Can I write the UChicago essays in a day?

Answered

I mean, you can certainly try. If you don't have much else to do, like other urgent deadlines, you don't really have much to lose by trying. Honestly, the best advice I could give is to try and recycle pieces of other essays as much as you can, but this is UChicago we're talking about, and their prompts are- weird. They do only require two essays though, right? That's doable. Especially if you already have ideas for all of them. Put some movie soundtrack music on, or maybe some classical music, and go for it. I suggest "This playlist will make you feel like a 19th century villain" on Youtube lol. But seriously, just start writing. Go with the flow and then worry about editing later, the hardest part is to get words on the paper

Hi @manaalt100!

We'd always recommend starting your essays as early as possible — at least two weeks before the deadline. If you want to write a strong application essay (especially one as difficult as UChicago), you'll need time to explore various approaches, test different anecdotes, and polish the final product. It may be possible to have an essay written within a day, but that essay will effectively be a first draft — it won't reflect your best work as a writer, and it'll put you at a disadvantage against other applicants with more finalized essays.

Now, given the date of this post, it sounds like you don't have much choice in the matter. At that point you should consider how much you want to apply to UChicago and whether the costs (time, stress, application fee) are worth it to you in light of your other applications.

Best of luck.

Yes, they accept any topic. Write about writing an essay in a day. This is UChicago.

This is simply a question that must be answered by yourself (I say this respectfully).

Considering that UChicago is a rather competitive institution, I suggest devoting a sufficient amount of time into answering ALL the available prompts that apply to you, even the optional ones. Hence, essays should optimally be drafted and edited continuously over a period of weeks, maybe even one to two months. To draft and finalize all supplement essays in day, honestly, will not be your most outstanding work and therefore may fall into an average categorization. To better your applicant chances, I advise at least a week or so of preparing the final version of what you want to submit to be competitive.

Again, this is not to say that an essay, or essays, have to be submitted with much time and effort behind them, but it is optimally better for you to do so. You may even submit them in a day and be fine, but I mean to stress that the chances are not likely. But again, only you know yourself and your capabilities well enough to answer that question better than I can.

Good luck!