Essayist Gerard Van Der Leun is now in his 70s. He is a Baby Boomer and grew up in the postwar prosperity of Los Angeles. When he was a little boy, his family moved to the scenic mountains of the town of Paradise in noth...

Peter Jacobs of Business Insider rounded up some of the strangest essay questions that colleges have asked applicants to write about. Here are a couple of oddies from the list:University of Chicago:Have you ever walked t...