The Atlantic

Applying to College Shouldn't Require Answering Life's Great Questions

Essay prompts ask high school seniors to have it all figured out. But isn't that why you go to college?
Source: Lisi Niesner / Reuters

Brown University is asking applicants for the Class of 2017: French novelist Anatole France wrote: "An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." What don't you know?

The University of Chicago would like high-school seniors to tell them: How are apples and oranges supposed to be compared?

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