’ve imagined, heard about, or created. Rather, tell us about its portal. Sure, some people think of the University of Chicago as a portal to their future, but please choose another portal to write about. —Inspired by Raphael Hallerman, Class of 2020

What’s so odd about odd numbers? —Inspired by Mario Rosasco, AB’09

Vestigiality refers to genetically determined structures or attributes that have apparently lost most or all of their ancestral function, but have been retained during the process of evolution. In humans, for instance, the appendix is thought to be a vestigial structure. Describe something vestigial (real or imagined) and provide an explanation for its existence. —Inspired by Tiffany Kim, Class of 2020

In French, there is no difference between “conscience” and “consciousness.” In Japanese, there is a word that specifically refers to the splittable wooden chopsticks you get at restaurants. The German word “fremdschämen” encapsulates the feeling you get when you’re embarrassed on behalf of someone else. All of these require explanation in order to properly communicate their meaning, and are, to varying degrees, untranslatable. Choose a word, tell us what it means, and then explain why it cannot (or should not) be translated from its original language. —Inspired by Emily Driscoll, Class of 2018

Little pigs, French hens, a family of bears. Blind mice, musketeers, the Fates. Parts of an atom, laws of thought, a guideline for composition. Omne trium perfectum? Create your own group of threes, and describe why and how they fit together. —Inspired by Zilin Cui, Class of 2018

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, AB’16

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, AB’15

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. —Inspired by April Bell, AB'17, and Maya Shaked, Class of 2018 (It takes two to tango.)

“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.” –Oscar Wilde. Othello and Iago. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. Autobots and Decepticons. History and art are full of heroes and their enemies. Tell us about the relationship between you and your arch-nemesis (either real or imagined). —Inspired by Martin Krzywy, AB’16

Heisenberg claims that you cannot know both the position and momentum of an electron with total certainty. Choose two other concepts that cannot be known simultaneously and discuss the implications. (Do not consider yourself limited to the field of physics). —Inspired by Doran Bennett, AB’07

Susan Sontag, AB’51, wrote that “[s]ilence remains, inescapably, a form of speech.” Write about an issue or a situation when you remained silent, and explain how silence may speak in ways that you did or did not intend. The Aesthetics of Silence, 1967. —Anonymous Suggestion

“…I [was] eager to escape backward again, to be off to invent a past for the present.” —The Rose Rabbi by Daniel Stern Present: pres·ent 1. Something that is offered, presented, or given as a gift. Let’s stick with this definition. Unusual presents, accidental presents, metaphorical presents, re-gifted presents, etc.—pick any present you have ever received and invent a past for it. —Inspired by Jennifer Qin, AB’16

So where is Waldo, really? —Inspired by Robin Ye, AB’16

Find x. —Inspired by Benjamin Nuzzo, an admitted student from Eton College, UK

Dog and Cat. Coffee and Tea. Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they? —Inspired by an anonymous alumna, AB'06

How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.) —Inspired by Kelly Kennedy, AB’10

Chicago author Nelson Algren said, “A writer does well if in his whole life he can tell the story of one street.” Chicagoans, but not just Chicagoans, have always found something instructive, and pleasing, and profound in the stories of their block, of Main Street, of Highway 61, of a farm lane, of the Celestial Highway. Tell us the story of a street, path, road—real or imagined or metaphorical. —Anonymous Suggestion

UChicago professor W. J. T. Mitchell entitled his 2005 book What Do Pictures Want? Describe a picture, and explore what it wants. —Inspired by Anna Andel

“Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.“—Miles Davis (1926–91) —Inspired by Jack Reeves

University of Chicago alumna and renowned author/critic Susan Sontag said, “The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions.” We all have heard serious questions, absurd questions, and seriously absurd questions, some of which cannot be answered without obliterating the very question. Destroy a question with your answer. —Inspired by Aleksandra Ciric

“Mind that does not stick.” —Zen Master Shoitsu (1202–80)

Superstring theory has revolutionized speculation about the physical world by suggesting that strings play a pivotal role in the universe. Strings, however, always have explained or enriched our lives, from Theseus’s escape route from the Labyrinth, to kittens playing with balls of yarn, to the single hair that held the sword above Damocles, to the Old Norse tradition that one’s life is a thread woven into a tapestry of fate, to the beautiful sounds of the finely tuned string of a violin, to the children’s game of cat’s cradle, to the concept of stringing someone along. Use the power of string to explain the biggest or the smallest phenomenon. —Inspired by Adam Sobolweski

Have you ever walked through the aisles of a warehouse store like Costco or Sam’s Club and wondered who would buy a jar of mustard a foot and a half tall? We’ve bought it, but it didn’t stop us from wondering about other things, like absurd eating contests, impulse buys, excess, unimagined uses for mustard, storage, preservatives, notions of bigness…and dozens of other ideas both silly and serious. Write an essay somehow inspired by super-huge mustard. —Inspired by Katherine Gold

People often think of language as a connector, something that brings people together by helping them share experiences, feelings, ideas, etc. We, however, are interested in how language sets people apart. Start with the peculiarities of your own personal language—the voice you use when speaking most intimately to yourself, the vocabulary that spills out when you’re startled, or special phrases and gestures that no one else seems to use or even understand—and tell us how your language makes you unique. You may want to think about subtle riffs or idiosyncrasies based on cadence, rhythm, rhyme, or (mis)pronunciation. —Inspired by Kimberly Traube

In 2015, the city of Melbourne, Australia created a "tree-mail" service, in which all of the trees in the city received an email address so that residents could report any tree-related issues. As an unexpected result, people began to email their favorite trees sweet and occasionally humorous letters. Imagine this has been expanded to any object (tree or otherwise) in the world, and share with us the letter you’d send to your favorite. -Inspired by Hannah Lu, Class of 2020 

You’re on a voyage in the thirteenth century, sailing across the tempestuous seas. What if, suddenly, you fell off the edge of the Earth? -Inspired by Chandani Latey, AB'93 

The word floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant or of having no value. It originated in the mid-18th century from the Latin words "floccus," "naucum," "nihilum," and "pilus"—all words meaning “of little use.” Coin your own word using parts from any language you choose, tell us its meaning, and describe the plausible (if only to you) scenarios in which it would be most appropriately used.  -Inspired by Ben Zhang, Class of 2022 

Lost your keys? Alohomora. Noisy roommate? Quietus. Feel the need to shatter windows for some reason? Finestra. Create your own spell, charm, jinx, or other means for magical mayhem. How is it enacted? Is there an incantation? Does it involve a potion or other magical object? If so, what's in it or what is it? What does it do?  -Inspired by Emma Sorkin, Class of 2021 

Imagine you’ve struck a deal with the Dean of Admissions himself, Dean Nondorf. It goes as follows: you’re guaranteed admission to the University of Chicago regardless of any circumstances that arise. This bond is grounded on the condition that you’ll obtain a blank, 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, and draw, write, sketch, shade, stencil, paint etc., anything and everything you want on it; your only limitations will be the boundaries of both sides on the single page. Now the catch… your submission, for the rest of your life, will always be the first thing anyone you meet for the first time will see. Whether it’s at a job interview, a blind date, arrival at your first Humanities class, before you even say, “hey,” they’ll already have seen your page, and formulated that first impression. Show us your page. What’s on it, and why? If your piece is largely or exclusively visual, please make sure to share a creator's accompanying statement of at least 300 words, which we will happily allow to be on its own, separate page. PS: This is a creative thought experiment, and selecting this essay prompt does not guarantee your admission to UChicago. -Inspired by Amandeep Singh Ahluwalia, Class of 2022

Cats have nine lives, Pac-Man has three lives, and radioactive isotopes have half-lives. How many lives does something else—conceptual or actual—have, and why? -Inspired by Kendrick Shin, Class of 2019

If there’s a limited amount of matter in the universe, how can Olive Garden (along with other restaurants and their concepts of food infinity) offer truly unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks? Explain this using any method of analysis you wish—physics, biology, economics, history, theology… the options, as you can tell, are endless.  -Inspired by Yoonseo Lee, Class of 2023 

A hot dog might be a sandwich, and cereal might be a soup, but is a ______ a ______? -Inspired by Arya Muralidharan, Class of 2021 (and dozens of others who, this year and in past years, have submitted the question “Is a hot dog a sandwich,” to which we reply, “maybe”)

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” – Jessamyn West -Inspired by Elizabeth Mansfield, Class of 2020

College Spotlight: University of Chicago 2016-17

Basic Stats

• Number of undergrads: 5,681
• Student/faculty ratio: 6:1
• Acceptance rate: 8.8%
• SAT/ACT required: Yes
• Coalition or Common App: Both
• Regular application deadline: January 1, 2017

Digging to the Details

School motto/mission statement.

“Let knowledge grow from more to more; and so be human life enriched.”

Coolest School Tradition

UChicago’s Doc Films is one of the most active film societies in the country! They screen something different every single night, and you’re just as likely to see a classic film as you are to catch a sneak preview of a movie that has yet to hit mainstream theaters.

Most Popular Academic Programs

• Biological Sciences
• Mathematics
• Political Science
• English Language and Literature

Social Media

UChicago is a very social school with separate profiles for the University and the Admissions Office. They’re even on Snapchat! Take advantage of this wealth of information, updates, and droolworthy photos as you decide whether and why Chicago might be right for you. Links below:

• University Facebook
• Admissions Facebook (Snag the Admissions snapcode here.)
• University Twitter (And the university snapcode here.)
• Admissions Twitter
• University Instagram
• Admissions Instagram

Essay Prompts and Instructions

Question 1 (required): How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

Question 2 (optional): Share with us a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, blogs, magazines, or newspapers. Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own.

EXTENDED ESSAY QUESTIONS

* Required. Choose one.

Essay Option 1: What is square one, and can you actually go back to it? – Inspired by Maya Shaked, Class of 2018

Essay Option 2: Once, renowned physicist Werner Heisenberg said: “There is a fundamental error in separating the parts from the whole, the mistake of atomizing what should not be atomized. Unity and complementarity constitute reality.” Whether it’s Georges Seurat’s pointillism in “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, quantum physics, or any other field of your choosing, when can the parts be separated from the whole and when can they not? – Inspired by Ender Sahin, Class of 2020

Essay Option 3: 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.- Inspired by April Bell, Class of 2017, and Maya Shaked, Class of 2018 (It takes two to tango.)

Essay Option 4: Alice falls down the rabbit hole. Milo drives through the tollbooth. Dorothy is swept up in the tornado. Neo takes the red pill. Don’t tell us about another world you’ve imagined, heard about, or created. Rather, tell us about its portal. Sure, some people think of the University of Chicago as a portal to their future, but please choose another portal to write about. – Inspired by Raphael Hallerman, Class of 2020

Essay Option 5: According to Lázló Babai, Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Chicago, it is unfortunate that mathematicians do not have any procedures in place for revoking theorems once their validity is established because sometimes our results would be nicer without them. If you had the power to obliterate any known truth for the sake of getting nicer results, what truth would you choose to obliterate and why? This power cannot be used as a Ctrl-Z on events in your own life. – Inspired by Erin Horning, Class of 2016

Essay Option 6: In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, pose your own question or choose one of our past prompts . Be original, creative, thought provoking. 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.

Complete instructions available on the UChicago Admissions website .

Chicago too cold for you? Check out UNC’s 2016-17 essay prompts .

Learn how to do effective online college research ..

About Thea Hogarth

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Written by Thea Hogarth

Category: College Admissions , College Spotlight , Supplemental Essays

Tags: acceptance rate , Admissions , application , college application , doc films , essay , essay prompts , facts , profile , research , statistics , tips , uchicago , university of chicago

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the college app jungle

College Advising, Superb Application Essay Development

University of Chicago Essay Prompts for 2015-2016: Crazy and Crazier

Or not.  I like U Chi’s  approach to essays and appreciate the challenge they throw down, and even if their prompts are sometimes pretentiously self aware of cleverness more than they are truly clever, they do open a window of fresh air into the stale halls of the college application essay.  If you need some help with getting into the spirit of things, just chant, “U Chi is to the application essay as Stanford is to the marching band. ”

One thing you can count on with Chicago is some latitude–the off-the-wall essay is more welcome here than anywhere else–but keep in mind that the usual warnings about being a whiner or offensive still apply. You are still writing to a human audience, and you still need to consider their response to you. And hey, even the Stanford marching band, where “anything goes,”  has discovered that not everything does go.   Same goes for the U Chicago essay.  You still need to use some judgment about how you look on paper.  And conduct some due diligence investigations before you write, otherwise known as research.  More about that below.

Directly below I splice in the U Chicago essay prompts, to save you opening multiple windows–under the prompts, I will begin discussing how to address some of them, including that wonderful new option of choosing an essay prompt from past years to write about.  Here are the prompts, followed by Part I of my analysis:

2015-16 UChicago Supplement:

Question 1 (required):.

How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

Question 2 (Optional):

Share with us a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, blogs, magazines, or newspapers. Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own.

Extended Essay Questions:

(Required; Choose one)

Essay Option 1.

Orange is the new black, fifty’s the new thirty, comedy is the new rock ‘n’ roll, ____ is the new ____. What’s in, what’s out, and why is it being replaced? —Inspired by Payton Weidenbacher, Class of 2015

Essay Option 2.

“I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.” –Maxine Hong Kingston. What paradoxes do you live with? —Inspired by Danna Shen, Class of 2019

Essay Option 3.

Joan of Arkansas. Queen Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Babe Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mash up a historical figure with a new time period, environment, location, or occupation, and tell us their story. —Inspired by Drew Donaldson, Class of 2016

Essay Option 4.

“Art is either plagiarism or revolution.” –Paul Gauguin. What is your “art”? Is it plagiarism or revolution? —Inspired by Kaitlyn Shen, Class of 2018.

Essay Option 5.

Rerhceseras say it’s siltl plisbsoe to raed txet wtih olny the frist and lsat ltteres in palce. This is beaucse the hamun mnid can fnid oderr in dorsdier. Give us your best example of finding order in disorder. (For your reader’s sake, please use full sentences with conventional spelling). —Also inspired by Payton Weidenbacher, Class of 2015. Payton is extra-inspirational this year!

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.

Essay Option 7.

In the spirit of historically adventurous inquiry, to celebrate the University of Chicago’s 125th anniversary, please feel free to select from any of our past essay questions .

College App Jungle Advice and Analysis on the U Chicago Prompts for 2015-2016 Part I

Things not to do in the U Chicago essay:

No true confessions of your darkest thoughts/fears/desires

No plagiarism

No (obvious) bragging

Remember:  they do not really know you. There will not be any body language for them to see, no nudge-nudge, wink, wink to convey that you are kidding; they won’t see you outside of the data and activities reported and the essays that you send–as with all college applications, you are a kind of holograph arising from a few screens of words and numbers.  So “honesty” and “being yourself” are hedged terms, even here, and even here you are crafting a self to present to an application reader .  Just ask this:  which of your selves would you let into college?   And then show that self, with maybe a shot of extra zany thrown in.

Things to consider doing:

Research.    You may not end up actually including any new information learned from research in your essay, and in fact your essay should not read like some plodding and serious piece of research, but doing some research helps frame things and may give you some ideas on how to be creatively weird (instead of factually correct and/or boring).  Doing research is always advice I give for the Chicago prompts, which inevitably have some kind of scientific or intellectual background, even when they intentionally warp it, and this is  especially true this year, because Chicago is taking us into the Wayback machine with their last essay option, above, which I repeat here:

Option 7: In the spirit of historically adventurous inquiry, to celebrate the University of Chicago’s 125th anniversary, please feel free to select from any of our past essay questions .

When you click on the past essay questions, you will see that the first option they offer from their past questions is option 2 from last year, what I call the Sapir-Whorf question.  I wrote extensively about this prompt last year, so if you like it, give my commentary a  read before you dive in:  Writing About Option 2 from 2014: Sapir-Whorf .

See what I mean about framing things through research?  This was such a meaty question that I wrote a second post on it, in which I gave more specific suggestions for responding:  Sapir-Whorf Part II.

This example shows why I like the UChi prompts—-yes, you could simply due a non sequitur riff on the question without knowing anything at all, but knowing something helps a lot.

I would also point out that even the non sequitur in comedy depends on knowing what the sequitur is–in other words, if you do not know what is right or customary, you do not know when the comedian is intentionally getting it wrong.  In most cases, comedy appeals to what is broadly known or accepted, as when Steve Martin does a riff on Side Effects .   (Am I dating myself by name dropping this master of nuvo-Dada?  Probably)

So keep in mind, wiseguys and humorists:  Knowing up from down is important if you want to make down into up.

I have written about a number of other interesting prompts from U Chicago in the past, so in keeping with this post’s emphasis on research, you might look at those while you are waiting for my next post on this year’s U Chicago essay prompts:

The Heisenberg Prompt

The Mantis Shrimp Prompt

I think that is enough due diligence for now.  Stay tuned for my next post on U Chicago, and let me know if you need editing–three rounds of editing on single U Chicago essay starts at $160, ready to submit if you follow my editing.  Serious inquiries only, lest your e-mail be converted to processed, canned pork product.  Until next time,

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The 7 UChicago Essay Prompts: How to Write Stellar Responses

College Essays

The University of Chicago is famous for its unique essay topics. They're some of the most creative and off-the-wall essay prompts you'll see when applying to colleges, and it can sometimes be confusing to know how to tackle them.

What should you write about in your UChicago essays? How can you show that you're intelligent, creative, and worthy of a place at their school? As someone who spent a long time on my UChicago essays (and who got into the school), I've figured out exactly what UChicago is looking for in these essays.

 Read on to learn all about the UChicago essays, what the admissions team expects to see in your responses, what topics you should write about, and which topics you should avoid. In this guide, we also suggest sample essay ideas for each of the 2022/2023 UChicago supplement essay prompts and analyze past University of Chicago essay samples so you can see what a great UChicago essay looks like.

What Are the UChicago Essays?

Before you can begin figuring out how you'll write your UChicago essays, you should know which prompts you'll be seeing and the rules for each one. You'll need to write two essays, and the UChicago essay prompts you must answer are commonly referred to as Question 1 and Question 2.

Question 1: Why UChicago?

The Question 1 prompt is the only UChicago supplement essay that stays the same each year, and it's also the only prompt that all applicants must answer (for Question 2 you'll have multiple prompts to choose from).

For this question, you'll need to write an essay that explains why you want to attend the University of Chicago and why you think the school is a good fit for you and your goals. UChicago doesn't have strict word limits for essays, but they suggest a response of 1-2 pages.

Here's the prompt:

How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

The nice part about this prompt is that it's a pretty standard "why this school" essay . And luckily for you, we have a complete guide that walks you through how to knock this type of essay out of the park.

Question 2: Extended Essay

For Question 2, you have a choice of six essay prompts, and you'll choose the one you want to respond to. The essay prompts for this question change every year, and while there are always around six prompts, some years there may be one more or one less to choose from.

These are the more unique and offbeat essay prompts that UChicago is known for. Many of them were created by UChicago alumni and current students. Again, UChicago asks you submit a response 1-2 pages long.

Below are the essay prompts for the 2022/2023 school year.

Essay Option 2: “Where have all the flowers gone?” – Pete Seeger. Pick a question from a song title or lyric and give it your best answer.

Essay Option 3: “Vlog,” “Labradoodle,” and “Fauxmage.” Language is filled with portmanteaus. Create a new portmanteau and explain why those two things are a “patch” (perfect match).

Essay Option 4: A jellyfish is not a fish. Cat burglars don’t burgle cats. Rhode Island is not an island. Write an essay about some other misnomer, and either come up with and defend a new name for it or explain why its inaccurate name should be kept.

Essay Option 5: Despite their origins in the Gupta Empire of India or Ancient Egypt, games like chess or bowling remain widely enjoyed today. What modern game do you believe will withstand the test of time, and why?

Essay Option 6: And, as always… the classic choose your own adventure option! In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. 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!

The world is your oyster when it comes to answering UChicago essay prompts.

How to Answer the University of Chicago Essay Prompts

In this section, we explain what UChicago wants to see in your essays, give ideas for topics to write about for each of the essays, and discuss topics you are better off avoiding.

For this University of Chicago supplement essay, UChicago wants to know why you want to attend their school, what you hope to get out of attending, and how University of Chicago will help you achieve their goals. Basically, they want to know why you think their school is a better fit for you than all the other schools out there. For more analysis of this essay, check out our in-depth guide to the Why UChicago essay .

What Do They Want to See in Your Response?

The "why our school?" is probably the most common essay prompt you'll see on college applications. Why do schools, including UChicago, ask this question?

UChicago wants to first see that you really want to go to their school. Students who love a school are more likely to accept an offer of admission and attend it, and they are more likely to be committed to their studies, participate in extracurriculars, and give back after they graduate. Your passion for UChicago should be shining through in this essay.

Next, UChicago wants to see that you've done your research on their school and have an idea of what opportunities you want to take advantage of while there. You can do this by mentioning specific things you like about UChicago or that you plan to take advantage of as a student there. Potential things to discuss include professors you admire or are interested in working with, specific classes you want to take, and extracurriculars you want to participate in.

Finally, UChicago wants to see that you are a good match for their school. Your essay should explain how you'll make the best use of what UChicago offers, how your strengths match the opportunities they provide, and how UChicago will help you reach your goals for the future.

Potential Topics to Write About

There are many ways you could approach this essay prompt; although since UChicago is best known for its academics (as opposed to killer sports teams, for example), most people will discuss the academic side for at least part of their response. Below is a list of possible topics; most people will discuss one to three topics in their essay.

• Majors or classes you're especially interested in
• UChicago's core curriculum
• Professors whose work you admire and whom you'd like to study with or conduct research with
• Unique events like Scav and Kuviasungnerk/Kangeiko
• Research opportunities you'd like to have
• University of Chicago students you've met who you admire
• Volunteer opportunities
• Financial aid opportunities UChicago offers that make it possible for you to attend

Topics to Avoid

The key here is to avoid generic topics that could apply to practically any school or any student. You want it to be clear in your response what opportunities the University of Chicago offers you that no other school does and how you're going to make use of them. Topics that won't show this include discussing:

• How pretty the campus is
• Chicago weather
• The food on campus
• Where UChicago places on college ranking lists
• Your future major and career path without connecting it back to what UChicago offers
• Bashing other schools

The extended essay is when you can get especially creative. These prompts require you to move outside your comfort zone of typical essay topics and answer in a way that gives readers insight into who you are and what you care about. Remember: Question 2 is required, but you have six different prompts to choose from for this essay response.

Your response to Question 1 is meant to show what you like about UChicago and how you’re going to make the most of the opportunities it offers. Question 2 is less about UChicago and more about you. The admissions team wants to see who you are and what's important to you. Three main things they'd like to see in your essay response are:

• Your personality
• Your thirst for knowledge

Who are you? What have been the important events in your life? What kind of person are you? What do you love learning about? These are the questions UChicago wants you to answer. They want to know what's important to you, what events from your past shaped you, what kind of person you are now, and what you want to accomplish in the future. 

UChicago is particularly interested in students who love learning and have a lot of interests in different fields and topics. A mathematician who also does ballet? A creative writing major who started her own business? Bring it on! Make sure to show your love for learning in your essay.

Your passions and goals don't always need to be lofty though; in the second example essay below you can see how the writer took a quirky interest and managed to connect it to larger ideas. If you can connect one of your pet passions to an essay topic, do so!

The great thing about these UChicago essay prompts is you can write about almost anything you want to since they're so different from each other and give you lots of chances to be creative. And you can tackle it from any angle you want. On their website , UChicago states that "[This essay] can be approached with utter seriousness, complete fancy, or something in between." Just remember, you want this essay to give UChicago a good idea of the type of person you are and what's important to you.

Essay Option 1

Exponents and square roots, pencils and erasers, beta decay and electron capture. Name two things that undo each other and explain why both are necessary.

You're allowed to let your imagination run wild with this prompt. You should try to find a pair of objects that the admissions panel didn’t think of, something wholly original that only you would think of. For this prompt, they want to see how imaginative you can be, but the most important part of this essay is justifying why your pairing makes sense and why it matters . The pair you choose will show off your personality, creativity, and cultural experiences. 

Make your response as wacky and original as you like, but remember to tie it back to yourself and your interests a nd/or potential major. For instance, say you go with the idea of an art conservator and the passage of time. You could discuss how time degrades the materials of a work of art, and then an art conservationist revitalizes the work, only to have the passage of time wear it down again. This would be an excellent segue into writing about your interest in history, creative writing, or U Chicago’s Department of Art History Conservation Science Teaching Program . 

You could also write about how you developed an interest in these subjects, and what other interests you have could be applicable . Weaving your story into your essay will show UChicago that you’re creative and intellectually curious. This can include your niche interests, quirky hobbies, or pet projects.

Essay Option 2

“Where have all the flowers gone?” – Pete Seeger. Pick a question from a song title or lyric and give it your best answer.

This is a classic UChicago question that allows you to answer the question literally...or not. (The year I applied, the version of this question was "Describe your table.") So, if this exemple were your actual song lyric, you address, where have all the flowers gone? You could answer this literally and describe how, for instance, flowers are changing colors in response to climate change . Perhaps you could then discuss your interest in horticulture and what led you to pursue that field.

Or (as always with UChicago essays), you can take it in a totally unexpected direction. This prompt is a chance to put your interpretive and reasoning skills into action. In fact, you could almost think of it like a riddle, except that the answer is anything that you can come up with and justify:

“Where Do Broken Hearts Go?” A valid question in a world where loneliness has been declared a public health emergency and social isolation can increase the likelihood of heart disease by as much as 29% ! 

“Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio?” Likely not, considering radio listening has been trending downward for years, especially amongst young listeners and Rock Music is at the lowest point in its popularity since about 1960 . Where does this leave you, a young would-be guitar player with an interest in U Chicago’s ethnomusicology program ?

“Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” Perhaps you do, considering recent studies show a decline in empathy and corresponding rise in narcissism .

You get the idea. Whatever question you choose, don’t worry too much about having a great answer for it; the idea is to find a context for the question that is meaningful to you and relates to your interests , which will give UChicago insight into your values and personality, two things they want to see in these essays!

Essay Option 3

“Vlog,” “Labradoodle,” and “Fauxmage.” Language is filled with portmanteaus. Create a new portmanteau and explain why those two things are a “patch” (perfect match).

This prompt is a bit sillier, but you still have the chance to show U Chicago your personality and unique worldview. This prompt gives you a chance to play with language and create something that expresses a meaning that we don’t have a word for. The best way to go about this is to think of two areas that are important to you and find a pair of rhyming words related to each and combine them.

So, for instance, if you’re math-oriented but somewhat spiritual, you could take words from both mathematics and spirituality, and come up with something like “stamystics” (statistics+mystics). You could talk about how you became interested in math and how it relates to your spirituality, and so forth.

If you are more interested in sports than spirituality, you could come up with something like “mathleticism.” You could write about how you had to train your mind in order to grasp difficult or advanced mathematical concepts and, inversely, how your understanding of math deepens your appreciation of sports.

What U Chicago is looking for here is how you can connect two seemingly unrelated concepts and find a bridge between them. They’re looking for problem-solving in addition to insight into your personality.

Essay Option 4

A jellyfish is not a fish. Cat burglars don’t burgle cats. Rhode Island is not an island. Write an essay about some other misnomer, and either come up with and defend a new name for it or explain why its inaccurate name should be kept.

This prompt gives you an opportunity to think about familiar things in a new way. We probably don’t think much about peanuts not being nuts, but it’s obvious once you think about it that they are legumes. But, on the other hand, they are also closely related to peas–so the name has some validity. Even though they’re not actually nuts, they do taste like nuts…so is it wrong to call them nuts? Think about other examples that exist in your fields of interest.

And of course, be sure to let your experiences, interests, and values shape the way you rename or defend your misnomer . That way, UChicago will get a good idea of who you are and what’s meaningful to you!

Essay Option 5

Despite their origins in the Gupta Empire of India or Ancient Egypt, games like chess or bowling remain widely enjoyed today. What modern game do you believe will withstand the test of time, and why?

This prompt is your chance to be more overtly academic in your response . In writing about how this game will remain relevant in the future, you’ll be able to show your knowledge of history, culture, politics, economics, religion, scientific discovery…and so on! Choose a game that interests you in some way that you can tie into your personal history and academic interests. 

While brainstorming possible games will be really fun, the most important part of this essay is justifying why you think something that’s relevant today will continue to be relevant in the future. Think about what cultural, social, and political changes could be possible and what the implications of that could be for people today. As long as you’re creative, descriptive, and thorough, your response can range from serious to silly and meet the requirements for this prompt.

Essay Option 6

And, as always… the classic choose your own adventure option! In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. 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!

If you aren't feeling any of the other five optional prompts, you can respond to this one, which asks you to choose and respond to a past UChicago optional essay prompt, or write and respond to your own prompt. With either option, you'll want to consider your identity, interests, strengths, and goals, and let those factors inform which prompt you choose, how you write your own prompt, and how you craft your response.

You may not feel up to the task of writing your own prompt, but you might like the idea of tracking down an old prompt that catches your eye. Read through the past prompts and consider which one will allow you to play to your strengths . If there's a particular experience or skill that you want to showcase in your response, select a prompt that is conducive to that.

Alternatively, if there's a specific experience you want to write about, you can write your own prompt and respond to it. To write your prompt, use the tone and structure of the existing UChicago prompts as a guide. It'll probably come as no surprise that your original prompt should fit right in with the ones provided on the application. This means you might have to be a little goofy, cryptic, or risky...and that's a good thing!

Though this option allows you to write your own prompt if you so choose, it's important to remember that your response to the prompt should still focus on showcasing who you are , what strengths you will bring to UChicago as a student, and why UChicago is the perfect place for you. Don't get too carried away trying to impress admissions with punny phrases or cryptic logic; be authentic, be bold, and be you.

Some people shy away from this prompt because they feel like it's "cheating" or less impressive to not follow one of the specific prompts that UChicago gives. However, this isn't true! As long as you write a compelling essay that gives readers a better insight into who you are, your essay will strengthen your application. For what it's worth, when I applied to UChicago, this is the prompt I chose, and I was still accepted to the school.

UChicago wants you to be creative here, so there aren't many topics that are off limits. However, you're trying to convince them that you'd be a great and interesting student to add to their school, so make sure you use your essay to show who you are and why UChicago would want to admit you.

This means you should avoid responses that don't give readers a good idea of who you are. For example, if you choose essay option 1, don't just state that “taco cat” is funny because it reminds you of your favorite meme. Instead, tie it back to yourself and your life by explaining its relevance, like making tacos with your abuela and fending off the family cat’s attempts to steal tacos. 

Because these prompts are creative, it can be easy to run away with them, but always remember to answer the prompt completely and give UChicago better insight into who you are.

Additionally, don't feel that certain University of Chicago essay prompts are "better" or more impressive than others . UChicago wouldn't have chosen these essay topics if they didn't think applicants could write outstanding responses to them, so please choose the prompt that you feel you can write the best essay for.

University of Chicago Essay Examples

In this section are two University of Chicago essay examples, each written by an accepted applicant.

Below each UChicago supplement essay we discuss what makes the essay work so well.

Dear University of Chicago,

And now you inquire as to my wishes? They're simple, accept me for who I am! Why can't you just love and not ask why? Not ask about my assets or my past? I'm living in the now, I'm waiting for you to catch up, but you're too caught up in my past, I offer us a future together, not a past to dwell upon. Whenever I'm around you, I just get that tingle deep inside me that tells me you're the one; you have that air of brilliance and ingenuity that I crave in a person, you're so mature and sophisticated, originality is really your strongest and most admirable trait. I wish we could be together, I still think in my heart of hearts we were meant to be, but you have to meet me halfway, dear. I'm on one knee here with tears welling up in my eyes, the fireworks are timed and ready to light up the night sky for you, just say 'I accept...you.'

Why Does This Essay Work?

• Creative take on a standard prompt: The writer chose a very unique angle for this essay: comparing the University of Chicago to a lover. He's probably the first applicant to answer the essay prompt this way, which definitely makes this a memorable essay. In fact, UChicago loved this essay so much that they mailed it out to thousands of potential applicants (which actually got them a bit of backlash ). You absolutely don't have to take as unique an approach to this essay as the above writer did, but doing so can definitely help your essay stand out.
• It answers the entire prompt: Even though this is an unusual essay, the writer still manages to answer everything the prompt asks for. He mentions his goal for the future (to become a lawyer), mentions varied interests he has (the Gothic era, the philosopher Kierkegaard), and explains what he likes about UChicago (the brilliance, ingenuity, and originality the school offers). He even manages to mention that he visited campus three times, which shows a serious interest in the school. If you choose to write an especially offbeat essay, it's key to do what this essay did and still answer the prompt while being creative.

This essay is from several years ago, so it doesn't use a current prompt, but it's still helpful to read and analyze.

Share with us a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, blogs, magazines, or newspapers. Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own.

Now let's take a look at the successful essay:

The Illuminati changed my life. Three years ago, I found my first ambigram in one of my favorite novels, Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. I turned the page, and there it was: the word "Illuminati" printed into the exact center of the book. It was styled like a newspaper masthead, exquisite and complex, yet oddly symmetric. Curious, I rotated the book upside-down.

Impossibly, the inverted word was still "Illuminati." Gazing closer, I realized that the letters, I-L-L-U-M, actually shaped into a flipped I-N-A-T-I. Suddenly, I was reading it in both directions. My eyes waltzed along the broad curves and sharp twists of the calligraphy, striking poses in a glamorous font against a sheet of creamy whiteness, sliding between the dense vertical strokes, peering at the edge of the defined serif as it angled away, then bent boldly toward me. Every line was deliberate, every flourish smiling with purpose, and the whole word balanced on the delicate cord that joined two letters into one. It was unforgettable.

Ambigrams are words that can be read from different directions. Actually, "ambigram" is an umbrella term that encompasses dozens of distinct types of visual wordplay. The most popular ones are rotational, mirror image, and-my personal favorites-symbiotic ambigrams, which can spell two different things when viewed normally and upside-down.

Compelled by the striking art, I could not help but try my own hand at designing ambigrams, and slowly I felt the pitiful stick-figure artist inside me shrink away as my inner energetic graphic designer sprang up. Before early volleyball tournaments, I work myself up by filling up pages and pages of experimental letter combinations, gleefully satisfied at the way that a rounded lowercase "a" was a perfect upside-down lowercase "e." In my AP Literature class, I drew "She's a witch!" which revealed, when flipped, "Communist" to reflect Arthur Miller's contemporary motives for writing The Crucible. On a challenge from a friend, I even drew an ambigram of "Jay-Z" and "Beyonce" on a bumpy bus ride back from a leadership retreat.

In the last few months, I have also practiced drawing ambigrams as fast as I can. I dream about the day when I can effortlessly write out a message saying "Hi, how are you today?" normally and "The password is cherry268" upside-down, without pausing or rotating the paper. I imagine a world in which everyone had this ability, and could literally write two things at once. How would that change communication? Encryption? Trust? My legs swing comfortably from this innovative edge, excited to take a stab at the answers.

The best part about the ambigram is that it refuses to define itself as just one thing. It is a linguistic passion, a cryptographic endeavor, an artistic design, and an ironic illusion. I relish the fact that ambigrams force both the artist and the audience to reject first glances and embrace secret identities.

This may just be a nerdy obsession, but ambigrams have taught me far more than how to sketch fancy words. Their multidimensional truth implies that my hobbies of both writing Italian sonnets and solving logical riddles are not opposing functions of my left and right brains, but rather, a perfect conglomeration of my passion for creating and solving puzzles. The beauty of the most surprising combinations reminds me to take bold risks in both my life and my designs.

Above all else, ambigrams have taught me that I can create the impossible. I can make true and false the same word depending on something as simple as a 180-degree head turn. Victory can be defeat. Open can be closed. Am amateur piano player with an obsession for cryptology can learn how to program iPhone apps and get the game-winning kill at the varsity volleyball championship. A girl with divorced parents can make time for both families, and an inspired teenager from California can write her name into world history--both normally and upside-down.

- Samantha M.

Why This Essay Works

• Shows passion: This essay focuses on a pretty unusual and specific topic: ambigrams. While many people may not even know what an ambigram is, the writer is clearly passionate about them. She discusses how much time she spends trying to create different ambigrams, what her goals for ambigram creating are, and some of her favorite ambigrams she's created. UChicago loves people who are passionate about something, even if it's an unusual or offbeat interest. It makes UChicago believe those students will bring that passion with them onto campus.
• Gives insight into the writer's personality: The majority of this essay is about the author's interest in ambigrams, but she also manages to cleverly slip in multiple other references to her personality and interests. From her essay, we learn that she's a volleyball player, writes Italian sonnets, and loves solving puzzles. Adding these details gives UChicago a fuller look at what makes her tick.
• Connects it to a bigger picture: The writer chose to write about a very specific topic—ambigrams—but was still able to connect that to bigger concepts, such as communication, truth, and how she's able to balance her different interests. She's able to take a quirky topic and show how it influences her worldview.

Final Advice: UChicago Essays

When answering the University of Chicago essay prompts, keep in mind that the main reason UChicago is reading these essays is to find out who you are as a person and if you'd be a good fit at their school.

The University of Chicago wants students who are passionate about learning, creative, are excited to make the most of their time on campus, and have big dreams for themselves, and the UChicago supplement questions are designed to help you show these sides of yourself to the school.

For the "Why UChicago?" prompt, you'll want to show the school why you want to go there, why you think you're a good fit for the school, and how UChicago will help you achieve your goals during college and beyond.

For the extended essay, you can (and should) be more creative. These UChicago essays are more "out there," and in your response, you should show your personality and passion for learning.

For both University of Chicago essays, remember to show who you are and what you're passionate about, include details about yourself and the school to help you stand out from other essays, and mention your plans and goals for the future.

What's Next?

If you want a more in-depth look how to write about Question 1, check out our guide to the Why UChicago Essay , which includes an additional sample essay along with analysis of how to answer this prompt.

Are you working on the Common App essay ? Read our breakdown of the Common App prompts and our guide to picking the best prompt for you.

If you're planning to take the SAT or ACT one last time , try out some of our famous test prep guides, like "How to Get a Perfect Score on the SAT" and "15 Key ACT Test Day Tips."

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Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, trying to find uchicago past essay prompts.

Hey, I'm starting to work on my UChicago application, and I've heard they have some pretty unique prompts for their essays. I wanna see what previous years' prompts looked like for inspiration. Does anyone know where I can find them? Thanks in advance!

Hey there! You're right, UChicago is known for its creative and quirky essay prompts. In fact, they often release several prompts you can choose from each application season. To find a list of the past prompts, I'd recommend visiting the University of Chicago's official admissions website; they typically have an archive of essay prompts from previous years for you to review.

Another resource you can check out is CollegeVine. They have an essay prompt database that can help you find not only UChicago's previous prompts, but prompts from other schools as well. You can look at these old and current essay prompts here: https://www.collegevine.com/category/essay-breakdowns/university-of-chicago

As you go through these past prompts, remember to have fun with your essay and showcase your personality! UChicago definitely appreciates a creative approach. Best of luck with your application!

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2 Great UChicago Essay Examples

UChicago is famous —or shall we say infamous—for their highly-quirky essay prompts. In previous years, students have been tasked with mind-boggling questions like “Find X,” or “A hot dog might be a sandwich, and cereal might be a soup, but is a __ a __?”

These essays may seem silly, but they invite students to share their personalities and perspectives as fully as they wish. UChicago is looking for creative thinkers, and these essays help them distinguish the “kind” of applicant they want. After all, most applicants will have stellar grades and test scores, so these essays are your chance to stand out and beat the odds of the very low acceptance rate.

UChicago requires two essays—one that is a typical “ Why This College? ” prompt, and the other, your choice among seven zany prompts. The seventh option actually allows you to make your own prompt, or pick one from previous years.

In this post, we’ll go over some strong UChicago essay examples from real applicants and share what they did well and what could be improved.

Please note: Looking at examples of real essays students have submitted to colleges can be very beneficial to get inspiration for your essays. You should never copy or plagiarize from these examples when writing your own essays. Colleges can tell when an essay isn’t genuine and will not view students favorably if they plagiarized. 

Read our UChicago essay breakdown to get a comprehensive overview of this year’s supplemental prompts. 

Essay Example #1

Prompt: “There is no such thing as a new idea” – Mark Twain. Are any pieces of art, literature, philosophy, or technology truly original, or just a different combination of old ideas? Pick something, anything (besides yourself), and explain why it is, or is not, original.

As I entered the bare-walled room, I could see the sky was painted blue through the tinted windows. It was my first day in my new high school where I’d have to spend the next two years. I wanted to make new friends.

I started walking towards a boy, introduced myself and exchanged pleasantries. After a few minutes of conversation, the topic of music came up and I introduced him to my love for the iconic classical ambient hit ‘Clair de Lune’. He put on my headphones, the song started playing, and he was amazed by the music’s ethereal, mellow, and serene chords. Or so I thought.

You know that awkward feeling when you show a funny video to your friends and nobody laughs? It was equivalent to that.

As days passed, I started noticing everyone was only listening to the loud pounds of the bass, the buzz saw synths, the crispy hi-hats, and every other element found in Electronic Dance Music, also known as EDM. Realizing that people in my school didn’t like Clair de Lune because they were emotionally invested in only the EDM genre, I had an idea– “What if I create an EDM remix of Clair de Lune to reach out to the audience of both genres?”

I tried to understand what the composer was trying to express through his composition and attempted to create an impression of the classical piece. The main challenge was to add musical elements from relatively two of the most unconventional music genres– Classical and EDM. Incorporating the rich and sometimes heart-wrenching chord structure of Clair de Lune to the multiple layers of EDM saw synths, I adjusted the volume of my instruments to the intensities with which the notes needed to be played and panned the sound in different directions to set the appropriate ambiance.

A few weeks later, I uploaded my work to the various Discord music servers that I am a part of with shaky hands. Nervous of what people might interpret my work to be, I awaited the replies I would receive. The server was filled with users from North America, and since I was in India, I realized that most people weren’t active at midnight when I uploaded my mix. I called it a night and went to sleep. When I woke up, my inbox was flooded with a mix of appreciations and suggestions. The users from the server really liked my idea and it went on to become a weekly competition where everyone would try to incorporate multiple genres into one song. I also made my classmates listen to the mix and later made friends who were interested in music production.

Music has constantly been transcending and bridging different identities cross-culturally through the fusion of genres. The key lies in capturing the emotions and the structure linked to the song, but most importantly, working to understand diverse cultures.

This raises a critical question– are the genres we listen to now truly unique on their own or just a complex amalgam of countless genres throughout history? The answer is that it depends on how experienced an artist is at the art of impression. Honoring instead of degrading, studying instead of skimming, crediting instead of plagiarizing, and transforming instead of imitating will lead an artist to a remix instead of a rip-off. As an artist keeps repeating this process, they’ll make unique decisions– maybe they’ll add an inimitable form of reverb on the synth or include a cymbal crash in their alien music structure. Regardless, those small changes and preferences– in the long run– will amount to a magnitude of alteration in style and develop a completely new identity for an artist. This is when the art practically becomes original while bearing into itself countless unoriginal remixes and impressions of different songs, artists, and genres.

What This Essay Did Well

This essay is a great example of taking a prompt that seemingly has nothing to do with the student on the surface and turning it into an exposé of the student’s personality and interests. The point of every college essay is to reveal who you are, so even when the prompt asks for something unrelated like a piece of art or technology, the ability to tie that back to you is key.

The reader is taken on a journey from seeing the defeat this student felt when no one liked their music taste, to their determination to produce a remix, to the success and positive impact caused by their creativity. Having a well-defined beginning, middle, and end creates a good pace and makes it easy to follow.

Another positive aspect of this essay is the way the student describes music and their process. When you write about your hobbies or interests in an essay, your passion, as well as your expertise, should shine through. The reader can clearly tell this student cares about musical motifs and sound mixing through their description of classical and EDM music, but they also demonstrate their knowledge in this area by explaining the steps they took to produce a remix.

What Could Be Improved

While this student did a great job of turning this prompt into a story about themselves, a definitive answer to the prompt fell through the cracks. After an entire essay focused on them, the student generalized in the last paragraph in an attempt to answer the prompt. The result was an essay that ended on a good note, but didn’t leave the reader with a final impression of the student.

To make sure the ending was as strong as other parts of the essay and that there was a concrete answer to the prompt, this student should have tied the lessons they learned through their experience into their perspective on originality.

For example, they could have decided there’s no such thing as originality because even when they were developing their remix they relied on known aspects of music to recreate genres. On the flip side, they could have concluded that of course there are new ideas because even though they had influences, the comments on the Discord server said they had created something no one had ever seen before. 

It’s okay to take a stance in a prompt like this one. You aren’t being evaluated on whether you picked the “right” answer because there is no right answer. The important part is to connect the answer back to the rest of the essay, and thus emphasize how the answer relates to you.

Essay Example #2

Prompt: Due to a series of clerical errors, there is exactly one typo (an extra letter, a removed letter, or an altered letter) in the name of every department at the University of Chicago. Oops! Describe your new intended major. Why are you interested in it and what courses or areas of focus within it might you want to explore? Potential options include Commuter Science, Bromance Languages and Literatures, Pundamentals: Issues and Texts, Ant History… a full list of unmodified majors ready for your editor’s eye is available here. —Inspired by Josh Kaufman, AB’18 

When I shared the video of me eating fried insects in Thailand, my friends were seriously offended. Some stopped talking to me, while the rest thought I had lost my mind and recommended me the names of a few psychologists. 

A major in Gastrophysics at UChicago is not for the faint hearted. You have to have a stomach for it! I do hope I am accepted to it as it is the only University in the U.S. with this unique major. My passion for trying unique food such as fish eye has made me want to understand the complexities of how it affects our digestive system. I understand that Gastrophysics started with a big pang of food, which quickly expanded to famish. Bite years are used to measure the amount of food ingested. I look forward to asking, “How many bite years can the stomach hold?” and “How do different enzymes react with the farticles?” 

Gastrophysics truly unravels the physics of food. At UChicago I will understand the intricacies of what time to eat, how to eat and how food will be digested. Do we need to take antiparticle acid if we feel acidity is becoming a matter of concern? At what angle should the mouth be, for the best possible tasting experience? When I tried crocodile meat, I found that at a 0 degree tilt, it tasted like fish and chicken at the same time. But the same tasted more like fish at a negative angle and like chicken at a positive angle. I want to unravel these mysteries in a class by Professor Daniel Holz in gravitational gastrophysics, understanding the unseen strong and weak forces at play which attract food to our stomachs. 

I find that Gastrophysics is also important for fastronomy. I want to learn the physics of fasting. How should we fast? Hubble bubble is a good chewing gum; an appetite suppressant in case you feel pangs of hunger. I have read how the UChicago Fastronauts are stepping up to test uncharted territories. Intermittent fasting is a new method being researched, and UChicago offers the opportunity for furthering this research. Which is better: fasting for 16 hours and eating for 8, or fasting for 24 hours twice a week? It is just one of the problems that UChicago offers a chance to solve. 

I can also study the new branch it offers that uses farticle physics. It is the science of tracking farticles and how they interact with each other and chemicals in the stomach space. It could give rise to supernovae explosions, turning people into gas giants. It would also teach about the best ways to expel gas and clean the system and prevent stomach space expansion. 

I want to take Fluid dynamics 101, another important course in Gastrophysics; teaching about the importance of water and other fluids in the body, and the most important question: what happens if you try to drink superfluids? 

I hope to do interdisciplinary courses with observational gastrophysicists and work with environmental science majors to track how much methane is given by the human and animal gastrointestinal tract in the atmosphere and how much it contributes to the global climate change. I believe, with the help of courses in date science, they have been able to keep a track of how much methane is entering each day, and they found that during Dec 24-Jan 3 period, a spike in the methane and ethane levels could be seen. Accordingly, algorithms are being programmed to predict the changes all year round. I would love to use my strong mathematical background to explore these algorithms. 

These courses are specially designed by the distinguished faculty of UChicago. Doing interdisciplinary research in collaboration with biological science students to determine what aliens may eat, with fart historians to know more about the intestinal structure of medieval Italians, Japanese, Chinese, Swedish and French people to better their lives is what I look forward to. The Paris study abroad program is an immersion course into fastronomy, where I will have the opportunity to test my self-control with all the amazing French food and desserts around! 

My stomach rumbles now, so I am going out to try out new food – hopefully it will be in Chicago a few months later. 

What the Essay Did Well

This is a fun essay! This student’s voice is present and their goofy personality is especially evident. Not only did they change the name of their major, but this student incorporated word play throughout the essay to showcase their imagination. Phrases like “the big pang of food”, “bite years”, “fastronauts”, and “farticle physics” keep the tone lighthearted and amusing. 

Beyond the humor and creativity that makes the reader chuckle—always a great way to stand out—this student still manages to incorporate aspects of their real intended major that fascinate them. While it might take a little extra connecting the dots to get from gastrophysic to astrophysics courses, the reader still understands what this student wants to study at UChicago and how they might use this knowledge.

While this essay definitely takes some risks, it’s safe to say that they paid off. They are able to delve into their love for astrophysics all while maintaining vivid, engaging language. The writing style is simultaneously playful and mad-scientist-esque. Truly “geeking out” about their interests makes for a great essay.

Even extremely creative essays like this one can always be made stronger. In this case, it would have been nice to get more background on what drew this student to astrophysics (not gastrophysics). We get a sense for their love of trying new foods, but the essay is lacking an explanation that relates to astrophysics. 

Obviously, in an essay about gastrophysics, astrophysics would be out of place. But given this student’s level of creativity, they could have found a punny way to tie their interest in space into the essay. It doesn’t need to be too extensive, but since this effectively serves as UChicago’s “Why This Major?” essay, a strong essay should include more background on why the student wants to pursue their actual major (not the fake one).

Where to Get Your UChicago Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your UChicago essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays. 

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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Command Education Guide

How to write the university of chicago supplemental essays, updated for 2023-2024, question 1 (required).

How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.

Explanation:

UChicago’s first supplemental essay is a classic “why this college” prompt that can be separated into three components: learning, future, and community. Responding to the “learning” component requires laying out your intended major (or couple of majors) that you hope to pursue, along with specific class offerings, research opportunities, immersion experiences, internships, etc. for that major or related program. The “community” element can be addressed by discussing an extracurricular or club offered at the college (called RSOs at UChicago) that you would like to get involved in. This can also add depth to your “learning” response if the organization is related to your intended major. Additionally, discussing UChicago’s size, location, history, and/or educational philosophy—the unofficial motto “Life of the Mind” emphasizes intellectual inquiry simply for the sake of learning—can be an excellent way to showcase your enthusiasm regarding specific aspects of the UChicago community. For the final “future” component of this essay, clearly lay out your plan for your future pursuits and how you hope to achieve your goals by the time you graduate from the University of Chicago. How will the opportunities you pursue and the community you build impact your plan for post-college life?

I’ve stared up at the night sky through my prized Orion Spaceprobe Reflector telescope all over the United States—from the deserts of Arizona to the highest points of California’s many national parks. I’ve captured detailed photographs of Saturn’s rings and carefully coordinated, award-winning time lapse shots. I’ve gone on journeys through dense forests and down unmarked dirt roads to achieve the ultimate stargazing experience. But standing in my school’s parking lot, reveling in observing the Harvest Moon with my classmates, I realized there’s nothing I want more than to share my passion with my peers.  

The University of Chicago offers unparalleled astronomy and astrophysics opportunities—but just as importantly, it presents an incredible community possible to share in that experience. I’ll be the first in line to take hands-on classes like “Observational Techniques in Astrophysics” and the two-part “Field Course in Astronomy and Astrophysics” that will provide the rare chance to use the university’s array of powerful research telescopes and publish scientific papers in collaboration with my classmates. Meanwhile, classes focused on the theoretical side of astronomy and astrophysics like “From Fossils to Fermi’s Paradox” will allow me to geek out over the universe’s greatest questions with fellow self-proclaimed hardcore space nerds. I’m equally interested in connecting with professors, and (if possible) I’d be eager to assist in any way with Professor Jacob Bean’s work identifying potentially habitable exoplanets.

Perhaps most exciting of all, the Paris Astronomy Program offers the opportunity to combine astrophysics with my other academic passion—French. Communication between international labs and scientists from different countries is a major component of modern science, and this program offers an immersive component to my intended minor in French. Envisioning the conversations I’ll have seated at Parisian cafes and touring through famous labs and museums ignites my imagination and excitement. While I understand that the Paris Astronomy Program is generally oriented towards astrophysics minors, I believe taking advantage of this opportunity as early as possible in my college experience will build a foundation for my specific education in both astrophysics and French in the same way that the Core creates the a structural baseline for my general education at UChicago. 

While much of the UChicago community and opportunities I’ve pointed to take place inside the classroom, I’m equally looking forward to everything that happens outside of the campus’ gothic buildings. Visiting my friend currently living in the “South” dorm has made me especially excited for the experience of living on campus and forming relationships with other residents in my dorm. From the house-specific dining table with Harry Potter-esque banners hanging over them to the inter-house broomball battle, I was able to witness firsthand the O Week scavenger hunt throughout the dorm—the experience provided me with a built in community that will be waiting for me the moment I step on campus. However, I don’t plan to let this community make me complacent in my social life. Joining RSOs like the Outdoor Adventure Club and Ryerson Astronomical Society will allow me to continue my passions for intense hiking and casual stargazing while connecting me with other students on campus who are equally excited about those activities! 

From my perspective, there’s no desire for learning, community, or my future that UChicago does not satisfy. While others might make claims about the school where “Fun Goes to Die,” I can hardly wait to get started! 

Question 2: Extended Essay (Required; Choose one)

UChicago’s “extended essay” is also occasionally referred to by its old name: “The Uncommon Essay.” When writing this essay, you should aim to break away from traditional essay formats and embrace creativity. The goal is to showcase both your writing ability and unique perspective. Get creative with your responses: unique humor, interesting structuring, and out-of-the-box writing motifs will go a long way towards impressing the admissions officers.

Each of the prompts may seem almost nonsensical at first, but start by writing down your initial ideas for approaching each of the options. If you’re brainstorming for any one of these prompts and one idea jumps out at you—go with it!

The trick to these essays is responding in a way that feels natural to you, don’t try to get too smart and outthink yourself. Try crafting the direction of your essay as it goes rather than trying to plan your essay perfectly before you start writing, as this method will allow you to better showcase your thought process. If none of the essay prompts inspire you, take advantage of Option 7 and look over past prompts until you find one that speaks to you. Don’t write off any idea as stupid, and try to keep your phone or a notepad near you as you think over the prompts—inspiration can strike at the strangest of times!

Finally, stick with the obvious theme of the essay, but don’t try to overdo it. Make sure you find a creative way to fully answer any questions posed by the prompt while also including some insight into yourself or your background. As an example to offer a bit of guidance: for the classic prompt “Find x,” the admissions officers do not want to see a sheet filled with math problems. However, if you use math as a writing motif by which you compare using substitution to find x with comparing activities to find what you’re passionate about…you might just have a perfect essay idea on your hands!

Essay Option 3

Pluto, the demoted planet. Ophiuchus, the thirteenth Zodiac. Andy Murray, the fourth to tennis’s Big Three. Every grouping has something that doesn’t quite fit in. Tell us about a group and its unofficial member, why (or why not) should it be excluded? – Inspired by Veronica Chang, Class of 2022

Beneath the dim glow of the singular overhead light, I stand before the sacrificial flame. It’s burning hotter than usual. My eyes fixate on the blue body of fire, which only occasionally ejects a bright orange wisp. I had performed the ritual countless times before, but never on my own. This was the moment where I would decide my fate. Two paths lay before me—neither without consequence—and yet, I knew exactly what had to be done.

My hands wrapped around the first bowl to my right, which contained the three sacred ingredients that would begin my journey. Without hesitation, I threw them into the pot and watched as cubes of green and white began to sizzle and jump from their introduction to heat. Knowing the time was nigh, I grabbed the second bowl and threw in my fourth offering. I quickly mixed the orange cylinders into the other ingredients and let out a sigh. The hard part was over.

“Attaboy,” Dad exclaims. I look over my shoulder to see the corners of his mouth curling upwards from a deep sense of pride.

“It’s your fault he’s like this,” Mom replied, her eyes like knives pointed towards the two of us. “That ain’t no way to prepare crawdads.”

I knew my choice would be controversial. “The Holy Trinity” of cajun cuisine was a special thing to both my parents. Mom grew up in Bogalusa, Louisiana, where peppers, celery, and onions were the exclusive occupants of the trinity. Meanwhile, Dad’s family was from Arles in the south of France. Ever the food purist, he always told me that the Holy Trinity was adopted from the French mirepoix; to exclude carrots from that group would be a cardinal sin. I agreed.

My love of carrots came after years of indoctrination from Dad’s side of the family. In the summers, we’d visit his parents’ farm outside of Arles, where our days were spent digging through soil and competing to find the most perfect vegetables. After a few hours in the dry heat, there was nothing more satisfying than finally pulling out that perfect cone shape with an orange so radiant you’d think it was painted on. In the afternoons, I’d sit on the countertop and watch as Mamie’s delicate hands chopped them up, always making sure to save a bit off the top for me to nibble. With each bite, I’d be greeted with a delightful crunch that was as satisfying as it was invigorating. The initial crispness quickly gave way to a subtle sweetness. Yet, there was still the lingering taste of earth from soil that was washed off only moments ago. Who wouldn’t want these carrots in every recipe ever?

Those days on the farm were my favorites growing up, not only because of the memories I made while harvesting and cooking, but also because of how they inspired my passion for nutrition and food sustainability. For decades, my grandparents lived off the food that they produced. This was a sharp contrast to the environment where I was raised. In many of my neighboring communities, access to nutritional food like fresh vegetables is scarce. Rather than having autonomy over the quantity and quality of food available, inequitable policies and commercialization have led many individuals to lose control over what they put in their bodies.

As I move forward with my educational career, I plan to continue dedicating myself to rebuilding power through access to good, healthy foods. That includes learning more about systems of power and how they contribute to nutritional deficits, while also advocating for environmentally responsible approaches to farming, and taking direct, supportive action within my community to build health policy from the bottom-up.

Despite my controversial take on the Holy Trinity, I unabashedly love carrots, and I want the world to be able to love them too.

I am applying to Tufts because I flourish when surrounded by inspiration. John Wong, David Kaplan, Andrew Levey—all world-renowned professors in medicinal practice who could serve as my instructors or mentors. The Centers for Cognitive Studies and STEM Diversity, which will ground my studies in practical research. Clubs like Doctors Without Borders, TEMS, and Project SHARE, where I can make life-long friends while still working to improve the lives of others. At Tufts, I barely have to turn my head to find a community of driven, collaborative minds who will help propel my academic and personal journey forward.

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