今天小編分享的教育經驗：芝加哥大學2023-2024附加文書新題目已上線，你敢來一場“燒腦”挑戰嗎？，歡迎閲讀。
芝加哥大學以 " 燒腦文書 " 著稱，每年都會要求申請者解答一些 " 腦洞大開 " 的問題。
目前，芝加哥大學 2023-2024Fall 附加文書題目已新鮮出爐，與往年不同的是，今年芝大提供了七個 Extended Essay 而非往年的六選一，這不走尋常路的作風，真的很芝大！
一起來看看今年的文書題目到底有多麼 " 獨具匠心 " 吧！
問題 1：必填
Question 1 ( Required )
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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.
譯文：就你現在所知，芝加哥大學如何滿足你對學習氛圍、社區和未來的期望 ? 請具體説明你自己的願望以及它們與芝加哥大學的關系。
解讀：這是一篇比較典型的why school的文書，一篇應該充滿關于學校的細節以及學生希望如何為學校貢獻自己獨特魅力的文章。
它不應該包括可以在旅遊和信息會議上學習的有關芝加哥大學的通用信息。
比如大家都知道它是全美第一經濟系的所在地。避開這個，寫一些新的東西，而不是重復你在校園訪問中提供的信息！
寫好這篇文章的關鍵就是要向招生官展示芝大的資源是如何在最大程度上滿足你對學習氛圍、社區和未來的期望。 "satisfy your desire for a particular kind of learning, community, and future" 。
因此，在寫這篇文書的時候，不能只是單純 " 誇 " 芝大或者自己，而是要解釋為什麼自己匹配芝大、具體在哪方面匹配。
比如，寫 " 自己喜歡學科 A 與學科 B 的跨學科研究，高中期間做過類似的活動，而芝大剛好提供了這麼一個獨特的課程 / 項目 / 社團 "，就要比單獨寫 " 芝大可以滿足我的學術興趣 " 生動得多。
一篇好的 why school 文書往往都是具體展現你與這所學校的 " 深厚情緣 "，而不是臨時拍腦袋做決定。
建議對芝大感興趣的同學們可以利用暑期時間多浏覽芝大官網，看看有沒有感興趣的項目：
https://www.uchicago.edu/
問題 2：拓展性文書（必填，選擇一個）
Question 2: Extended Essay ( Required; Choose one )
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Essay Option 1
Exponents and square roots, pencils and erasers, beta decay and electron capture. Name two things that undo each other and explain why both are necessary.
– Inspired by Emmett Cho, Class of 2027
譯文：指數和平方根，鉛筆和橡皮，β 衰變和電子捕獲。説出兩件相互 undo 的事情，并解釋為什麼它們都是必要的。
——靈感來自 2027 級 Emmett Cho
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Essay Option 2
"Where have all the flowers gone?" – Pete Seeger. Pick a question from a song title or lyric and give it your best answer.
– Inspired by Ryan Murphy, AB ’ 21
譯文：《Where Have All The Flowers Gone》是皮特 · 西格演唱的一首歌曲。
從歌名或歌詞中選擇一個問題，然後給出最好的答案。
——靈感來自 Ryan Murphy, AB ' 21
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Essay Option 3
"Vlog," "Labradoodle," and "Fauxmage." Language is filled with portmanteaus. Create a new portmanteau and explain why those two things are a "patch" ( perfect match ) .
– Inspired by Garrett Chalfin, Class of 2027
譯文：" Vlog " "Labradoodle" 和 " Fauxmage " 語言中充滿了混合詞 ( 由另外兩個詞的結尾連接而成 ) 。
創造一個新的混合詞，并解釋為什麼這兩個詞可以完美匹配。
——靈感來自 2027 級的 Garrett Chalfin
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Essay Option 4
A jellyfish is not a fish. Cat burglars don ’ t burgle cats. Rhode Island is not an island. Write an essay about some other misnomer, and either come up with and defend a new name for it or explain why its inaccurate name should be kept.
– Inspired by Sonia Chang, Class of 2025, and Mirabella Blair, Class of 2027
譯文：水母不是魚。飛賊不會偷貓。羅德島不是一個島。寫一篇關于其他一些用詞不當的文章，要麼為它想出一個新名字并為之辯護，要麼解釋為什麼應該保留它不準确的名字。
- 靈感來自 2025 級的 Sonia Chang 和 2027 級的 Mirabella Blair
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Essay Option 5
Despite their origins in the Gupta Empire of India or Ancient Egypt, games like chess or bowling remain widely enjoyed today. What modern game do you believe will withstand the test of time, and why?
– Inspired by Adam Heiba, Class of 2027
譯文：盡管它們起源于印度笈多帝國或古埃及，但象棋或保齡球等遊戲至今仍廣受歡迎。
你認為哪款現代遊戲能夠經受住時間的考驗 ? 為什麼 ?
——靈感來自 Adam Heiba，2027 級
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Essay Option 6
There are unwritten rules that everyone follows or has heard at least once in their life. But of course, some rules should be broken or updated. What is an unwritten rule that you wish didn ’ t exist? ( Our custom is to have five new prompts each year, but this year we decided to break with tradition. Enjoy! )
– Inspired by Maryam Abdella, Class of 2026
譯文：每個人一生中都遵循或至少聽過一次不成文的規則。當然，有些規則應該被打破或更新。
什麼是你希望不存在的不成文規則 ? ( 我們的習慣是每年有五個新的提示，但今年我們決定打破傳統，享受變化吧 ! )
——靈感來自 Maryam Abdella, 2026 級
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Essay Option 7
And, as always … 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!
譯文：接下來，是經典的冒險題目。以勇敢探究的精神，從我們過往的題目裏選擇一個，或者自拟一個題目，要具有原創性和創造力，引人思考。
展現你作為作家，思想家，暢想家，社會評論家，賢哲，世界公民或芝加哥大學未來成員的特質；冒冒險，祝你玩得開心！
解析：放飛自我吧！但一定要記得緊扣主題，盡可能地展示一個善于觀察、總結與思考的自我！
前幾年的一些經典問題
Some classic questions
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, Pundamentals: 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
Who does Sally sell her seashells to? How much wood can a woodchuck really chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Pick a favorite tongue twister ( either originally in English or translated from another language ) and consider a resolution to its conundrum using the method of your choice. Math, philosophy, linguistics... it's all up to you ( or your woodchuck ) .
— Inspired by Blessing Nnate, Class of 2024
The seven liberal arts in antiquity consisted of the Quadrivium — astronomy, mathematics, geometry, and music — and the Trivium — rhetoric, grammar, and logic. Describe your own take on the Quadrivium or the Trivium. What do you think is essential for everyone to know?
— Inspired by Peter Wang, Class of 2022
"Do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" - Eleanor Roosevelt. Misattribute a famous quote and explore the implications of doing so.
— Inspired by Chris Davey, AB ’ 13
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
What ’ s so odd about odd numbers?
— Inspired by Mario Rosasco, AB ’ 09
Vestigiality refers to genetically determined structures or attributes that have apparently lost most or all of their ancestral function, but have been retained during the process of evolution. In humans, for instance, the appendix is thought to be a vestigial structure. Describe something vestigial ( real or imagined ) and provide an explanation for its existence.
— Inspired by Tiffany Kim, Class of 2020
In French, there is no difference between "conscience" and "consciousness." In Japanese, there is a word that specifically refers to the splittable wooden chopsticks you get at restaurants. The German word "fremdsch ä men" encapsulates the feeling you get when you ’ re embarrassed on behalf of someone else. All of these require explanation in order to properly communicate their meaning, and are, to varying degrees, untranslatable. Choose a word, tell us what it means, and then explain why it cannot ( or should not ) be translated from its original language.
— Inspired by Emily Driscoll, Class of 2018
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
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?
— Inspired by Tess Moran, AB ’ 16
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
The ball is in your court — a penny for your thoughts, but say it, don ’ t spray it. So long as you don ’ t bite off more than you can chew, beat around the bush, or cut corners, writing this essay should be a piece of cake. Create your own idiom, and tell us its origin — you know, the whole nine yards. PS: A picture is worth a thousand words.
— Inspired by April Bell, AB'17, and Maya Shaked, Class of 2018 ( It takes two to tango. )
"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies." – Oscar Wilde. Othello and Iago. Dorothy and the Wicked Witch. Autobots and Decepticons. History and art are full of heroes and their enemies. Tell us about the relationship between you and your arch-nemesis ( either real or imagined ) .
— Inspired by Martin Krzywy, AB ’ 16
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
" … I [ was ] eager to escape backward again, to be off to invent a past for the present." — The Rose Rabbi by Daniel Stern
Present: pres · ent
1. Something that is offered, presented, or given as a gift.
Let ’ s stick with this definition. Unusual presents, accidental presents, metaphorical presents, re-gifted presents, etc. — pick any present you have ever received and invent a past for it.
— Inspired by Jennifer Qin, AB ’ 16
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
UChicago professor W. J. T. Mitchell entitled his 2005 book What Do Pictures Want? Describe a picture, and explore what it wants.
— Inspired by Anna Andel
"Don ’ t play what ’ s there, play what ’ s not there." — Miles Davis ( 1926 – 91 )
— Inspired by Jack Reeves
University of Chicago alumna and renowned author/critic Susan Sontag said, "The only interesting answers are those that destroy the questions." We all have heard serious questions, absurd questions, and seriously absurd questions, some of which cannot be answered without obliterating the very question. Destroy a question with your answer.
— Inspired by Aleksandra Ciric
"Mind that does not stick."
— Zen Master Shoitsu ( 1202 – 80 )
Superstring theory has revolutionized speculation about the physical world by suggesting that strings play a pivotal role in the universe. Strings, however, always have explained or enriched our lives, from Theseus ’ s escape route from the Labyrinth, to kittens playing with balls of yarn, to the single hair that held the sword above Damocles, to the Old Norse tradition that one ’ s life is a thread woven into a tapestry of fate, to the beautiful sounds of the finely tuned string of a violin, to the children ’ s game of cat ’ s cradle, to the concept of stringing someone along. Use the power of string to explain the biggest or the smallest phenomenon.
— Inspired by Adam Sobolweski
Have you ever walked through the aisles of a warehouse store like Costco or Sam ’ s Club and wondered who would buy a jar of mustard a foot and a half tall? We ’ ve bought it, but it didn ’ t stop us from wondering about other things, like absurd eating contests, impulse buys, excess, unimagined uses for mustard, storage, preservatives, notions of bigness … and dozens of other ideas both silly and serious. Write an essay somehow inspired by super-huge mustard.
— Inspired by Katherine Gold
People often think of language as a connector, something that brings people together by helping them share experiences, feelings, ideas, etc. We, however, are interested in how language sets people apart. Start with the peculiarities of your own personal language — the voice you use when speaking most intimately to yourself, the vocabulary that spills out when you ’ re startled, or special phrases and gestures that no one else seems to use or even understand — and tell us how your language makes you unique. You may want to think about subtle riffs or idiosyncrasies based on cadence, rhythm, rhyme, or ( mis ) pronunciation.
— Inspired by Kimberly Traube
In 2015, the city of Melbourne, Australia created a "tree-mail" service, in which all of the trees in the city received an email address so that residents could report any tree-related issues. As an unexpected result, people began to email their favorite trees sweet and occasionally humorous letters. Imagine this has been expanded to any object ( tree or otherwise ) in the world, and share with us the letter you ’ d send to your favorite.
-Inspired by Hannah Lu, Class of 2020
You ’ re on a voyage in the thirteenth century, sailing across the tempestuous seas. What if, suddenly, you fell off the edge of the Earth?
-Inspired by Chandani Latey, AB'93
The word floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant or of having no value. It originated in the mid-18th century from the Latin words "floccus," "naucum," "nihilum," and "pilus" — all words meaning "of little use." Coin your own word using parts from any language you choose, tell us its meaning, and describe the plausible ( if only to you ) scenarios in which it would be most appropriately used.
-Inspired by Ben Zhang, Class of 2022
Lost your keys? Alohomora. Noisy roommate? Quietus. Feel the need to shatter windows for some reason? Finestra. Create your own spell, charm, jinx, or other means for magical mayhem. How is it enacted? Is there an incantation? Does it involve a potion or other magical object? If so, what's in it or what is it? What does it do?
-Inspired by Emma Sorkin, Class of 2021
Imagine you ’ ve struck a deal with the Dean of Admissions himself, Dean Nondorf. It goes as follows: you ’ re guaranteed admission to the University of Chicago regardless of any circumstances that arise. This bond is grounded on the condition that you ’ ll obtain a blank, 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, and draw, write, sketch, shade, stencil, paint etc., anything and everything you want on it; your only limitations will be the boundaries of both sides on the single page. Now the catch … your submission, for the rest of your life, will always be the first thing anyone you meet for the first time will see. Whether it ’ s at a job interview, a blind date, arrival at your first Humanities class, before you even say, "hey," they ’ ll already have seen your page, and formulated that first impression. Show us your page. What ’ s on it, and why? If your piece is largely or exclusively visual, please make sure to share a creator's accompanying statement of at least 300 words, which we will happily allow to be on its own, separate page.
PS: This is a creative thought experiment, and selecting this essay prompt does not guarantee your admission to UChicago.
-Inspired by Amandeep Singh Ahluwalia, Class of 2022
Cats have nine lives, Pac-Man has three lives, and radioactive isotopes have half-lives. How many lives does something else — conceptual or actual — have, and why?
-Inspired by Kendrick Shin, Class of 2019
If there ’ s a limited amount of matter in the universe, how can Olive Garden ( along with other restaurants and their concepts of food infinity ) offer truly unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks? Explain this using any method of analysis you wish — physics, biology, economics, history, theology … the options, as you can tell, are endless.
-Inspired by Yoonseo Lee, Class of 2023
A hot dog might be a sandwich, and cereal might be a soup, but is a ______ a ______?
-Inspired by Arya Muralidharan, Class of 2021 ( and dozens of others who, this year and in past years, have submitted the question "Is a hot dog a sandwich," to which we reply, "maybe" )
"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures." – Jessamyn West
-Inspired by Elizabeth Mansfield, Class of 2020
（上下滑動查看更多。。。）
芝大的校訓是 " 益智厚生 " （Crescat scientia; vita excolatur），錄取的學生也自然都是勤于發問、善于探究的深度思想者。
芝大的附加文書便是這樣一個展現學生思維結構的絕佳平台。寫好芝大文書的關鍵就是要去展現你獨特的思想：你是怎麼去處理一個看似很 " 無厘頭 " 的問題的？你切入的角度與分析問題的過程是怎樣的？這是芝大的招生官老師最希望看到的。
大家也不用囿于傳統文書的格式與字數限制，往年芝大文書中就有小説、劇本、證詞、小品文、遊戲設計、地圖、説明書，甚至是數學建模！
總之，大家在寫芝大文書時一定要打開思維，放飛想象，不要為形式上的條條框框所限制！
Ref:https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/apply/uchicago-supplemental-essay-questions
2024Fall 申請季已經到來，對于準留學生們來説，科學系統的規劃才能幫助大家更加順利地赢得夢校 offer！
2023 年 6 月 28 日，我們一起聊聊關于康奈爾大學你不知道的那些事兒！
