While college applicants, parents and nerdy college essay advisors (ahem) often follow the release of the season’s new college admissions essay questions with a frothy fervor, it takes a lot to turn the mainstream media’s head in the direction of an often uniform and predictable process. Still, Tufts University, longtime purveyor of the quirky prompt, managed to bring attention to their latest batch of supplemental essay questions with their query that asked students to contemplate “What Does #YOLO mean to you?”
We do not claim to be the hippest kids on the block here at CEA, but we 1. know who Drake is, 2. yell #YOLO before editing our most challenging student essays, and 3. spend an exorbitant amount of time tracking down and sometimes contributing to the robust world of hilarious internet memes. (Okay, we admit it, we’re pretty hip.) When we got wind of Tufts’ essay prompt, like a double rainbow way up in the sky, we were hit with a wave of colorful inspiration. How funny would it be if all of Tufts’ essay questions were framed in the context of memes? We decided to make a list of questions Tufts could have asked in addition to their lyrics-inspired prompt, and this piece was then published on one of our favorite pop-culture/comedy blogs The Hairpin. Our suggested questions included:
• Sometimes life presents challenges, and you are not always able to obtain what you want, when you want it. Discuss a time when you have been told you cannot haz something, and explain how this impacted your viewpoint of how important it is to haz things, in general.
• We are pleased to accept your application to the Class of 2018, and we will let you finish, but Beyonce’s college application essay was the greatest college application essay of all time. Discuss.
Check out the full piece for a few belly laughs and maybe even some helpful, if silly, practice prompts. What have you got to lose? #YOLO
