"How do you feel about Wednesday?" the University of Chicago asks its applying students. Amherst wants you to comment on a quote from Alice in Wonderland. And in Princeton's "hodge-podge" section of its application, the admissions officers want to know your favorite way to relax, your favorite keepsake and the best advice you've ever received, but warns, "Please don't lose any sleep over the answers to these questions."
College applications are no longer so cut and dry. Yes, all of the above applications, and, in fact, most in the country do still have a nice little section for GPA and standardized test scores, but many schools are choosing to supplement the admissions data with a look into the personality of their students.
Dartmouth Dissent
Going completely against this trend for more detailed, personalized applications, Dartmouth chose to eliminate its own application for this year's applicants, choosing instead to rely solely on the Common Application.
The Common App was designed to be a single document that candidates can submit to several different participating institutions, eliminating the need for candidates to fill out many very different applications. Previously, Harvard had been the only school to use the Common App as their exclusive application.
Prior to this year, Dartmouth allowed students to submit either the Common App or Dartmouth's own application, but, according to Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg, "more and more students" were choosing the Common App, which contributed to the school's decision to eliminate its own application option.
"It was actually complicating our process to receive applications on several different forms," Furstenberg said. "In fact, it created a kind of unequalness -- how do you evaluate people using different forms?"
Furstenberg cited the increased accessibility of the Common App, particularly its online incarnation, as another key factor in the decision.
"People who are out there who are very talented can shy away from the Ivy League because we've had these very elitist applications," Furstenberg said. "I see it as a way of democratizing the system. It made us more accessible to kids across the country and around the world."
The Common App changes very little each year, but consistently includes just one personal statement essay question which can be on any subject, though vague suggestions are provided.
Consequently, some schools have chosen to avoid the Common App and retain their own personal applications, citing a frequent complaint about the Common App -- that it allows students to apply to excessive numbers of schools which accept the Common App without putting any thought into the application process, because they do not have to do more than just one application.
"Downright Wacky"
The University of Chicago has retained its own application, with its unique selection of essay questions as its centerpiece. In fact, the school actually prides itself on the individuality of its question selections.
"The University of Chicago has long been renowned for its provocative essay questions," reads the preface to the essay options in this year's application materials. "We think of them as an opportunity for students to tell us something about themselves ... They can be approached with utter seriousness, complete fancy or something in between."
In addition to positing questions about days of the weeks, Chicago gives applicants the option of telling a story, true or false, commenting on the existence of a parallel world and even allows students to make up a question "in the spirit of adventurous inquiry" and answer it.
To come up with the questions, the University emailed all students who had been admitted two years ago and asked them to come up with topics. According to the essay section introduction they school received "several hundred responses, many of which were eloquent, intriguing or downright wacky." Each of the five questions actually chosen for inclusion in the application were attributed to the student who had written the question.
Common App Supplements
However, as the Common App get becomes increasingly prevalent, some schools, including Harvard and Dartmouth, have chosen another option to get a little more personal information out of students than the rather dry Common App solicits.
These schools require a Common Application supplement, and while Dartmouth's is rather mundane, including both a peer reference and a "short form that asks a few personal, biographical questions," according to Furstenberg, other schools have used the supplement as their opportunity to be unique.
Amherst, for instance, requires another essay as part of its supplement, giving students options responding to a selection of attributed quotes.
"The Common App is generic, not a challenge," Tom Parker, Amherst Dean of Admissions said. "We are looking for questions that are a bit meatier and provocative."
Explaining the use of quotations as essay topics, Parker said Amherst is trying to tell students, "there is opinion out there in the world, and we want to know what you think."
