Prompt: Imagine you had an extra hour in the day — how would you spend that time? (50-word limit).

My 49-word response: Although I’m versed in Chinese poetry, I have yet to explore Japanese
haikus. I would devour as many haikus as I could and savor the colorful individuality of each
character by handwriting them using a brush from my untouched calligraphy set. After all, poetry
is simply painting with words.

Tips for Writing:

 Be authentic as you can – for this prompt in particular, don’t worry about fitting in your
most impressive extracurricular, but be genuine about what you want to do
 With short word limits, it’s important to maximize the utility of each word. To convey a
more casual tone, for example, you could form more contractions, thereby saving space
as well
 Describe in detail one activity you would like to do – in this case, depth is better than
breadth
 Make sure your response links back to the general theme of your application, showing
that you have focus
 Some people also like to take a more humorous approach to this prompt (ex: if given
another hour, sleep more); the style doesn’t really matter as long as the idea is well-
thought out and clearly conveyed