NYU tried an experiment: Applicants to the Graduate School of Public Service had the option of reacting to this photograph, or several others, as an essay question.

As an applicant, you might not want to touch this image with a 10-foot dandelion. But if you’re stuck on a subject to write about for the common app essay, try staring at this picture  for a few minutes. What do you see? What does it remind you of? Riff on those memories.  Make some stream-of-consciousness notes. These jottings might take an unforeseen shape as your mind and pencil move from connection to connection. It could be a way to loosen yourself up. Try this for 10 minutes; put away the notes. Then look at them in a day and see what’s there.  Map it out. Chances are, a subject for an essay — something you feel passionate about — could begin to emerge from the fog.

An official of NYU said on The New York Times website  that such a photo question “allows us to get a deeper sense of the applicant’s passion for/commitment to an issue, and unlocks the depth of interest in a way that is not always achievable in a standard admissions essay.”  The same thing it did for NYU it might do for you.

The Times’ slideshow of these photographs is well worth checking out.