University of Chicago has revealed its 2024-2025 admissions cycle supplemental essay prompts, and they’re as distinctive as ever before.
The first essay first-year applicants must respond to is the relatively staid “Why UChicago” essay prompt that has been around for a while:
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.
While there is no formal word count limit on applicants’ responses to the prompt above, one page single-spaced should be more than enough.
Then, depending on one’s perspective, things either go off a cliff or get really exciting because University of Chicago asks first-year applicants to complete one more essay (again with no defined word-count limit) in response to one of the following new prompts for those seeking admission into University of Chicago’s undergraduate Class of 2029:
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 Name an outdated slang from any decade or language that you’d bring back and explain why you totally “dig it.”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
The sixth option for an applicant’s second essay is the following catch all:
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!
Of course, UChicago first-year applicants must also complete the Common App essay.
Also new for the 2024-2025 admissions cycle, University of Chicago has a no-harm testing policy regardless of whether applicants take advantage of the university’s Early Decision I (November 1 deadline), Early Action (November 1 deadline), Early Decision II (January 6 deadline), or Regular Decision (January 6 deadline) admissions plans.
While University of Chicago has yet to publish its Class of 2028 Profile, its Class of 2027 Profile indicates that 38,800 students applied, 1,849 students were accepted, and 1,626 matriculated into the university from the start to the finish of the 2022-2023 admissions cycle.
More Thoughts About the University of Chicago Supplemental Essay Prompts:
What Do Actual University of Chicago Students Love About Their University? We Asked:
University of Chicago Introduces Exclusive Very Early Decision (EVED)
