I Link You

So I've received an invitation over Facebook entitled the "UNCOMMON PROTEST." For a little background on this event, the College at the University of Chicago has a notorious (yet amusing) admissions application called the "Uncommon Application." It was meant to be a quirky way for an applicant to get to the know the university. The long essay questions are not the boring ones as seen in the Common Application, but it asks for responses to weird questions such as "What do you think of Wednesday?" or "If you had a party and you can invite anyone you want, describe what would happen and who would be invited?". As weird as these essay questions are, the answers are fun to write if you have a great (yet sarcastic) sense of humor. It's also a way for you, as an applicant, to let the college get to know you through your writing style and sense of being.

Recently, the newly inaugurated College President wanted to make a move to have the University of Chicago be on the Common Application and add the quirky essay questions to the supplemental part of the application starting next year. This caused an outrage among the college community, as many students felt that the application is what makes the University of Chicago unique.

As mentioned in an earlier post, there was a facebook group created to protest the move to the Common application and discussion board abounds filled with comments. Some feel that the move to the Common application will increase the applicant pool, and give the College an opportunity to admit a more diverse student body. Others feel that the UnCommon application is now a U of C institution that cannot be removed.

This now comes to the Facebook event that advertises the actual physical protest which will take place this Friday at noon in front of the administration building. There are only 27 confirmed guests as far which is miniscule to the 5000+ college student population on campus.
Is Facebook the best way to generate advertising to the college body? As far as I know, I know a lot of people who graduated last year that don't even check out Facebook anymore. In addition, it seems like people don't really use Facebook that much.

I guess we'll see what sort of reaction comes up this Friday. It seems like the decision is final.

posted by Koh @ 12:30 PM