人说芝大要奇文，捉道踢笔好入门

Selecting new prompts every year begins with soliciting members of the UChicago community, both past and present, and asking them to submit ideas.

Below, view two of the 2021-2022 essay prompts for prospective students and the thought process behind their creation. 

 

In Homer’s Iliad, Helen had a “face that launched a thousand ships.” A millihelen, then, measures the beauty needed to launch one ship. The Sagan unit is used to denote any large quantity (in place of “billions and billions”). A New York Minute measures the period of time between a traffic light turning green and the cab behind you honking. Invent a new unit of measurement. How is it derived? How is it used? What are its equivalents?

—Inspired by Carina Kane, Class of 2024, and Ishaan Goel, Class of 2025

 

 

"There is no such thing as a new idea" - Mark Twain. Are any pieces of art, literature, philosophy, or technology truly original, or just a different combination of old ideas? Pick something, anything (besides yourself), and explain why it is, or is not, original.

—Inspired by Haina Lu, Class of 2022

所有跟帖： 

• 芝大的题目让人看晕为止。其实都是一二年级的学生想出来的 -randomness- ♀ (278 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 07:37:19

• 不好意思，我村去之大的都是学习不很出色标考好无大奖，但essay一定写的不错 -金一位- ♂ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 07:39:12

• Essay就吓跑一大批不爱思考的娃。属于self selection? 非ED不可又吓跑一批。 -randomness- ♀ (47 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 07:44:32

• 想起个问题。现在有的好学校都不要essay不要SAT，为的是增加报名人数压低录取率。芝大还是把essay搞得这么难，可是又最爱玩 -randomness- ♀ (136 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 07:50:56

• 芝大Niche 最难进大学排名高于Yale. 不要被上面的post mislead you. -mingl98- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 07:59:00

• 好了，说多了又要开战了，长周末出去玩玩多好 -徽州老家- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:03:05

• 掐，我最喜欢看掐架，哈哈哈。出去玩？那就留着晚上看；-） -胡宙- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:15:39

• Niche 真的看看就好 -randomness- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:07:29

• 为啥要难进的大学呢，不是自己给自己找麻烦嘛 -12度圆缺- ♂ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:10:16

• Essay 差不多就行了。关键是有让AO impressed 的EC. -mingl98- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:01:00

• Niche 某种程度上是最准确的。就像公投一样。芝大在Niche排名不高，也代表了普通高中生的选择。 -mingl98- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:10:00

• 本来就没戏的去公投也没用啊 -randomness- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:15:47

• 我们有个朋友的儿子stats 不是一般的好。还有各种stem 竞赛都很出色。ED 芝大直接被拒了。 -mingl98- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:30:00

• 是不是怕他录取了不来，坏了yield rate？ -tennisluv- ♂ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 10:08:48

• 芝大绝对牛校啊， -Jiangmin- ♀ (127 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:42:07

• 朋友的孩子最后还是去了Ivy plus. 具体哪家就不能说了，不然又打架了。 -mingl98- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 08:58:00

• 你非带上plus那就不是T5？lol -randomness- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 09:07:18

• T5不是有两个+吗？ -胡宙- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 09:42:28

• Ivy plus 也不好进啊。真实的故事. 孩子把自己锁在房间里拒绝和家人说话。 -mingl98- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 09:13:00

• 为啥？有啥不高兴的？ -randomness- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 09:17:33

• ED 被拒了以后 -mingl98- ♀ (0 bytes) () 09/04/2021 postreply 09:31:00