When applying for the University of Chicago, you will be asked to submit two supplemental essays: the “Why UChicago?” Essay and the Extended Essay, also known as the Uncommon Essay. UChicago is well-known for its unique supplemental essays, so read on for advice on how to use them to your advantage in writing your UChicago supplemental essays.
What are Supplemental Essays?
In addition to your Common App Personal Statement, many universities will also ask you to submit supplemental essays. These supplemental essays are opportunities to share more about yourself, whether it’s expanding on some of your extracurricular involvements, showing your leadership experience, explaining why you want to attend that college, or any other host of topics. They can range in length from as long as a personal statement to just a few sentences.
For more information on supplemental essays as a whole and how to write them, check out our Ultimate Guide to Writing Supplemental Essays.
UChicago Supplemental Essays 2024-2025
The UChicago supplemental essays are an important part of your overall application, allowing you to demonstrate your creativity and interest in the school.
UChicago Supplemental Essay Prompt
Like many colleges, the University of Chicago wants to know why you want to attend their school. The exact prompt is as follows:
- 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.
UChicago Extended Essay Prompts
The University of Chicago is known for having one of the most unique supplemental essays you’re likely to encounter: the extended essay, also known as the Uncommon Essay. Uncommon Essay prompts are inspired by submissions from current students and alumni, and while they change every year, applicants are welcome to use any past prompt, or even one of their choosing! The prompts for the 2024 application cycle are as follows:
- 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 - “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 - 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 - “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 - 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 - 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!
Writing the UChicago Supplemental Essays
Writing the Why UChicago? Essay
One of the first things you might notice is that, unlike most college application essays, this one doesn’t include a specific word limit. Neither of the UChicago supplemental essays have a word limit, but for the Why UChicago essay, anything between 300-600 words is recommended. As many UChicago admissions counselors like to say during information sessions, your Why UChicago essay should be so specific that if they covered up the name of the school, the reader would still be sure you were talking about UChicago.
For more in-depth advice on where to start with your Why UChicago research and what to include in this kind of essay, go to our “Why This College” guide.
How to Write the UChicago Extended Essay
Alright, let’s get down to business. If you’re looking for help with your UChicago supplemental essays, your biggest question is probably, “How the heck do I approach these extended essay questions?!” These prompts are really unique, but they don’t have to be intimidating!
Reading these prompts, you’ll quickly notice that they’re not asking about your extracurriculars, your desired major, your leadership experience, or any of the other things you’ve come to expect from a college essay.
In order to figure out your approach, first it’s important to know what the admissions counselors are looking for. What they aren’t looking for is a restatement of your resume. First, let’s consider what UChicago has shared on their website about these prompts:
The University of Chicago has long been renowned for our provocative essay questions. We think of them as an opportunity for students to tell us about themselves, their tastes, and their ambitions. They can be approached with utter seriousness, complete fancy, or something in between.
So what exactly are they asking for? In simplest terms, they’re asking for an essay that is totally you. What do you like? What excites you? What do you find hilarious? This essay is anything but traditional, and that means you can answer in any way you like, whether you want to write an argumentative essay, a math problem with proofs, a poem, a story, or anything else.
At HelloCollege, we’re going to challenge you to totally forget about college admissions when you write this piece. You don’t have to shoehorn in your greatest challenge or proudest achievement. In order to succeed here, challenge yourself to think outside the box, both critically and creatively, apply your existing knowledge to new challenges, and boldly share a little piece of yourself. There is no right or wrong answer; the only wrong choice is not going for it.
Choosing a UChicago Extended Essay Prompt
The six prompts listed are for the 2024-2025 application cycle, but UChicago also has a list of past prompts that are all fair game. All of the prompts, past and present, are given equal consideration, so if the first six don’t spark your interest, take a look at the expanded list of prompts on the UChicago admissions website.
You have a lot of freedom here, so try to find a prompt that speaks to you in some way. It may not have an “obvious” answer, but the right prompt may make you laugh, or think back to a conversation you had recently, or remind you of a book you love, or give you an opening to geek out about a favorite subject.
For example, let’s say you grew up a huge Harry Potter fan. If you waited by the mailbox all day on your eleventh birthday for that coveted letter from Hogwarts, there’s a prompt for you!
Lost your keys? Alohomora. Noisy roommate? Quietus. Feel the need to shatter windows for some reason? Finestra. Create your own spell, charm, jinx, or other means for magical mayhem. How is it enacted? Is there an incantation? Does it involve a potion or other magical object? If so, what’s in it or what is it? What does it do?
-Inspired by Emma Sorkin, Class of 2021
Tap back into your love of magic! Why did you want to be a wizard in the first place? How did you envision your life changing with the addition of magic spells? If you could wish away one inconvenience, gain or enhance one ability, or achieve something impossible, what would it be?
Or maybe physics is your favorite subject! If you love calculating velocity, deriving the mass of a planet from its orbit, or observing wave-particle duality, and especially if you happen to frequent casual dining restaurant chains, consider this prompt:
If there’s a limited amount of matter in the universe, how can Olive Garden (along with other restaurants and their concepts of food infinity) offer truly unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks? Explain this using any method of analysis you wish—physics, biology, economics, history, theology… the options, as you can tell, are endless.
-Inspired by Yoonseo Lee, Class of 2023
Infinity is generally considered to be an abstract concept. What would it take to make it a physical reality? How much energy would it take to make infinite food? How would they store infinite ingredients? Or is the definition of “infinite” up for debate? Maybe infinity is about growth potential! Is a sourdough starter “infinite” bread?
Every time a prompt catches your eye, make a note of it. Write down all the questions that pop into your head as you read it, and once you’ve read them all, return to the prompt that excites your curiosity the most. Don’t be afraid to be silly, artistic, creative, or serious in your response!
Formatting the UChicago Extended Essay
Once you’ve chosen your prompt and made a list of exploratory questions, it’s time to start thinking about what form you want your “essay” to take. Of course, being a UChicago supplemental essay, there isn’t a strict word limit, but they ask that you limit your response to a maximum of two full pages. That could be about 500 words double spaced, or about 1000 words single spaced. But why don’t they just give you a solid word limit??
The reason there isn’t one strict word limit is that they don’t want to give you the impression that your response has to be an essay. Let’s look at another example prompt:
You’re on a voyage in the thirteenth century, sailing across the tempestuous seas. What if, suddenly, you fell off the edge of the Earth?
-Inspired by Chandani Latey, AB’93
How would you personally approach this? Take a few moments to imagine your response.
If you’re a historian, maybe you’re imagining an essay that synthesizes several accounts of the most common beliefs about the edge of the world at that time.
If you’re a creative writer, you might be envisioning a fictional story about how long you fall and where you end up. If you’re an artist, maybe you see an image in your head that you’d like to paint and write a bit of an artist’s statement about.
If you’re a graphic novelist, maybe you’re picturing a two-page comic spread. If you’re a lover of Greek antiquity, this could be an excerpt from an epic poem. If you’re a physicist, maybe you want to hypothesize the acceleration rate of a ship falling off the edge of the Earth and explain what the effects might be.
All of those are great responses! Think about what your favorite way to express yourself is and what kind of work most excites you. You might want to come up with a few different ways that you could answer your favorite question and write them down. After a day or two of thinking, come back to your list with fresh eyes, and see which one you most look forward to writing.
And while we’ve discussed a lot of formatting options, it’s important to remember that a great essay is a great essay! If you feel most confident writing an essay that argues, synthesizes, compares, or persuades, go for it! Your essay will be the strongest if you use this opportunity to be yourself and play to your strengths and passions, whatever they might be. A non-traditional format is an option, not a requirement.
Writing the UChicago Extended Essay
Once you’ve decided on your prompt and your format, it’s time to bring those ideas to life! Remember, there is no word limit, but keep your response to up to two pages. Given the unique and individual nature of the UChicago supplemental essays, you might want to enlist some help. The experienced Essay Coaches at HelloCollege can help you select the right prompt, brainstorm the right approach, and edit your final draft stand out among other UChicago applicants.
To learn more, book a consultation today.
FAQs
Do the UChicago supplemental essays have a word limit?
No, there is no specific word limit. For the Why UChicago Essay, 300-600 words is recommended. For the UChicago Extended Essay, 500-700 words is recommended, with a hard limit of 2.0 pages.
Should my UChicago supplemental essays be double-spaced or single-spaced?
There isn’t a strict guideline for this. If you can fit everything you want to say into two pages double spaced, go for it. If you need more room, switch to single spacing.
What does UChicago look for in their supplemental essays?
In the extended essay, UChicago is looking for intellectual curiosity, openness to exploring new topics, and a window into how you think and what your passions are. In the Why UChicago essay, UChicago is looking for an explanation of what excites you about their university and how you hope to engage with their many resources and opportunities. They want to know that you’ll be a good fit for a rigorous liberal arts college that prides itself on its quirks.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the UChicago supplemental essays are a great opportunity to think outside the box and share your unique perspective. Try to have fun with your Uncommon Essay, and you may even find it a refreshing break from the standard college application process.
