By Ijaaz Jackaria

If you are a prospective student wishing to apply to colleges in the US, chances are you’ve come across the name of “The University of Chicago.” No, we are not an Ivy League, but yes, we are tied with Stanford at the 6th position on the US News Best National University Rankings. And no, we are not cousins of UC Berkeley—we are not UC Hicago!

So, who are we? Well, we are a modest liberal arts research institution nestled in Hyde Park, South Side Chicago, with over 90 Nobel Prize laureates, including the one-and-only Milton Friedman, and we take pride in cultivating the life of the mind through the interdisciplinary study of classical texts. And we are also known as the place where fun comes to die…

Ok, by now it’s pretty obvious we are weird, but let’s be serious. As part of the undergraduate application to UChicago, students are required to write a supplemental essay (around 1 page long) on one of what we call the uncommon prompts. Here are some examples:

Pretty strange, huh? But rest assured that those have been carefully selected by the UChicago Admissions committee. Every year in spring, current UChicago students and alumni are invited to submit potential prompts, and the admissions committee shortlists 5 of them for each application cycle. Prospective applicants also have the option to pick a previous year’s prompt, or they can even craft their own prompt for their supplemental essay.

“But why do the prompts have to be weird?” I hear you ask.

It has to do with the community that makes up UChicago and the education it provides. If those prompts do not pique your intellectual creativity, then chances are, you’ll have a hard time fitting into the UChicago community. We are a community of scholars who are eager to make bold intellectual inquiries, who thrive on theorizing creative approaches to conundrums. You also need to be aware that the prompts indirectly reflect the academics at UChicago, particularly the notorious Core Curriculum which cut across multiple disciplines: Humanities, Social Science, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematics, History/Civilization, Music/Arts/Drama, and Foreign Language.

By successfully attempting the uncommon prompt, you get to showcase your personality and give the admissions committee an idea of how you will fit into the intellectual atmosphere of UChicago. Since UChicago is a highly personality-driven university, they put more emphasis on getting to know your creatively intellectual ideas instead of, say, your leadership experience, a significant challenge you’ve had, or even a letter to your roommate—yes, we are targeting Stanford!

- Hale Education Group