Challenge essay topics

[banana_phone]

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For my challenge essay , I am thinking of going one of two ways. UChicago specifically asks for coping skills I used to resolve challenge or problem/support people so I have to consider that.

1) I went on a six day solo while backpacking and had to fend for myself for six days in the wilderness, making fire, shelter, food, etc. Learned a lot about self-reliance and independence. For this, the "support person" I called upon was myself...prior to this I had been fairly dependent on others and didn't believe in my own capabilities. Might be too much of a twist on what they're asking though.

2) A close friend passed away in a boating accident while we were studying abroad and my father also passed away when I was younger. Feels cliche while writing it, but definitely very significant experiences in my life.

Any thoughts on which to use?

 

[ChrisMack390]

I like #1 much more.

 

[LizzyM]

When the going gets tough, how do you hold it together? What resources or coping skills and/or what support system do you depend on? If you think about how tough med school can be, you can imagine why schools care about this sort of thing. How will you highlight how you have used skills in the past that might give us a clue how you will respond to a soul-crushing experience in the next few years?

 

[Gurby]

1) I went on a six day solo while backpacking and had to fend for myself for six days in the wilderness, making fire, shelter, food, etc. Learned a lot about self-reliance and independence. For this, the "support person" I called upon was myself...prior to this I had been fairly dependent on others and didn't believe in my own capabilities. Might be too much of a twist on what they're asking though.

I think anyone who has done significant hiking / backpacking would roll their eyes at this... But that's just my opinion. That is, unless you were on a hike, got off trail by accident and this turned into an unplanned 6-day wilderness survival experience. That could be interesting, but if you planned to go out by yourself for a few days... meh.

On the other hand, there is a lot of good stuff you could talk about in this essay... Just tread very lightly if you are not an expert at bushcraft, survival, backpacking/hiking, etc, because there is a high potential to look like an idiot if you exaggerate and somebody picks up on it. Anybody with experience in the outdoors is not going to be impressed when you talk about how you had to "fend for yourself" on your planned 6-day trip where you brought food, shelter, map, compass, GPS, etc.

 

[Toutie]

I dunno...I like #2 better. A friend being killed in a boating accident while studying abroad. How did you cope with that? A death of a friend is always difficult...to die doing what should have been having a fun time is horrible...to be away from your family and support system when it happened. How did you deal with it? How did you cope? What did you learn about yourself? How did it help you grow as a person? That seems like a perfect topic for a challenge essay.