Essay Questions of 2011
According to the National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC), the importance that colleges place on student essays has been steadily increasing. So here are a few of the more unusual prompts…
The University of Chicago: “What does Play-Doh™ have to do with Plato?”
Wake Forest: “Give us your top ten list.”
Franklin & Marshall: “Imagine yourself as Benjamin Franklin the inventor. What would you invent and who would it impact?”
Bard asked “The Austrian writer and social critic Karl Kraus, famous for his provocative aphorisms, wrote ‘Civilization ends, since barbarians erupt from it.’ Write a short commentary on what you think this might mean from your perspective 100 years later and whether it makes any sense.”
Barnard asked “Alumna and writer Anna Quindlen says that she ‘majored in unafraid’ at Barnard. What does that mean to you?”
Villanova prompted students with “One of the core values of Villanova, as an Augustinian university, is that student and faculty learn from each other. As you imagine yourself as a member of the Villanova community, what is one lesson that you have learned in your life that you will want to share with others?”
UNC asked for applicants to list briefly, their: dream job, most overrated superhero, most underrated superhero, former kindergarten fear, gadget that needs inventing and advice for adults.
Tufts asked “The human narrative is replete with memorable characters like America’s Paul Revere, ancient Greece’s Perseus or the Fox Spirits of East Asia. Imagine one of humanity’s storied figures is alive and working in the world today. Why does Rapunzel work at Saks? Would Shiva be a general or a diplomat? Is Quetzalcoatl trapped in a zoo? In short, connect your chosen figure to the contemporary world and imagine the life he/she/it might lead.”
Jewel Rama • Jan 26, 2012 at 8:09 pm
I must question on the Wake Forest: Top Ten prompt. It’s just way to vague, like would there be a specific area they are looking for. Do they mean top ten movies,book,songs,actors,subjects,games. Or is it a combination of both, the paranormia of what they truely want would make the task much harder than needed to be.