mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
As high school seniors across the country are hard at work on their college applications, let’s take a look at some of the stranger questions those wacky admissions officers have asked.
1. How do you feel about Wednesday? (University of Chicago, 2002)
This topic was inspired by a student. However, it was optional. Students did not have to share their thoughts on Wednesday if they did not feel comfortable doing so.
2. What outrages you? (Wake Forest, 2009)
For most students? Questions like this one. We think admissions officers are looking for a particular answer, like “genocide.” Wake Forest claims they just want to know the real you, but honestly, they’re just being obnoxious.
3. Write a haiku, limerick, or short poem that best represents you. (NYU, 2009)
Oh please, NYU
College essays are stressful
Don’t make me do this.
4. In the year 2050, a movie is being made of your life. Please tell us the name of your movie and briefly summarize the story line. (NYU, 2009)
College admissions officers like to throw in “fun” questions like this to relieve a bit of the stress high school seniors face while applying to college. I don’t think it’s working.
5. Are we alone? (Tufts, 2009)
This question is one of several options for prospective Tufts students this year. I’m wondering how most people will interpret this one—I immediately thought of extraterrestrial life. In any case, I’m betting most students will pick a more generic essay that involves less thinking.
6. What is college for? (Hampshire College, 2009)
Small liberal arts colleges like to pose deceptively simple questions like this one. I’d probably come up with something cheesy about forming close personal bonds and broadening myself intellectually.
7. Please describe a daily routine or tradition of yours that may seem ordinary to others but holds special meaning for you. Why is this practice significant to you? (Barnard, 2009)
Yet another essay that lets you sneakily show how unique you are. Colleges want students to really open up, but I wonder how many essays like these have fabricated answers of what the students think will sound good, not reality.
8. Make a bold prediction about something in the year 2020 that no one else has made a bold prediction about. (University of Virginia, 1999)
UVa is another college that offers several interesting optional essays each year. Colleges claim they truly are optional and you won’t be penalized for not doing them…
9. Write a short story using one of the following titles: a.) House of Cards, b.)The Poor Sport, c.) Drama at the Prom, d.) Election Night, 2044, e.) The Getaway. (Tufts, 2009)
This is an unusual essay, as it’s asking for something fictional. But I’d imagine any prospective creative writing majors would be quite happy to pen a short story rather than a revealing nonfiction essay.
10. How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.) (Chicago, 2009)
I had to include another UChicago one—they’re just so odd. This one is also inspired by a student (I’m curious to know the source of the inspiration.) This university likes to use offbeat questions because it draws in a different kind of student—a bit eclectic and intellectual—which is just what Chicago is looking for.
11. You have just completed your 300-page autobiography. Please submit Page 217. (UPenn, 2009)
This topic was popularized by UPenn in the ’80s, and many other colleges have adopted it since. I read one (possibly apocryphal) anecdote about a father who called an admissions officer to ask if his son could send his essay in late, as he wouldn’t have time to finish his 300 page autobiography before deadline.
* * * * *
Do you know of any other interesting essay topics? Tell us about them in the comments!
More from mental_floss…
8 Tuition-Free Colleges
*
Study Break: 7 College Cheating Scandals
*
The Stories Behind Graduation Traditions
*
11 Unusual Majors Your College Probably Didn’t Offer
*
6 College Perks That Might Make You Jealous
*
10 Famous Homeschooled People
*
4 Extravagant College Boosters
*
12 Star-Powered College Roommate Pairs
Comments (32)
Comment
- Follow mental_floss
Why do many students drop out of college?
posted by Sara in AL on 10-13-2009 at 12:50 pm
At one of the schools I applied to, one of the topics let you write and answer your own question. Mine was “Can you come up with a better way to evaluate potential students than essay questions?” I thought it was brilliant. (They didn’t agree. I got waitlisted.)
posted by Maura on 10-13-2009 at 12:55 pm
10. Well, the car got stuck in the mud when we stopped to take pictures of a caboose that was just sitting off the side of the road. We weren’t supposed to be there but fortunately the “Off Limits” sign that was supposed to keep people awsy from the nuclear weapons storage area was missing.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 10-13-2009 at 1:06 pm
I remember when I was applying for UVA (Go HOO’s!!) I read an essay that I think Harvard received for the basic question “Tell us about yourself.” The essay was how this student had climbed Everest, went to the moon, solved world hunger, saved the wetlands, cured cancer . . . but had not yet been to college. Supposedly he was accepted. I found that interesting.
posted by Nathan on 10-13-2009 at 1:06 pm
If it were a school such as MIT or Digitech, I could see a question like this:
Name one common routine a person does daily that will be changed dramatically by 2030 due to technology. Explain how it will progress to that point.
posted by Steven on 10-13-2009 at 1:11 pm
I don’t know, Maura.
I had one scholarship application that I filled out, and the question was “What was the most important question we asked you on here and why?” I’m sure they wanted a description of one of the other essay questions. But I wrote “My name. Now you know who to send the scholarship to!”
Point is, I won a $500 scholarship.
posted by Amauriel on 10-13-2009 at 1:12 pm
I remember seeing the essay Nathan’s talking about. I found it online (though I’m not sure where it came from or if it’s real)…
3a. Essay:
In order for the admissions staff of our college to get to know you, the applicant, better, we ask that you answer the following question:
Are there any significant experiences you have had, or accomplishments you have realized, that have helped to define you as a person?
I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.
I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.
Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets. I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.
I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.
I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.
I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four-course meals using only a Mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
But I have not yet gone to college.
posted by Jason English on 10-13-2009 at 1:13 pm
When I applied to Wake Forest (fall of 2001), one of the essays for the scholarship application was “Describe an expressive silence.” And not only that, but it had to be hand written.
posted by Jess on 10-13-2009 at 1:16 pm
What if page 217 of your autobiography was a picture? That’d be a pretty easy answer. :)
posted by Chastity on 10-13-2009 at 1:42 pm
When applying to TCU, they include a blank piece of white copy paper. You are supposed to do whatever you want with it: write, draw or use it to create an entirely different object. I am not sure if they still do this though.
posted by erin on 10-13-2009 at 1:58 pm
I did the “write page 217 of your 300 page autobiograhpy” for my admission to Iona College in 1998. It went really well. I was awarded a pretty hefty scholarship too. But the only reason why I did it was because I only was required to write one page.
posted by Spooner on 10-13-2009 at 2:40 pm
I was thinking something similar to Chastity’s response to number 11. I’d submit an illustrated chapter title page but *also* include page 218. (”As I don’t believe page 217 was quite what you were looking for, I have taken the liberty to attach page 218 as well.”)
Of course, page 217 would only be the right half of the illustration, which covers pages 216 and 217, but that’s what they get for being overly specific.
Alternately, as I have been into photography for many years, there’s a good chance that my autobiography could be a coffee table photo book, in which case page 217 might be the right third of a photo, plus the caption. As page 217 would be approximately 20 years from now (assuming few pages before age 20, a last included chapter somewhere beyond age 60, and roughly linear production between those), I’d have to photoshop it a bit.
posted by CJ the Photo Essayist on 10-13-2009 at 2:47 pm
Maybe it’s just because it’s been 20 years ago (!), but I don’t even remember filling out a college application, much less writing an essay. I remember getting a letter saying I had a full scholarship, but I remember nothing of the application process.
posted by Wendy on 10-13-2009 at 2:49 pm
on kalamazoo college’s app this year:
Pick the international or domestic travel destination you believe best defines you and explain, in one paragraph, why you believe this locale to be an accurate description of your persona.
i thought it was very fun to write! unfortunate that it is a short answer, though: only 250 characters.
posted by Laura on 10-13-2009 at 3:15 pm
I was actually able to enroll in college without having completed the admissions essay. Got a scholarship, too. But they did make me write it eventually. And when I finally got my official acceptance letter, they mailed it to my campus box.
posted by Tina on 10-13-2009 at 3:46 pm
Is this a question?
The easy non-philosophical answer being:
If that is a question, then this is my answer.
posted by Katie on 10-13-2009 at 4:00 pm
I wrote on question 11 for UPenn — it was a lot of fun.
posted by Liz on 10-13-2009 at 4:05 pm
it is a 300 page book. why would there be pictures at 217? pictures would be at 150. pictures would most likely not be that close to the end as it is a short book.
i really enjoyed the fictional bio.
posted by rick on 10-13-2009 at 5:31 pm
I think college is “for” learning NOT to end a sentence with the word ‘for”????
posted by Carolyn on 10-13-2009 at 5:36 pm
are we alone?
since “we” are asking, then no.
posted by m on 10-13-2009 at 5:57 pm
Just what I was thinking,…
We by definition is more than one, so we are definitely not alone.
posted by Jeffrey on 10-13-2009 at 6:01 pm
U of Chicago had another one a couple years ago that my friend told me about – “What is in non-dairy creamer?” My friend’s answer? “Well, since the invention of the computer and the spellcheck in Word, there has been a lot of whiteout lying around…”
posted by Delia on 10-13-2009 at 7:40 pm
I wrote an essay for St. Edward’s in Austin about what I would do if I was separated from my field trip group at the symphony and ended up in a pit with a wolf and the only items I had to help me get out were an ipod, a history book, a note from my mom that says I have to leave early for a dentist appointment, fishing line, a protractor, and I think something else.
I was accepted but I went somewhere else.
posted by natalie on 10-13-2009 at 7:50 pm
Number 10 reminds me of a question on the Florida Law Enforcement Clearance form “Have you ever committed a crime for which you were not arrested or prosecuted? If so, please provide the details” The funny thing is that people do say “Yes” and provide all the details.
posted by Dave on 10-13-2009 at 8:00 pm
I believe Rice has a similar question to TCU’s in that they give you a box on a piece of paper and ask that you fill the box with something that describes you or is important to you.
One kid I know actually cut out the box and in newspaper letters put a ransom note on the page asking for acceptance to Rice in return for the box. He got in, if I recall correctly.
posted by Divya on 10-13-2009 at 8:48 pm
The midterm in my english class was \Write an academic essay about the correct format of an academic essay.
posted by Emily S. S. on 10-13-2009 at 9:04 pm
When I applied to U Chicago in 2001 one of my essays was a response to this prompt: “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 food and a half tall? … Write an essay somehow inspired by super-huge mustard”. I wrote some rambling thing about synesthesia.
posted by Dave on 10-13-2009 at 10:49 pm
One response from a University of Washington chemistry mid term (supposedly):
Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or
endothermic (absorbs heat)?
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that
all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, “It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over.
The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct…… leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.”
posted by gwdMaine on 10-14-2009 at 12:51 pm
The only answer for the first question posed (How do you feel about Wednesday) is: “Wednesdays are fine. I could just never get the hang of Thursdays.”
Douglas Adams, FTW!!!!!
posted by Anthony on 10-14-2009 at 12:53 pm
University of Delaware 2004 application had a question that was “Imagine. Write a story 2 pages or less fiction or non.”
posted by Vicki on 10-14-2009 at 2:46 pm
when i applied to tulane two years ago, their honors college application included a question similar to rice’s: you were given a box and told to put anything in it, around it, or to create anything out of it. the ransom note is pretty brilliant, i have to say.
posted by Celeste on 10-14-2009 at 9:36 pm
To number 8
I will be president in 2020, on the campaign slogan, I Will Push that Shiny Red button to Make Coffee in my Oval Office.
posted by Charlies on 10-18-2009 at 10:36 am