2026–27 application cycle
University of Chicago supplemental essays
Every writing prompt on the University of Chicago application, with word limits. All of it taken from the application itself. 7 prompts.
- Prompt 1Required
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.
How to approach it
This is a why-us prompt. The trap is describing the school back to itself. Rankings and a pretty campus read as filler. Name two or three things you’d actually use. A program, a professor’s work, an open curriculum. Then tie each one to something you’ve already done.
- Prompt 2Required
How thoughts eat
Food for thought: How do thoughts eat?
- Prompt 3Required
Fold a solution
The James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, utilized origami-inspired techniques to compactly store and deploy its sunshield in space. Choose an artistic practice and use its principles to propose an elegant solution to a problem.
- Prompt 4Required
Invent a metaphor
Sometimes metaphors get mixed up. For one reason or another, one could say, “we'll burn that bridge when we get there” or “the world is your china shop”. Make up your own mixed metaphor. Explain how it could make sense, be understood, or even applied.
- Prompt 5Required
The mundane Olympics
The Olympics have long celebrated the pinnacle of human athletic achievement. But what if they expanded to honor the mundane? Imagine a new Olympic event built around an everyday activity like speed dishwashing or competitive grocery bagging. How is it scored, officiated, and judged? Why is it a worthy addition?
How to approach it
This one works best zoomed all the way in. One meeting, one build, one shift, told in detail. The reader already saw your activities list. Show them what it felt like to do the work.
- Prompt 6Required
Mistaken acronym
AI: Allen Iverson. NASA, or the North American Saxophone Alliance. Share a potentially confounding, comedic, or captivating example of MIA (Mistaken Identity of Acronym) and tell us its backstory.
How to approach it
Here, specific beats important. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label. Write it as someone who was there, not as an observer. End on what you carry into a campus, not on a moral.
- Prompt 7Required
Choose your own
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!
How to approach it
Goals prompts fail when they stay noble and vague. Pick one real problem you care about. Connect it to something you’ve already touched in real life. Make the goal clear enough that a reader could disagree with it. Specific beats impressive.
Common questions
What do students ask about these essays?
How many essays does University of Chicago require?
University of Chicago lists 7 writing supplements for the 2026–27 cycle, all required. That’s on top of the main personal statement.
Do the University of Chicago supplemental essays matter?
Yes, and more so at the hardest schools to get into. Grades and scores put you in the pool. Supplements are one of the few places you control what the reader learns about you. A generic why-us essay is one of the most common mistakes students make.
What Spike does with this
Get help planning University of Chicago essays.
Spike helps you tie each prompt to something you’ve actually lived. It helps you outline and revise, and it won’t write the essay for you.
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