Senior Guest Blog: Jack Hackett

Photo Courtesy of Roy Mitchell

I had twelve schools I was going to apply to in the beginning.  Soon after I started, I realized that twelve schools was way too many.  I picked eight out of the twelve and went to work.  One of the schools I removed from my list was Columbia University for one reason.  One of the essay questions was “Why Columbia?”  I had no answer except “my dad wants me to apply.”  I didn’t care about Columbia, and I don’t think Columbia cared about me, so I deleted my application.  There are many schools that have questions like that, and they are never easy to answer.  This is the one question you really have to research, otherwise you are left looking like a fool by only talking about the weather and location.

Some of the schools I applied to had really fun essay topics that allowed for tons of creativity.  UChicago had one of the best essay topics ever:

“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.edu What might they be able to see that we cannot? What are we missing? (One to two page response)”

If you took a super scientific approach to it, then you might be really hurting yourself.  Almost every single thing I stated in my essay was made up.  I talked about how the mantis shrimp can see music, the map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, and dead people.  Essays like this are fun because you can just let loose and write almost anything you want.  Another one of my favorite essay topics came from UCLA’s Alumni Scholarship:

“You've just written a 200 page autobiography. Send us page 165.”

What I wrote for this essay became my favorite thing I have ever written in my entire life.  I turned on some Nirvana and let the creative juices flow.  These two essay topics really allowed me to show off my creativity and originality.  So if you ever run into one of these topics, push it to the limit.  Walk along the razor’s edge.

All of the essays you write, unless otherwise specified, allow for creativity.  So let your voice come out in the writing.  You want to stand out in the crowd.  Hence, I wrote just like how I talk.  There is no manufactured thesaurus nonsense going on.  If I don’t understand what I’m writing, I wouldn’t expect the people in admissions to understand it either.  Also, every essay I wrote had multiple drafts.  The small ones would go through three drafts, while the big ones could have eight drafts.

Then after you are done with all your essays, you send in your application and hurry up and wait.  All you can do is relax and let fate take its course.  You might not get in some of your top choices. 
Rejection sucks, especially if its from one of your favorites.  One piece of advice I’d like to pass on is to not be bitter.  Getting into many of these schools is very competitive, and many people are in the same boat as you.  In the end, wherever you end up is where you’re supposed to go.  If you are really upset with your choices, then just transfer.