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Well, I started doing my Penn essays and the one about your autobiography reads: You have just completed your 300 page autobiography. Please submit page 217.

When I read it I thought it meant an autobiography of your entire life, so 217 might be somewhere in the future say 10-20 years; but then I talked to a friend who interpreted it as your life until now, so 217 would be some experience from a couple years ago. I know it's an essay topic and it's up to your interpretation and all but is there a wide concencus on what it means that I'm just missing or is it vague on purpose...please help!!! thanks

By Jarahul106 (Jarahul106) on Saturday, September 18, 2004 - 11:02 am: Edit

im pretty sure it means "write whatever u want to write about." at one point i thought, "ohhhh it must mean to write about your life at te 217/300 mark" but im pretty sure thats ridiculous, so write about whatever.

By Deerhunter (Deerhunter) on Saturday, September 18, 2004 - 02:00 pm: Edit

Dude. Autobiography implies something about your life up to this point. I wouldn't recommend writing about something 10-20 years from now, but the topic is essentially a free one.

By Sariph34 (Sariph34) on Saturday, September 18, 2004 - 02:23 pm: Edit

i was also confused about this issue guys but i have a simple logic that a guy 17 -18 cannot write a biography( may be thay can but noramally they dont) so mayb i suppose from this essay the addmission officers r tryin to see the maturity level ,creativity n many more. if the essay is written of the recent things it may not show all.
i m applying for ed as well so plz the ones in the penn schools help!!! am i right or wrong

By Fluffhead (Fluffhead) on Sunday, September 19, 2004 - 01:54 pm: Edit

Hey,

I'm a current Penn freshmen (by the way... I LOVE it here, it's the greatest school in the world) and I used this site a lot last year during the admissions process. There were lots of awesome Penn students who gave me advice, so I'm going to try to "give back" and check in and answer questions here every once in a while as well.

It's funny you ask this question; a bunch of my friends and I were actually just talking about this essay a few days ago. I personally interpreted it as something that has happened so far in my life, and all of my friends here did the same. I'm sure if you're creative and you write about something in the future it would probably be alright, but seeing as how it is an autobiography it might be better just to talk about something you already know and have experienced. Your thoughts will be more clear and thus your essay will probably be better.

By Muppetcoat (Muppetcoat) on Sunday, September 19, 2004 - 03:26 pm: Edit

I wrote it as years in the future. (about going through menopause)... Plenty of my friends who also got in wrote about their current lives.


It's an open ended question for a reason. Do what you like with this.