On January 25, 2012, someone in the College Confidential discussion group posted this thread:
Have you ever removed a college from your list because of the type (or number) of essays?
Responses poured in, mostly from the students’ parents who had actually given up on an application because they were intimidated by the essay questions, and many from the students themselves. One woman’s daughter dropped three applications and added one that had easier essay requirements. An aunt reported that her nephews applied to only one school, Iowa State, because the school did not require essays. And another self-proclaimed lazy procrastinator that his colleges are based on the ease of his essay requirements.
Student-dropped colleges executed the tactic and were led by Wake Forest and U Chicago: Barnard, Brown (2x), BU, Bryn Mawr, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago (8x), Claremont McKenna (3x), Columbia University (3x), CMC (2x), Cornell, University of Delaware, Duke, Elon, Georgetown, Grinnell (2x), Marquette Honors Program, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, MIT (2x), UNC (3x), Northwestern, Notre Dame (2x), NYU (2x), U Penn (3x), Princeton, Puget Sound, Rice (3x), Rutgers, Tufts (2x), Stanford (2x), Syracuse, UVA, Wake Forest (8x) and Yale (2x).
Why the aversion to single essay topics?
You could rant about how students are lazy or haven’t received enough training to think for themselves or think creatively. I might suggest that if our educational system did a better job on these fronts, and with teaching writing in general, students would not avoid writing essays that challenged them to invest time and thought. You might also suggest that students don’t start their application process early enough to ensure they have the time and attention for some unusual essay questions.
All of those things may be true, but I’m more interested in the schools’ logic behind asking unusual questions like “What does Play-Doh have to do with Plato?” (U Chicago), “What is your favorite amusement park ride? How does this reflect your approach to life?” (Emory University), “Imagine you had to wear a costume for a year of your life. What would you choose and why?” (Brandeis University) and “What would you do tomorrow with a free afternoon?” (Yale).
Why the penchant for single essay topics?
Universities may be proving to be up to date with the times. Some apps ask for short 25-word essay responses, like “My favorite thing from last Tuesday” (University of Maryland), perhaps for the Twitter generation. Tufts, George Mason and the University of Dayton allow prospective students to submit a video essay instead of a written one. Students can take advantage of the opportunity to communicate in ways that are spreading like wildfire in the world of social media.
the correct fit
In the College Confidential discussion, most students reported that they dropped out not only because of the essay requirements, but because there was an additional reason the school was not a good fit. Some were not enthusiastic about his visit to campus. Some realized when asked why they wanted to attend a particular school that they didn’t have a good reason. In contrast, some students reported that they took up writing difficult essays because a school was clearly their first choice. Some loved writing the very essays that turned other students away (including the Wake Forest and Chicago essays). And one student turned down a school (Wash U in St. Louis) because he didn’t No ask a supplemental essay question! He thought the school was trying to increase its US News ranking by encouraging applications. Not surprisingly, two other students applied to Wash U (as well as many other schools, Dartmouth, Harvard, and William & Mary, to name a few) because of the simplicity of their essay requirements.
Perhaps universities like Wake Forest and U Chicago are shooting themselves in the foot. Several anecdotes surfaced in the College Confidential discussion about students who were accepted to one school with a simple application (Harvard, for example) while they were still working on essays for another school. Schools with longer or more complex essay requirements could be missing out on some qualified and motivated students in addition to those who simply don’t care enough to jump through hoops.
However, for most schools, it appears that they are doing a good job weeding out applicants. If an Honors application intimidates you, that’s a very good sign that you shouldn’t be in that program. If an essay challenge makes you realize that you are not up to that challenge, regardless of the reason, then that school has done you and itself a favor. What a great strategy to gain the number of applications for a group of students who will face an extra challenge or two because they really want to go to a particular school.
As one College Confidential member put it, “Frankly, there are too many excellent, well-rounded students applying to top colleges to single out a select few without asking creative, weird questions. That’s where you start to see a student’s personality and that It’s what gets you in.”