University Of Chicago Sends Student A Handwritten Note In Response To Her College Essay
The admissions office appreciated the unique style, tone, and subject of her essay.
TikTok In a rare show of admiration for a prospective student, a high school student who applied to the University of Chicago was welcomed with a handwritten note in response to her college essay.
The tiresome process of applying to college is often only rewarded with an acceptance letter — which is enough for many students who are just glad to get into college. But, someone on UChicago's board of admissions clearly decided to go the extra mile with their show of support.
The admissions office at the University of Chicago liked Estelle’s college essay so much, they sent a card to congratulate her.
Estelle’s essay wasn’t about her many accomplishments or accolades. Instead, it was an exploration of language through her favorite Muppet character. Writing about the Muppets was a bold and brave move, especially when not all college admissions offices appreciate such creative gestures.
The college essay’s prompt was to “describe something vestigial (real or imagined) and provide an explanation for its existence.” The prompt notes that “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.”
For her application to the University of Chicago, Estelle decided to write an essay about her favorite Muppets character, Beaker, and the language he used— specifically, the use of his monosyllabic term “meep.”
Titled “Meep Moments,” Estelle described how she fell “entirely and inexplicably in love” with the character Beaker from the Muppets. She went on to say how she incorporated his catchphrase into her own lexicon, using the term “meep” whenever the moment called for it.
Estelle wrote, “For those unfamiliar with the magic of meep, it might be easy to assume that it now retains a somewhat vestigial presence within my vernacular. Yet I can offer full assurance that the practice of meeping has much more useful to me than my appendix or the tip of my tailbone.”
With those lines, Estelle tied the content of her essay to the prompt, showing that she was paying attention to the assignment, even though she’d chosen a unique subject matter.
In response to her essay, Estelle received a handwritten note announcing her acceptance into the University of Chicago’s Class of 2022.
Eloise, one of the school’s admissions officers, seemingly liked Estelle’s essay so much that she went above and beyond with her acceptance letter, drawing a picture of Beaker on the handwritten card she sent to Estelle.
Photo: TikTok
The response Estelle received on TikTok for her essay was overwhelmingly positive, with commenters congratulating her for her achievement and admiring her writing style.
The University of Chicago is a very selective school. The university has an acceptance rate of 6%. According to data from 2022, they received 37,522 total applicants and admitted 2,039 of those applicants to the school.
Students accepted to the University of Chicago have SAT scores that fall between 1510 and 1560, and 86% of accepted students have a GPA of 3.75 or above.
Estelle’s essay is a lesson to all aspiring college students— showing your personality in an essay can strengthen your application, as long as the admissions committee is looking for that kind of whimsy.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.