UChicago Supplemental Essays 2025-26 – Prompts and Advice
June 25, 2025
UChicago has long been known for its 鈥減rovocative鈥� essay prompts, viewing them as a chance for 鈥渟tudents to talk about themselves, their tastes, and their ambitions.鈥� The University of Chicago admissions committee invites you to approach the UChicago supplemental essays with 鈥渦tter seriousness, complete fancy, or something in between.鈥� While writing this 鈥渦ncommon essay鈥� sounds like a real lark, we have to keep in mind the sobering facts that UChicago admits just 4% of applicants, and the mid-50% SAT range of those who enroll is 1510-1560. This level of competition places the UChicago essay prompts squarely in the spotlight.
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When applying to an institution like the University of Chicago that rejects 19 of every 20 applicants, you鈥檒l need to put maximum effort into every area of the application, including the two UChicago supplemental essays. Below are UChicago鈥檚 supplemental prompts for the 2025-26 admissions cycle along with our advice for composing a winning essay.
UChicago Supplemental Essay Prompts 鈥� 2025-26
Question 1 (Required): Why UChicago?
How does the University of Chicago, as you know it now, satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future? Please address with some specificity your own wishes and how they relate to UChicago.
For the absurd level of uniqueness in the prompt choices in Question #2, Question #1 is as common as they come鈥攖he good ol鈥� 鈥淲hy Us?鈥� essay, Chicago style!
To write a winning 鈥淲hy University of Chicago?鈥� essay…
- Specify how you will take advantage of UChicago鈥檚 endless resources, both inside and outside of the classroom.
- Cite specific academic programs, professors, research opportunities, internship/externship programs, study abroad programs, student-run organizations, etc.
- Show evidence of how your past/current endeavors will carry over onto the University鈥檚 campus community.
- Lastly, note any special talents and passions that you bring to the University of Chicago.
Examples of items that quality 鈥淲hy UChicago?鈥� essays may touch upon include:
- Two-thirds of UChicago professors live in Hyde Park, making for a particularly cohesive campus.
- 80% of undergrads elect to participate in .
- Additionally, the quarter system allows students to explore a greater number of courses each year in a more in-depth manner.
- 85% of UChicago classes enroll fewer than 25 students.
- The school has 160+ research centers, institutes, and committees.
- Many students win Rhodes, Marshall, and Fulbright Scholarships after graduation.
- The Jeff Metcalf Internship Program also offers 3,500 paid internships.
- UChicago has .
- The university sponsors ; many include chances to study with UChicago professors around the globe.
Of course, these are just a small sampling of the thousands of possible features that could be part of a successful essay, but we hope this helps your brainstorming session take flight!
Question 2 (Required): Extended Essay
For the extended essay, you’ll have seven options and you only need to choose one. Before offering a few words about how one might address each of the following prompts, we want to stress to future UChicago applicants that there is no right way to talk about contronyms, obsolete coins, or inter-species communication. What matters is that your response to any of the following prompts demonstrates your excellence and creativity as a writer. If the first six prompts don鈥檛 appeal to you, there is no downside in constructing your own via option #7.
Essay Option 1
In an ideal world where inter-species telepathic communication exists, which species would you choose to have a conversation with, and what would you want to learn from them? Would you ask beavers for architectural advice? Octopuses about cognition? Pigeons about navigation? Ants about governance? Make your case鈥攂oth for the species and the question.
-Inspired by Yvan Sugira, Class of 2029
An applicant can quite easily take this in a very serious or seriously humorous direction. Whatever species you choose, do some research (yes, this is your excuse to binge-watch Planet Earth, stat) and try to figure out what you’d want to learn from them beyond the obvious or expected. This is the UChicago supplemental section. Anything goes. Get weird.
Essay Option 2
If you could uninvent one thing, what would it be 鈥� and what would unravel as a result?
-Inspired by Eitan Fischer, Class of 2027
As with all UChicago supplemental essay prompts, you can take this in a serious or off-the-wall direction. Would you uninvent lawn mowers? Indoor plumbing? The (gasp) internet? Similarly, what serious or off-the-wall effects can you imagine? Overall, if ruminating on the pros and cons of human progress appeals to you, knock yourself out. If not, keep moving down the list of prompts鈥�
Essay Option 3
“Left” can mean remaining or departed. “Dust” can mean to add fine particles or to remove them. “Fast” can mean moving quickly or fixed firmly in place. These contronyms鈥攚ords that are their own antonyms鈥攕omehow hold opposing meanings in perfect tension. Explore a contronym: a role, identity, or experience in your life that has contained its own opposite.
-Inspired by Kristin Yi, Class of 2029
A few years back, UChicago offered a prompt for imagining that the moon was made of cheese or Neptune from soap. To that prompt, we advised that it didn’t matter if you wrote about a quasar made of Jergens Enriching Shea Butter or Jupiter鈥檚 moons constructed from Bored Ape NFTs鈥攜our imagination and writing ability are what matters here. The latter half of that advice remains applicable to this prompt. There are an endless number of interesting “opposites” that may be worth unpacking, so if you happen to have one in mind, go wild. The exploration of your chosen contronym will be far more important than the word itself.
Essay Option 4
The penny is on its way out鈥攖oo small to matter, too costly to keep. But not everything small should disappear. What鈥檚 one object the world is phasing out that you think we can鈥檛 afford to lose, and why?
-Ella Somaiya, Class of 2028
If you are absolutely devastated that no one has Tamagotchis anymore, your day has come. In addition to revisiting your box of childhood treasures for ideas, you can also get serious鈥攖hink maps, , film cameras, cassette tapes…the list goes on. If you choose this UChicago supplemental prompt, your path to an excellent essay lies in the why, of course.
Essay Option 5
From Michelin Tires creating the Michelin Guide, to the audio equipment company Audio-Technica becoming one of the world鈥檚 largest manufacturers of sushi robots, brand identity can turn out to be a lot more flexible than we think. Choose an existing brand, company, or institution and propose an unexpected but strangely logical new product or service for them to launch. Why is this unlikely extension exactly what the world (or the brand) needs right now?
-Inspired by Julia Nieberg, Class of 2029
Should Apple get into the orchard business? Should LEGO pivot to pre-fab tiny homes? What about if Trader Joe’s opened its own line of hotels? Try choosing a brand or company you love, ruminating on their core values, and thinking about how they might extend their influence in a creative and surprising way. As long as you can provide a cogent explanation for your proposed product or service, the sky’s the limit.
Essay Option 6
Statistically speaking, ice cream doesn鈥檛 cause shark attacks, pet spending doesn鈥檛 drive the number of lawyers in California, and margarine consumption isn鈥檛 responsible for Maine鈥檚 divorce rate鈥攁t least, not according to conventional wisdom. But what if the statisticians got it wrong? Choose your favorite spurious correlation and make the case for why it might actually reveal a deeper, causative truth.
-Inspired by Adam DiMascio, Class of 2025
This essay affords applicants a chance to flex their intellectual muscles and show off a talent for finding meaning in seemingly disparate ideas. As illustrated in the built-in examples, the correlation can be zany (ice cream causing shark attacks) or at least marginally plausible (getting divorced over margarine usage). Similar to other prompts, your explanation of how you arrived at your answer is where the real creativity comes in.
Need some inspo? Head to this collection of for plenty of potential essay fodder.
Essay Option 7
And, as always鈥� the classic choose your own adventure option! In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, choose one of our past prompts (or create a question of your own). Be original, creative, thought provoking. 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!
If you elect to go with an archived prompt, you can locate some past entries around the internet such as and . There are also a number of past prompts listed directly on the . A good number of applicants we have worked with avail themselves of the flexibility offered by this restriction-free offering.
How important are the UChicago essay prompts?
The University of Chicago lists six factors as being 鈥渧ery important鈥� to the admissions committee and the essays are among them. In addition to the essays, UChicago most heavily weighs the rigor of your secondary school record, recommendations, extracurricular activities, talent/ability, and character/personal qualities. Clearly, the Common App and supplemental essays are among the most important considerations for the University of Chicago in its decision-making process.
UChicago Supplemental Essays – Personalized Assistance
Lastly, if you are interested in working with one of 国产第一福利影院草草鈥� experienced and knowledgeable essay coaches as you craft your UChicago supplemental essays, we encourage you to get a quote听迟辞诲补测.
Ready to start working on your essays? You might consider checking out the following:
