The latest question on the Tufts University application for admissions is pretty unusual.
Tufts, known for its creative application questions—a 2009 application question was “ Are we alone?” In 2010 it began to allow students to submit Youtube videos to apply to the school—has this year decided to go with #YOLO.
YOLO, an Internet meme that serves as an acronym for “you only live once,” is often used by teenagers to excuse irresponsible behavior (“did coke at a party this weekend with a bunch of slutty chicks @RobbyWilson8 ‘s house because parents were out of town #YOLO”) is now Tufts essay prompt.
According to a piece at the Boston Globe by Katherine Landergan:
For the third essay on the Tufts supplement, students are asked to choose one of six prompts, including the following:
“The ancient Romans started it when they coined the phrase “Carpe diem.” Jonathan Larson proclaimed “No day but today!” and most recently, Drake explained You Only Live Once (YOLO). Have you ever seized the day? Lived like there was no tomorrow? Or perhaps you plan to shout YOLO while jumping into something in the future. What does #YOLO mean to you?”
Maybe admissions officers at the Massachusetts school (working in the building shown above) are just getting bored. Tufts is eager to emphasize that this question is totally not bullshit. According to the Globe article:
“The spirit of the question is actually quite serious as it asks students to consider a concept that people – from Roman philosopher of antiquity Horace to contemporary Grammy Award-winning Canadian rapper Drake – have been thinking about for thousands of years,” she wrote.
Um, so why keep asking? What new answers are we really going to get here?
This probably won’t happen, but an honest response is something along the lines of: “Look, I’m 17 and applying to a fancy college; all of my #YOLO things are ultimately pretty tame. Look my SATs, OK?” [Image via]
