Chicago’s Uncommon Application (2007-2008) is what I would call a textbook example of an excellent adcom blog (If only it had a zestier site–Blogspot is so boring!). I just thought I’d take a moment to recognize its utility to students both students and the school.

It is at once a great way to communicate with applicants (and prospective applicants) about important details (as with this deadline update after the recent quake in Asia) and moreover to convey the friendliness of the admissions team at the University of Chicago.

They do things ‘differently’ over there, or so I’m told, but it’s usually in a good way. Case in point: the deadline for RD was set at midnight, but it was midnight ‘from anywhere in the world.’ Therefore east coasters sent it in at 3 am, or rather, 12 am PST. So forth. I found this hilarious and really, really cool. It’s fun touches like this that can endear applicants to a school. Libby Pearson made a post recapping some of the noteworthy locations in a fairly representative post afterwards: UChicago applicants time-shift like crazy.

So, to reiterate what I said back in August to Karine Joly: everyone likes to see some nice honest blogging on behalf of the admissions officers (see #2). I for one would feel much more confident in my hypothetical application to UChicago if I knew that my reader had envelopes for hands, for example. This is useful knowledge, people.

p.s.: If you’re another school with a blog, don’t feel left out necessarily just because I didn’t post about you today. I just chose to cover this blog first because I really liked the picture of the envelope-hands. I’ll be posting some more retrospective appreciation posts in the coming weeks.