UChicago 2025 Essay Prompts
(Keywords: UChicago 2025 essay prompts, University of Chicago supplemental essays, how to answer UChicago creative essay, college application tips)
https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/essay/
UChicago just announced this year’s creative essay prompts. As usual, they’re equal parts genius and groan. But the question is, which is which? Here’s the rapid-fire field guide.
1. Pet Sounds
Perfect for the philosophy or lit nerd who’s always wanted to know what their cat thinks of them while reciting Christopher Smart’s Jubilato Ango (“For I will consider my cat Geoffrey”). Name-drop as much as possible: Dr. Dolittle, Noam Chomsky, Peter Singer — let your mind wander and connect!
2. The Great Un-Inventing
A variation of Penn’s summer program essay prompt about an “overlooked invention.” Unless you can detonate the cliché and chart the butterfly fallout with David Foster Wallace-level finesse, swipe left.
3. Contronym Chaos
An absolute cinch for anyone fresh off the John Locke essay contest or an intensive continental philosophy course. If you can simultaneously obfuscate and explicate Derrida’s concept of pharmakon (both poison and cure), go for it. Otherwise, congrats for discovering irony.
4. Small Object, Big Loss
Twin sibling to Question 2. You probably have a Google Doc titled “Consider the Paper Clip” already. Recycle with care; this path is littered with clichés.
5. Brand Side-Quest
A business/freakonomics lover could explore the strange but true lore of Philip Morris owning Kraft Foods or Pepsi owning Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC. This prompt is ideal for anyone who aspires to become the next Vsauce, Veritasium, or Tom Scott.
6. Spurious Correlation
Where stats nerds and pareidolia-loving philosophers unite. Applicants will go crazy pulling in Bayesian priors and sprinkling in quantum entanglement. At some point, readers may tire of so much creative cheek. I’d be careful with this one.
Bottom line: Choose the prompt where your weirdest intuition merges with rigorous analysis. That’s the type ob binary UChicago loves—and the one GhostofJ.com keeps on tap.
