Chapter Seven
This is a trend that more schools are using outside of the traditional application to learn more about their applicants. You are given your choice of several unusual questions and you must use your creativity to answer them. Some schools may even allow you to answer a question you devised. The University of Chicago was a pioneer in this approach, and they offer different questions every year. Most of these prompts have been submitted by University of Chicago students. From the University of Chicago website, here are some of their classic creative prompts from the past.
Due to a series of clerical errors, there is exactly one typo (an extra letter, a removed letter, or an altered letter) in the name of every department at the University of Chicago. Oops! Describe your new intended major. Why are you interested in it and what courses or areas of focus within it might you want to explore? Potential options include Commuter Science, Bromance Languages and Literatures, Fundamentals: Issues and Texts, Ant History . . . a full list of unmodified majors ready for your editor’s eye is available here.
—Inspired by Josh Kaufman, AB’18
Joan of Arkansas. Queen Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Babe Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mash up a historical figure with a new time period, environment, location, or occupation, and tell us their story.
—Inspired by Drew Donaldson, AB’16
Alice falls down the rabbit hole. Milo drives through the tollbooth. Dorothy is swept up in the tornado. Neo takes the red pill. Don’t tell us about another world you’ve imagined, heard about, or created. Rather, tell us about its portal. Sure, some people think of the University of Chicago as a portal to their future, but please choose another portal to write about.
—Inspired by Raphael Hallerman, Class of 2020
What’s so odd about odd numbers?
—Inspired by Mario Rosasco, AB’09
Little pigs, French hens, a family of bears. Blind mice, musketeers, the Fates. Parts of an atom, laws of thought, a guideline for composition. Omne trium perfectum? Create your own group of threes, and describe why and how they fit together.
—Inspired by Zilin Cui, Class of 2018
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, AB’15
Heisenberg claims that you cannot know both the position and momentum of an electron with total certainty. Choose two other concepts that cannot be known simultaneously and discuss the implications. (Do not consider yourself limited to the field of physics.)
—Inspired by Doran Bennett, AB’07
Susan Sontag, AB’51, wrote that “[s]ilence remains, inescapably, a form of speech.” Write about an issue or a situation when you remained silent, and explain how silence may speak in ways that you did or did not intend. The Aesthetics of Silence, 1967.
—Anonymous Suggestion
So where is Waldo, really?
—Inspired by Robin Ye, AB’16
Find x.
—Inspired by Benjamin Nuzzo, an admitted student from Eton College, UK
Dog and Cat. Coffee and Tea. Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. Everyone knows there are two types of people in the world. What are they?
—Inspired by an anonymous alumna, AB’06
How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.)
—Inspired by Kelly Kennedy, AB’10
Chicago author Nelson Algren said, “A writer does well if in his whole life he can tell the story of one street.” Chicagoans, but not just Chicagoans, have always found something instructive, and pleasing, and profound in the stories of their block, of Main Street, of Highway 61, of a farm lane, of the Celestial Highway. Tell us the story of a street, path, road—real or imagined or metaphorical.
—Anonymous Suggestion
“Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.”—Miles Davis (1926–1991)
—Inspired by Jack Reeves
The essays you create from these prompts are not a direct reflection of your personality. But schools use them to get an idea of your creativity, writing ability, and ingenuity. Sometimes you can research a subject and use some facts to enhance your essay. Done well, this can impress a reader. These essays are personal; no one can tell you how to write them. For that reason, you should give them some thought and use your imagination. This is an opportunity, perhaps your best opportunity, to take chances with your application. There are obviously no wrong answers to these prompts but some essays are better than others, and the best essays are often the weirdest.
Perhaps the best advice we can give you about questions like these is to show you some examples of successful creative essays. After you read these, you may get ideas on how to approach these prompts. Without question, the most important takeaway is that you want to make your creative essay readable and entertaining. You’ll want someone to read your Common App essay and your supplementals to give you feedback. This is the one essay you may want more than one person to read, not so much for feedback but to see if they enjoyed reading it.
The following are some UChicago prompts and creative essays.
What does Play-Doh™ have to do with Plato?
What does Play-Doh have to do with Pluto? First off, this prompt is unclear. Does it mean compare Play-Doh with Pluto the “planet,” or Pluto the dog? Well, since the prompt is ambiguous, I will discuss both Plutos and what they have to do with Play-Doh.
The key issue here is respect—I’ve got a bone to pick (and it’s not the one that belongs to Pluto the dog). Essentially, even though they are all about the same age, Play-Doh gets all the respect while the two Plutos get absolutely none. ZERO. Personally, I’m angry because I don’t think that’s fair. The two Plutos deserve just as much, if not more, respect than Play-Doh.
Admittedly, Play-Doh was a clever invention. But it was invented in the 1930’s as a wallpaper cleaner. A wallpaper cleaner? Big deal. I’m sure back in the 1930’s, nobody gave much respect to this wallpaper cleaner, which is basically quick-drying clay. Then Play-Doh got lucky. It caught on as a fun, moldable craft. All those Baby Boomer kids got bored with their Hula-Hoops and their Etch-a-Sketches, so pretty soon every Jane and Jimmie was playing with it. It didn’t hurt that it also caught on with kindergarten teachers. Plus it had a hokey logo—the little boy in a blue beret. So by 1998, Play-Doh, the former wallpaper cleaner, got inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in New York. Now that’s respect.
Meanwhile in 1930, about the same time the wallpaper cleaner was being invented, Illinois native Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered a new planet. Imagine that, there are only eight planets and Clyde discovers the ninth, Pluto. That should get some respect. But then what happens? Because Pluto is smaller than the other planets and is farther away from Earth, it gets demoted to a “dwarf planet” in 2006. What is a dwarf planet anyway? Just because it still has the word “planet” in its name doesn’t ease the pain from its demotion. So what if it hangs out in the Kuiper Belt? Can’t it still be a planet? Play-Doh gets in the Hall of Fame and Pluto gets kicked out of the planet club. It’s a good thing Clyde Tombaugh didn’t live to hear the appalling news of Pluto’s demotion. That sound you hear is Clyde spinning in his grave. No respect for Pluto, “the dwarf.”
And then there’s Pluto the dog. Another example of no respect. Pluto gets into a Disney cartoon in 1930 when people are figuring out how to clean their wallpaper and Clyde Tombaugh is busy at his telescope. Pluto does well in his small roles and in 1934 he gets his own cartoon and gives a great performance. Does he become a star? Not on your life. He’s not even the top dog at Disney. Ask people to name a Disney dog and you will get Goofy every time. Sure, Pluto has a good reputation, but no respect. Compare him to the big stars, Mickey and Donald. I bet you can name both Mickey and Donald’s girlfriends, but what Pluto’s girlfriend’s name? See what I mean? (Her name is Dinah the Dachshund, in case you were wondering.) Every other animal Walt Disney created in the 1930’s got dialogue. Pluto just chased cars. No respect.
Play-Doh is just a clump of flour, water, and salt. Yet it gets celebrated by millions of people around the world. What do Pluto, the dwarf planet, and Pluto, the dog, get? The short end of the stick. They didn’t do anything to deserve this mistreatment. Give Pluto a chance—and some respect, for Clyde Tombaugh and Walt Disney’s sake.
On top of this, the two Plutos get confused with each other. You are never sure which one people are referring to. What does Play-Doh get confused with? A great Greek classical philosopher. . . . WAIT A MINUTE. WHOOPS, I JUST REREAD THE PROMPT. IT SAID PLATO, NOT PLUTO! I’m sorry. It’s too late to change my essay. Never mind. . . .
Admit it, you wouldn’t believe if someone told you that you could misread the prompt and still write a successful essay; not only a successful essay, but one about misreading the prompt. This author took a chance, but it paid off (this student was accepted to the University of Chicago). This is the purpose of the creative question—to encourage you to take chances with your imagination and your writing.
If you look past the risk-taking aspect, you will see that it contains all the elements of a strong essay. There is a premise: comparing Pluto the dog and Pluto the planet (Play-Doh really has nothing to do with the essay). The author has done research—on the planet, on the Disney character, even on Pluto the dog’s girlfriend. And it has a payoff: misreading the essay. There is even a little humor in the conclusion. The shock value is in the “misreading of the prompt,” which the author obviously didn’t misread, but its most important function is to serve as a good payoff. This creative essay demonstrates it helps to develop a good premise and supplement it with a strong payoff.
Joan of Arkansas. Queen Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Babe Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Mash up a historical figure with a new time period, environment, location, or occupation, and tell us their story.
A Modern-Day Biblical Tale of a Righteous Man
In Genesis, a righteous man named Noah took his family, along with a male and female pair of every animal, and saved them from The Flood by herding them on an ark for forty days and forty nights. When the Flood receded, he released his children and the animals to repopulate the Earth.
Few people know about his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson, Joakim, a righteous man who did something nearly as heroic. Like his ancestor, Joakim Noah was tall and muscular, a basketball player with plenty of hair on his face. One day—perhaps it was in his genes—he realized that the leather skins of animals were used to make basketballs. Out of kindness, again—perhaps it was in his genes—he took on the mission to stop this at all costs and save the animals. In the dead of night, he snuck into leather factories across the Earth, where the animals were warehoused. Like his famous ancestor, he saved the animals by collecting them on an ark. The animals of the second Noah’s Ark sensed the imminent danger of the factories and were anxious to escape.
After returning the animals to their rightful birthplaces, he decided to return to his rightful birthplace. He left his home in Chicago to go back to New York to play for the Knicks. Unfortunately for him, his mission caused unintended problems. The next morning, when the factory workers returned to their warehouses, they realized that their animals were missing, so they had no choice but to take a break from producing leather. With the production of leather halted, the number of basketballs soon dried up. Because of this, the Knicks found themselves practicing with too few balls. And because their practices were in vain, they began to perform poorly in games.
Because the Bible says confession is good for the soul, Noah did the honorable thing and disclosed that he was to blame. Initially, General Manager Jackson from Chicago, and the other players, wanted to kick him off the team. However, Noah called them together and explained that the righteous thing was to play with rubber balls and balls made of synthetic materials.
Like his ancestor rescuing the animals from The Flood, Joakim showed his compassion for animals by sacrificing leather basketballs. The Lord rewarded the Knicks for Noah’s righteousness by granting them the NBA Championship.
The moral is that for Noah II, getting the animals on the Ark was a long, tiring process, but he, too, was rewarded by The Lord. Using the skills he learned on the basketball court, he was careful to shepherd others. And just as with his ancestor, his family prospered as well. His mother, Cecilia Rodhé, inspired by her son’s actions and compassion for others, joined forces with him to create Noah’s Ark Foundation, which fosters an alternative path for animals destined to be slaughtered. This foundation monitors and improves the emotional and physical well-being of animals. The foundation that Noah and his mother created thrives as a testimony to their righteousness. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
This essay illustrates how you can go in almost any direction, but even if you have an interesting premise, you have to be able to follow through on it. Here, it’s pretty easy to think of a historical mashup, all it takes is a play on someone’s name. But creating a payoff can be difficult. We have seen a number of students think of a brilliant premise, and then struggle to find a payoff. In this case, the premise is good—a mashup of Biblical Noah with a modern-day basketball player—but the idea does not work unless there is a payoff. That’s why Noah’s Ark Foundation is what makes the essay. And the beauty of it is that Joakim Noah really did create a foundation for animals with his mother. The writer found the payoff by doing some research. With a premise and payoff, all the writer has to do is fill in the blanks with some well-written creative sentences about basketballs. The lesson is that sometimes a little research can solve your problem by finding a payoff for your premise and making for an enjoyable essay as well.
Were pH an expression of personality, what would be your pH and why? (Feel free to respond acidly! Do not be neutral, for that is base!)
“Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes”
—Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
When an acid and base mix together, they neutralize each other to create water, and are assigned the pH of 7. Water is two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom, precisely as the laws of chemistry predict. Yet water glistens with magic unpredictability in Monet’s “Water Lilies” and forms the droplets I watch race down the window of our family minivan. Water ebbs and flows, freezes and evaporates—scientific and poetic in equal measure. The number 7 seems to fall short in its description of water.
Water cannot be described by a single number, and neither can I. If I were to average every experience over my 18 years, every moment of wonder and facet of my personality, the result would not truly convey who I am. In water, hydrogen and hydroxide ions exist in equilibrium, reacting and ionizing without pause. Similarly, I am nuanced, contradictory, and more complex than a number.
People love to create order from chaos. We yearn to draw lines, categorize, and attach numbers and labels. Our greatest failing is in trying to apply this logic to individuals. A person cannot be summarized merely as a series of test scores, a salary, or an IQ. When we describe a person using numbers, as we might describe a solution’s pH, we lose crucial aspects of what it means to be human.
Walt Whitman tells me that I am large and that I contain multitudes, so I say that I cannot be described by mere numbers. For each triumph, misstep, discovery, and for each bland and beautiful moment in between, I am a new version of myself. My personality, who I am now, and how I fit into the world, is more than an average, or a test score. It is the sum of every self I’ve ever been, and every self I’ll ever be. How could anyone assign that a number?
This is a wonderful essay. It’s not long, 338 words, but read it over and see how many different things the author incorporates: chemistry, a quote by Walt Whitman, a painting by Monet. And at the same time, she affords the reader a glimpse of her personality. It’s an excellent example of how a good essay does not have to be long. In fact, the best essays are often short. Each of the four paragraphs is self-contained, you could write an effective essay with any one of them. And the transitions are smooth. It’s also a good illustration of how to use a quote in your essay. The quote is not what you would expect with a prompt about acid-base chemistry. Notice how she introduces the essay with the quote and then circles back to it in the conclusion. The last line, a question, makes for a compelling ending.
Alice falls down the rabbit hole. Milo drives through the tollbooth. Dorothy is swept up in the tornado. Neo takes the red pill. Don’t tell us about another world you’ve imagined, heard about, or created. Rather, tell us about its portal. Sure, some people think of the University of Chicago as a portal to their future, but please choose another portal to write about.
In the third corner of the world, past mountains, oceans, rivers, and hills, sits a forest—a forest so deep and long that no man has ever made it through and come back to tell the tale. Foggy, lovely, lush, and deep, the density of the forest creates very little light, permitting only a few feet of visibility at a time. Only the squeaking of unseen birds breaks the constant buzz of cicadas heard from miles around this forest.
There is only one known path which offers entrance into these deep woods: a twisted and knotty trail for the width of about one man. The path is meant to be taken alone.
Along the path of the forest, the earth routinely quakes every few hours, sending spiders the size of men into a howling frenzy. Purple polka dotted mushrooms grow out of larger scarlet striped mushrooms, which grow out of taupe trees. Despite the natural darkness of the forest, creatures who have developed varying degrees of bioluminescence illuminate the trail.
Finally, after miles upon miles of darkness, the path enters a small clearing. Short grass and daisies dot the area around a lake. If the lake were a conservative field, the flux of the wave magnitude would be low, but the curl would be high. The water is quiet, but the muggy blue holds secrets older than the abiotic fairies. Algae and duckweed dot the surface; scaly fish and other predatory creatures break the surface of the water with their dorsal fins. Despite the darkness, the inky liquid is intensely alive.
The waters are continuously swirling, shifting, shaking, around a small island at the base of the saddle of the hyperbolic paraboloid of flitting fairies. Golden, sparkling bulbs flit up and down in the moonlight darkness, in this forest, their brightness pulsing like a heartbeat or metronome. Every once in a while, one of the bulbs will glimmer a soft pink or blue, or perhaps a light beige. Under the taxonomic classification of abiotic fairies, these small creatures are fierce guardians. Out there, spiraling in hyperbolic paraboloid patterns over a murky lake, they look as numerous as stars in the Milky Way.
In order to reach the island, diamond encrusted granite and quartz stepping-stones dot a short path across the murky water. However, traversing these wet and thinly covered mossy stones is a challenge. The surface of these stones is impossible to see after decades of accumulated filth. At the top of the slipperiness of the rocks, the occasional animal fin—whether fish, mammal, or reptilian—slicing the water next to these stones is enough to distract a person to fall in. Absolute concentration must be utilized to shimmy across the ragged boundary.
A wanderer may manage to make it into the hollow of the forest, across the water and onto the island, but the journey still isn’t over. These fairy guardians are hot to the touch, but with their extraordinarily high velocity, avoiding skin contact is almost impossible; they charge in swarms at an intruder. It’s rumored in nearby villages that when lightning strikes in the center of the forest, a man has died at the hands of the electric fairies.
But if a man can sneak into the center of the paraboloid, he’ll find a crystal fountain, engraved with runic markings, bubbling with a green chunky juice slugging out of a brown pipe. Drinking this liquid is said to lead to a mysterious portal. It is not a physically transportive portal, but rather a mental one. Drinking from this fountain permits transcendence of the human condition. With this information, there is no suffering, only unconditional understanding—this sludge reveals the meaning of life, love, fear, and anger. He who drinks it will understand the meaning and purpose of life. Everything leading to this point of transcendence will become completely clear.
That is, if he can also survive the journey out of the forest.
It’s an off-beat prompt and an off-beat essay. The beauty of the open-ended prompts of the University of Chicago is that they grant the writer a degree of freedom to employ creativity. It is hard to imagine being able to write this type of free-form essay for the standard Common App prompts. But how else would the reader learn about this facet of the student’s personality? And while this is not your standard college essay, it has all the elements of a good one. And it has a great ending. Powerful and unexpected. More schools should consider adopting that open-ended format. It brings out the best in some students.
Some essays from creative questions from other schools follow.
Dartmouth
Oh, The Places You’ll Go is one of the most popular books by “Dr. Seuss” (Theodore Seuss Geisel, Dartmouth Class of 1925). Where do you hope to go? What aspects of Dartmouth’s curriculum or community might help you get there? (100 max)
I hope to be a successful leader of a business while also living a balanced life with a loving and active lifestyle. These are broad goals, but the different aspects of Dartmouth’s tight-knit community will help me achieve them. The liberal arts curriculum of Dartmouth is key since it allows for self-exploration and will help me find a true passion. Dartmouth also promotes service and leadership through its fraternities, while also encouraging athletic participation and focusing on nature, all of which I hold keen interest in. Overall, Dartmouth’s emphasis on being well-rounded fits my personality and habits perfectly.
“Won’t you be my neighbor?” was the signature catchphrase of Fred Rogers, the creator and host of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. What kind of neighbor will you be in our undergraduate community at Dartmouth? What impact have you had on the neighbors in your life? (250–300)
At Dartmouth, I would be a very engaged and friendly neighbor not just to my fellow classmates, but also to my professors, the town of Hanover, and the overall Dartmouth community. The best neighbors always say hello, do nice things without being asked, and are always there when you need them. This is obviously most important for my roommate, who I will always respect and help out. In the learning neighborhood, participation in class is essential. For me, participation in the community is how I would make my presence known. At Dartmouth, I hope to be a constant participant in different leadership groups because I love getting involved in diverse opportunities. I also hope to participate in many recreational activities and keep myself healthy, in addition to taking advantage of the unique opportunities that the Dartmouth Outing Club provides in the beautiful surrounding areas.
So far in my life, I have always tried my hardest to be a good neighbor to all people. I take pride in being a leader of different groups of people around me, and I feel that this is one of the greatest parts of my identity. Being a leader is something that comes naturally to me, and part of my leadership skill is that I always try to be inclusive. For example, in the lunchroom, if someone doesn’t have a group to sit with, I always take charge and tell them to come sit with my friends and me. Besides being inclusive, I think one of the reasons I am a great neighbor is my overall personality. I try and greet everyone, whether I’ve known them for years or seconds. Trying to be this warm presence and making others feel comfortable is why I would be a good neighbor at Dartmouth.
There is nothing extraordinary about these essays except for the fact they emphasize the type of values schools are looking for. Leadership is a particularly important value. (Unfortunately, not everyone can be a leader. Don’t make it up.) But if you happen to be a leader in any facet of your life, make sure you emphasize that. It will be an attractive addition to your application, especially if your recommendation letter from a coach, teacher, or work supervisor mentions it. Being a good neighbor or part of a community is another important characteristic to schools. They want to know if you will be a fit in their particular community.
Virginia
What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way? (250ish)
While I am not a musician, I have always been obsessed with many different genres of music. I listen to music when I am doing homework, during workouts, in the car, and when I am relaxing. One of my all-time favorite songs, and one that made me think about many different issues in the world, is “Where is the Love?” by the Black Eyed Peas. The first lyrics of the song are, “What’s wrong with the world, mama?” The song goes on to name all the different issues plaguing the country, and the looming question is in the title of the song. While it is a very catchy song and was instantly popular in the United States, it says many unfortunate truths about the state of the country. It was released in 2003, when I was only 5 years old. However, as I have gotten older, while the music is just as great, I have realized that the song’s message is essential for our country moving forward.
The issues discussed in the song are still problems over a decade letter. As a person who values peace and diplomacy, I wish that terrorism, wars, crime, and other examples of violence would stop all over the world. I realize this is an impossibility, but I took “Where is the Love?” to be a personal challenge. While I can’t control countries or make decisions that will end poverty or other problems, I can be a confident voice in my own community. I can value my family and friends, and I can use words to settle differences with people who disagree with me. And the most important takeaway for me from this song was very subtle. If I can spread love around me, it will only grow. Hopefully one day the world will get this message.
Remember, be positive.
Student self-governance, which encourages student investment and initiative, is a hallmark of the U.Va. culture. In her fourth year at U.Va., Laura Nelson was inspired to create Flash Seminars, one-time classes that facilitate high-energy discussion about thought-provoking topics outside of traditional coursework. If you created a Flash Seminar, what idea would you explore and why?
If I created a Flash Seminar, I would call it “The Art of Politics,” and it would feature discussion about how different songs, movies, television shows, paintings, and other forms of art and entertainment make political statements. It would also explore how art and entertainment, as well as the media as a whole, have a tremendous influence on politics. Different artists often have political alliances and hope to make political statements, and I believe that a Flash Seminar in this area would bring many opinions and ideas together. This would be successful because many students at the University of Virginia have some form of political ideology, and all students have some fundamental ideas and values that they hold true. I also know that most students have some passion in the arts, whether that is in some type of movie genre, a music genre, or an art medium.
Through these diverse interests, which form infinite combinations of political ideals and artistic feelings, people who participate in my Flash Seminar could discuss their own feelings while also critiquing and praising different works of art for the political ideas they present. While some works of art could be as humorous as Seth Rogen’s North Korean parody “The Interview,” and some could be as gravely serious as Florence Owens Thompson’s “Migrant Woman” photograph from the Great Depression, they could all be discussed with intelligence and the wide-ranging opinions of the student body.
When you venture into politics, a sensitive subject, make sure you seek to promote a constructive dialogue.
We are looking for passionate students to join our diverse community of scholars, researchers, and artists. Answer this question, which corresponds to the school/program you selected above, in a half page or roughly 250 words. College of Arts and Sciences—What work of art, music, science, mathematics, or literature has surprised, unsettled, or challenged you, and in what way?
Every day, thousands of people listen to the United Airlines theme song, and most of them don’t realize that they are listening to one of the iconic songs of the twentieth century. The theme, George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” is not merely some trivial commercialized gimmick; it is a legendary masterpiece that changed the way I play and experience music.
I discovered the song in the book American Standards while rummaging through the compartment of my family’s old piano bench. The first time I heard the song I broke out in goosebumps. The complexity, the smoothness, the grandeur, and the unexpected turns of the piece elicited the most powerful emotions in me. I knew I had to learn this song.
During the next seven months, “Rhapsody in Blue” became my greatest enemy, my best friend, and my confidant all at once. To hear a masterfully crafted song is one thing, but to learn to play it on the piano is to enter into a dialogue with the composer, speaking to each other through different eras. Gershwin captivated me, and on some level, I felt as if I had entered his mind. At times, my intimacy with the piece even scared me. I found myself frustrated when others disliked the song or thought of it only as a commercial for United Airlines. I accepted the challenge of changing people’s perception of the song, encouraging my friends and family to listen while I explained the song’s majesty.
On a warm May afternoon, I finally memorized the piece. I was the only one in the room, but I’d like to think Mr. Gershwin was listening. I hope he was proud.
This is a nice essay. The author communicates his love for the Gershwin classic, but, at the same time, he communicates a lot about his personality. He is exactly what they are looking for according to the prompt: a passionate student.