Honors College Optional Freshman Admission Essay Questions: 2012-2013

This essay is optional. If you choose to write an essay as part of your Honors College admission application, respond to one of the following questions with an essay of 250-400 words.

If you choose to write an essay to be considered with your Honors College application, your essay must be submitted at the same time as your online, .pdf, or paper application.

Please note: Honors College essay questions are separate from all OSU Undergraduate Admissions application questions. Please be sure you have completed all necessary requirements for admission to OSU.

1. One of your best friends tells you in strict confidence that he is cheating on his girlfriend who also is one of your best friends. Now the girlfriend has come to you because she is suspicious that her boyfriend is cheating on her. What should you do? Why? [Feel free to change the question to a girlfriend who is cheating on her boyfriend.]

2. You have just learned that the world will lose all electronic communication for a ten-year period beginning August 15, 2012, because of massive cosmic energy storms. How will society be affected (for ill or for good, or both), and what will you do under these circumstances?

3. According to Winston Churchill, "Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things." Do you find Churchill's observation to be true in the 21st Century? Explain why or why not.

4. Write a short story using one of the following titles: Betrayed! or Oops! or You're Kidding??!! or The Last Day.

5. Sometimes "standard" questions like those above do not allow you to express yourself adequately. If you believe this to be the case, develop your own question and answer it thoughtfully.