College Prep: Writing a Strong Essay

with Leigh Ann Chow

The following is taken from Dave Berry’s Ask the Dean blog on CollegeConfidential.com and is used with
his permission. He offers approaches to six of the University of Chicago prompts for the Class of 2019. If
you know you’ll be applying to a school with a tendency to require unusual essays, read these examples.
Then you won’t be caught off guard when you see them on your application.

Approaches to Unusual Essay Prompts

In order to offer some advice about dealing with nontraditional (aka weird) application essay prompts,
should you encounter them this fall, let me offer some seeds of advice on how to approach them. For the
sake of convenience, I’ll refer to the University of Chicago prompts…Feel free to borrow from or improve
upon any of my approaches.

Prompt #1 is deceptively simple:

1. What’s so odd about odd numbers? (Inspired by Mario Rosasco, Class of 2009)

Incidentally, UChicago regularly invites its student body to submit their ideas for essay prompts.
That’s why you’ll see attribution credits attached to these.

If I were responding to this prompt, I would set the stage for my “argument” in the opening
sentence by making a bold statement. Maybe something like a paraphrase of a famous President
Lincoln utterance: “An odd number divided against itself might not stand evenly.” Then, I would
go on to emphasize the fact that odd numbers cannot be evenly divided by the number 2.

The number 2 phrase could then be brought to the fore as a frustrated agent of change. “When
you’re only No. 2, you try harder” was an advertising slogan used by Avis car rental company as
it competed with Hertz for market share back in the ’60s. Thus, in my essay response, I would
personify the hard working number 2’s inability to divide odd numbers evenly, thus substantiating
the odd numbers’ oddness, if you get my drift. Of course, your mileage may vary.

2. 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, an incoming student in the Class
of 2018)

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 I would choose the English word “duh.” Then, I would put it in context with some of the most
memorable statements from history. First, I would define duh! (adding an exclamation mark for
emphasis). Something like this:

Duh!, defined most succinctly, means “obviously, stupid!” Its untranslated impact can be seen when in
response to these notable phrases by famous people:

• Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of
his friends.” Well, duh!

• Galileo Galilei said, “For in the sciences the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much
as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man. Besides, the modern observations deprive all
former writers of any authority, since if they had seen what we see, they would have judged as we
judge.” Duh!

• Isaac Asimov pondered, “I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and

reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and
ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the
firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.” Duh! Isaac!

And so on…

3. 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, an incoming student in the Class of 2018)

Off the top of my head (threes only, you can describe the fit):

• Princeton, Harvard, and Yale (“The Big Three”)—Putting it to UChicago (if you’re fearless)

• Baseball’s Triple Crown—Mickey Mantle: 1956 (home runs, RBIs, and batting average)

• The Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes)

• The Daily Number (three-digit state lottery game)

• Three strikes (and you’re out!)

• Three toes (as in sloth)

• Three coins (in a fountain) [That’s enough.]

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4. Were pH an expression of personality, what would be your pH and why? (Feel free to respond acidly!
Do not be neutral, for that is base!) (Inspired by Joshua Harris, Class of 2016)

“Mine would be pH.D.” (How appropriate for UChicago)

5. A neon installation by the artist Jeppe Hein in UChicago’s Charles M. Harper Center asks this question
for us: “Why are you here and not somewhere else?” (There are many potential values of “here,” but
we already know you’re “here” to apply to the University of Chicago; pick any “here” besides that one..
(Inspired by Erin Hart, Class of 2016)

• “I’d rather be here than there.”

• “Here is where the heart is.”

• “Hear, hear! Here, here! There, there.”

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.

“What are the key differences between a thoughtful college application essay prompt and one
that is purposefully posed merely to confound the majority of applicants who have a sincere
desire to attend the confounding higher educational institution but are not gifted, introspective,
and articulate purveyors of written articulation? Limit your response to no fewer than one
thousand words.”

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