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Wake Forest  /  Essays  /  Prompt 4

Wake Forest: Top Ten list

~100 characters per line

Give us your Top 10 list. (The choice of theme is yours.)
What it’s really asking

This is the fun one, and Wake means it. The theme is fully yours, which makes it a personality test. They want a list that reveals how your mind works and what you notice, ideally with some wit. A boring or self-congratulatory theme wastes the only prompt designed for charm.

Why they ask it

After several earnest answers, this list lets Wake see you laugh and observe. The best ones are specific, slightly surprising, and unmistakably yours. They make a tired reader smile and remember you by the tenth item.

Three ways in
Pick a theme only you would pick

Root the list in a real habit, place, or obsession of yours that no one else could claim.

Make every item specific

Write items concrete enough that no other applicant could have produced them.

Earn a twist

Aim for a little humor or a small turn by the end so the list lands, not just lists.

✕  Weak opening

“Top Ten Reasons Wake Forest Is My Dream School.”

✓  Strong opening

“Top Ten Sounds of My Grandfather's Auto Shop, Ranked by How Much Trouble They Meant.”

✦ Annotated example · Top 10: Things That Made Me Curious This Year. Written by EssayLens to teach, not a real applicant’s essay. Tap a highlighted line →
Top 10 Things That Quietly Hijacked My Curiosity This Year 1. Why my grandmother's bread never rises at altitude 12. The exact moment a crowd decides to clap in unison 3. Whether octopuses dream, and about what 24. How the 1968 Mexico City fair-housing protests got erased from my textbook 5. Why I can't stop relistening to a 12-second cello loop 36. The economics of why gas stations cluster on the same corner 7. Whether my dog recognizes herself in the mirror 48. How translators decide what a joke becomes in another language 9. Why some silences feel longer than others 510. What I'll be curious about next, which is the only answer I trust6
  1. 1A clear theme up front frames the whole list and signals the intellectual curiosity Wake names first. The opening item is domestic and specific, not impressive-sounding.
  2. 2Mixing social science and biology in two short lines shows range. Each entry stays well under the ~100-character limit, as the prompt requires.
  3. 3An item with historical and ethical weight sits comfortably beside a personal quirk, revealing a real and unpolished mind rather than a resume.
  4. 4Pairs a genuine economics concept (Hotelling competition, unnamed) with a playful question, showing curiosity that crosses disciplines.
  5. 5These entries lean literary and perceptual, broadening the list's intellectual footprint and keeping the voice distinct and observant.
  6. 6A self-aware final line turns the list into a small argument about who the applicant is, closing the bit with personality and landing on lifelong curiosity.
Stuck? Start here
  • What is a habit, place, or obsession of yours that you could rank ten ways?
  • Which theme would make a stranger learn something true about you?
  • Where could one item add humor or a small surprise?
Before you submit
  • Is your theme one only you could have chosen?
  • Is every item specific enough to fail the swap test (no other applicant could write it)?
  • Does at least one item make a tired reader smile or feel something?

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