college essay prompts

Oregon university

• strength of academic course work
• grades earned
• grade trend
• standardized test scores
• senior-year course load
• motivation as demonstrated in the application essay
• extracurricular activities including community service and the need to work to assist your family
• ability to enhance the diversity of the university
• academic potential
• special talents

Chicago university

2013-14 essay questions:

ESSAY OPTION 1.Winston Churchill believed "a joke is a very serious thing." From Off-Off Campus’s improvisations to the Shady Dealer humor magazine to the renowned Latke-Hamantash debate, we take humor very seriously here at The University of Chicago (and we have since 1959, when our alums helped found the renowned comedy theater The Second City).
Tell us your favorite joke and try to explain the joke without ruining it.
Inspired by Chelsea Fine, Class of 2016ESSAY OPTION 2.In a famous quote by José Ortega y Gasset, the Spanish philosopher proclaims, "Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia" (1914). José Quintans, master of the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago, sees it another way: "Yo soy yo y mi microbioma" (2012).
You are you and your..?
Inspired by Maria Viteri, Class of 2016ESSAY OPTION 3."This is what history consists of. It's the sum total of all the things they aren't telling us." — Don DeLillo, Libra.
What is history, who are “they,” and what aren’t they telling us?
Inspired by Amy Estersohn, Class of 2010ESSAY OPTION 4.The mantis shrimp can perceive both polarized light and multispectral images; they have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom. Human eyes have color receptors for three colors (red, green, and blue); the mantis shrimp has receptors for sixteen types of color, enabling them to see a spectrum far beyond the capacity of the human brain.
Seriously, how cool is the mantis shrimp: mantisshrimp.uchicago.eduWhat might they be able to see that we cannot? What are we missing?
Inspired by Tess Moran, Class of 2016ESSAY OPTION 5.How are apples and oranges supposed to be compared? Possible answers involve, but are not limited to, statistics, chemistry, physics, linguistics, and philosophy.
Inspired by Florence Chan, Class of 2015ESSAY OPTION 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.

Menlo university

• Your academic strengths and weaknesses
• Your reason(s) for seeking a college education
• The kinds of learning experiences you hope will be a part of your college education
• Your reasons for choosing Menlo College\

University of north carolina chapolhill

First Essay. Choose one of the following prompts, and respond in an essay of 250-500 words. These are the essays listed on the main part of the Common Application. 

1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you. 
2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4. Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure, or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc) that has had influence on you, and explain that influence.
5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
6. Topic of your choice. 

Second Essay. Choose one of the following prompts, and respond in an essay of about 500 words. If you're applying via the Common App, these questions will be listed on the UNC-Chapel Hill Supplemental form. 

1. You just put a message in a bottle and threw the bottle out to sea. What is the message?
2. If you could design and teach your own course, what topic would you cover? What texts, assignments, projects, field trips, or other resources would you use in teaching this course?
3. What is your comfort food and why?
4. You just made the front page of the New York Times for doing something important that no one before you has ever thought to do. What did you do and why did you do it?
5. Carolina encourages students and faculty to solve problems. What problem are you trying to solve, and why is it important to you?
6. Tell us about a time when you changed your mind about something that mattered to you. What led to that change?