UChicago Required Short Essay - a chess match is my most prevalent memory of Chicago

Chess game

I'm mostly concerned with the need to add specific aspects of uchicago and how the essay is too generic. Thank you for any comments!!

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. suggested 250 word limit, I am at 312

I remember watching a chess game in a dining hall. I remember pointing out to the older man that he should move his bishop to pin the rook and the king. He did with no question. In that moment, this was a simple action of recognizing the move and taking my suggestion. In hindsight, this chess match is my most prevalent memory of Chicago. It is chess etiquette not to interject and suggest moves. However, it is touching to realize that instead of ignoring me, the man took the suggestion of a 7 year old who had a year of chess experience. The man was kind enough to take value in my words, regardless of whether or not the results of the game would have been jeopardized. Years later, I discovered that chess game was in the UChicago dining hall.

This experience is reflective of values essential to my college experience. I believe that the object of education is education not an advantage or a means to a job. Learning happens in every moment and I cannot just receive an education. I have to be able to relinquish what I envision to be the final destination and instead discover my education. I trust that UChicago will perpetuate this belief and provide direction for me through its structure. The quarter system and the interdisciplinary undergraduate college with its broad core curriculum will offer me flexibility and exposure to a number of areas, enabling me to make an informed decision on what I choose to study later on. I am undecided on whether I want to focus on biology, computer science, or math but regardless of my choice, I will be given the privilege to learn with breadth and depth through the Core.

I know my experience will be more than a stepping stone to the future, but rather a path of formative years.

This is the essay that the reviewer will use to determine if you are a determined applicant whose academic leanings are really related to the academic offerings and student community familiarity with the University of Chicago. The reviewer is looking for specifics in this instance. That means, specific reasons as to why you chose the university. There is an academic standard that the reviewer hopes you will discuss with him that led to your choice of their university. Describe your ideal student life based upon that unknowing visit that you had at the university. What impression did you have of the student community? How does it relate to your idealized student community experience? You are just going by the popular information about the university at the moment. This essay does not feel like you actually gave the question much thought and your responses are not really very specific because you are giving a general discussion reference in the essay that could apply to any university that you are applying to. Look for what makes you happy to become a part of UChicago. Is it the academic side? The community side? Or both? The response you wrote doesn't really target any specific area of student life at the university so it falls severely short of delivering an impressive response.