TO DO:

COMMON APP ESSAY

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don't feel obligated to do so. (The application won't accept a response shorter than 250 words.)

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

NOTRE DAME ESSAY

Your responses will be read by Notre Dame admissions staff as we seek to learn more about you. We encourage you to use personal examples, anecdotes, or anything that helps differentiate you from your peers.

Why Notre Dame? (required response 150-200 words)

Please select two of the following four prompts and provide a response of approximately 150 words (not to exceed 200 words) to each. 

A good story starts with a good beginning. Get us hooked in the first 150 words.

Blessed Basil Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, described education as “the art of helping young people to completeness.” How are you incomplete?

Notre Dame students are encouraged to learn through discovery by interacting with the world around them. Describe your ideal intellectual field trip.

Initiate an in-person conversation with someone whom you've never met but who you think might be interesting. What did you learn about that person or yourself?

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ESSAY

ESSAY QUESTIONSEXTENDED ESSAY (REQUIRED; CHOOSE ONE)

1.

What's so odd about odd numbers?-Inspired by Mario Rosasco, Class of 2009

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

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

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

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

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.

SHORT ESSAYS:Please respond to Question 1—and, if you choose, Question 2—by

writing a paragraph or two for each question. Then choose one of the six extended essay options, indicate your choice, and write a one- or two-page response. This is your chance to play, analyze (don’t agonize), create, compose—let us hear the result of your thinking about something that interests you, in a voice that is your own.Question 1: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

Looking through the university’s website and watching different videos online, I learned that the University of Chicago offers a number of different organizations that cater to specific likes and interests of students. There is a myriad of opportunities for students who want to be engaged outside of the classroom, but are still really interested in school and academics. In high school, I am not only in the top 5 of my class of 589 students, I also am the team captain of our varsity football team, member of our student government’s executive board, representative in our Math Olympiad Team, one of the official student media photographers in school and the guitarist for my indie rock band. Clearly, I have a large spectrum of interests ranging from academics to sports to photography to music. University of Chicago’s environment of a rigorous academe while at the same time allowing students explore their other passions outside the classroom is what

Question 2 (Optional):Share with us a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, blogs, magazines, or newspapers. Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own.

BOSTON COLLEGE ESSAY

We would like to get a better sense of you. Please select one of the questions below and write an essay of 400 words or less providing your response.

1. What contemporary issue or trend relating to politics, culture, and society, or foreign policy particularly concerns you and why?

2. Many human beings throughout history have found inspiration and joy in literature and works of art. Is there a book, play, poem, movie, painting, music selection, or photograph that has been especially meaningful to you?

3. Contemporary higher education reflects a tension between preparing for a meaningful life and preparing for a career. What are you looking for in your undergraduate education? Which emphasis is more important to you at this time and why?

4. “Magis,” a Latin word meaning “more,” is often cited in reference to goals of Jesuit education, which seeks to help students become better, do more, and have as much impact on society as possible. How do you hope to achieve the Magis in your life?