My friend Natalia is applying to Business Schools. As with collegeapplications, these schools have a variety of utterly boring and annoying essay questions.
Anyhow, Natalia wants to get in and she’s doing all the filling out the forms, taking the exams, getting therecommendations bit on her own. But I get to help out with the essays.
I can’t remember any of my college essay topics besides two. One wasabout “three major events in my life” and another was “why Swarthmore”(which I did quite badly on since, back then, I didn’t even know whereSwarthmore was).
We’ve been working on Natalia’s essays for three months now. Amidst thereally boring and common questions, I’ve recently come across one thatreally got me thinking. One of the essay topics for Chicago Business Schoolis:
“If you were a character in a book, who would it be and why? What do youadmire most about this character?” (the question also asks how you relate to this character but we’ll ignore that part)
You might have a totally different answer if you were writing an essayfor college, but the question of what character you would like to be isreally interesting, if you ask me. After hearing the topic, I spent daysthinking about what character I would have chosen and why.
Assuming they meant a “fiction” book, here are a bunch of myfavorites:
Little Prince: cause he is always curious, looks at things from adifferent perspective, is honest and kind, is fascinated with the world andis open-hearted.
Winnie the Pooh: cause he’s nice to everyone, is always in a goodmood, is curious and loving.
Atticus: Cause he fought for what he believed in, had integrityand was kind.
I love many of Anne Tyler and Jane Smiley’s characters. I wouldn’t wantto be a Stephen King or Anthony Burgess character. I’m on the fence aboutJohn Irving and Salinger’s characters. And I hope I never come close to aHemingway one.
Ok so I can’t think of good examples. I’ll add to this list as I think ofsome. In the meantime, tell me,
Previously?
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