Alh- and to add to your fine post- the question is also there for the kids who DON’T have the ten page resume outlining every musical they starred in, or county-wide orchestra they played in, or student government award they won. This is also insight- how does a college identify the kid who isn’t the joiner or the musician or the athlete as having high potential in some other way?
One of my kids is and was a big fan of a particular fiction genre (for lack of a better word). Can talk about the history of this type of literature going back to Dante-- and its precursers in ancient elegies up to and including contemporary comic book/film. Very, very well read on this and many other subjects. Couldn’t start a “club” in HS since it would have been a club of one.
What’s wrong with a college (an institution of higher learning, after all) giving this type of kid a chance to fill in the blanks on his/her personality in the same way that the music kid, the athlete, the “I started three non-profits” kid get to do? And why the pushback from parents whose kids are not big readers resenting the kids who are??? I love that your kid won the basketball finals. I love that your kid composed a concerto for the all-city teen orchestra. Can you love someone else’s kid who is an avid reader?
Nobody is giving awards for reading once you are past the third grade. What’s wrong with a college asking the question? When my kid got asked about teams he was on he put N/A. If it’s N/A, don’t fill it in.
Exactly. Where’s the posts bemoaning questions about what students did during the summers in HS? My S had to answer that question on the same app as asked about reading. He answered, truthfully, a very minor summer job (cleaning up at our church), the local music rec program, and our summer vacation down the shore. No internship, no research, no intellectual programs, no enormous community service program.
If they expected something more, then oh well. He told them who he was (and got into the school).
I really think there’s a lot of over-thinking here.
For the vast, vast majority of kids I know who were decent candidates for admission to the sort of colleges that ask this question – and, I believe, all or almost all of those actually admitted – this was a meaningful question that would have revealed important aspects of their personalities and interests. I suspect that’s true of the OP’s son as well, in a backhanded kind of way.
I can’t really speak to the situation today, but when I was in college (not at a college that asked this question, but at one a lot like the ones that do) there was at most a tiny handful of people who did not do meaningful discretionary reading. That handful of people did not fit in, and generally was miserable – a tiny percentage of recruited athletes and what we now call developmental admits.
For the high school student who feels judged by this: I’m sorry. I suppose it’s unavoidable that students feel judged by colleges, and by the college admissions process. I wish they wouldn’t take it so hard. There are plenty of excellent colleges where the admissions staff doesn’t and wouldn’t care much about this question. In any event, it passes, and it doesn’t affect the rest of your life.
“…These attributes are so much more important to our family than how many books he has read. If a school turns him down because of his lack of outside reading so be it.” - As it should be. So don’t be afraid to have him answer honestly. Some kids won’t have any music or sports or leadership roles… and that’s OK. I think students should answer honestly.
If OP’s son is busy with AP courses etc, couldn’t he just list book(s) he read last summer? And if that’s not his thing even with free time, then it maybe says something about his fit for a school that thinks it is important enough for an app question. (I’m only saying “maybe” - I’m not an expert on college admission. Just a long time reader of these forums who knows that fit is important.
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Well that raises the question, just why do we think the colleges ask the specific types of questions that they do on the applications?
How much of what they are looking for could be gleaned, or addressed by the applicant, if they were to ask just one question.
Which questions don’t amount to much of anything?
How much of what is asked these days by the majority of the colleges is a response to what they have learned has been positively responded to by candidates in the past at a university not their own?
Every essay (including booklists) is an opportunity to reveal something about yourself. It can augment the message of the rest of your application or add something you were unable to reveal elsewhere.
I understand that the kid doesn’t feel like reading after tackling the AP English reading - it was one of the reasons, my kids took every other AP in school but English, they wanted to enjoy their reading. If I understand the OP correctly, the OP’s kid does not ever read books for pleasure. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with reading magazines and blogs. I’d probably list them with some short annotations about what they cover and why they are interesting. Even reading manga and graphic novels on line is fine IMO.
I support the honesty approach and telling the college that his reading has all been assigned and there has been zero for pleasure.
I have a nightstand full of books I haven’t read yet. Maybe he could write about his list of books to read when he gets the time. The books in my nightstand tell a lot about me even though I haven’t actually read them yet.
@csfmap, that would actually make a great essay - all the books I wish I had read! I have some funny “To read” books from my high school days that I come across from time to time. I’ve actually read a lot of what I wanted to read, some I have no desire any more to read, and a few, I have tried, but just couldn’t, even though I’m still feel that I’m lacking as an educated person because I’ve never read any insert famous classic author name here.
If OP’s son is applying to the same school that my daughter applied, they ask three different questions regarding reading. First is list your favorite required readings; then favorite publications including websites, magazines, blogs, etc., and finally the favorite non-required readings. So in this instance, the suggestions to include webpages, blogs or required readings does not work. My daughter was in a similar situation as OP’s son in that she was so busy with other activities there was little time left over for sleeping, much less extra reading (e.g., played a year-round sport, had a full-time summer job, did independent research and compiled two 24 piece art portfolios over the last 2 years). Nevertheless, although her list was short, it did include a couple of books that she at least read portions of … such as a cook book. Unlike avid readers, this surely won’t be a highlight of her application, but I don’t think it’s a deal breaker either.
Sheesh…yes, he reads for pleasure when time permits. Unfortunately, he does not have long stretches of available time where can finish an entire tome. He has assigned reading even during schools breaks (Christmas, Easter, spring break, summer, etc.) @18yrcollegemin - yes, he is very similar to your daughter in terms of activities. No year round sports, but busy each summer with a full time job or full time volunteering. Funny, he also included a cookbook!
FWIW, Son has a friend who was accepted to Columbia last year and only listed online blogs, websites, tumblers, and feminist periodicals for that question (she was very heavy into social justice activism) … she answered honestly that was her “reading” for pleasure … Columbia didn’t seem to mind. That said, I also like @profdad2021 's advice!
^I wonder if we’re all talking about the Columbia app. And to agree here, I don’t think they’re looking for a deal-breaker. Just trying to get a little insight into what makes this person tick, from one of many angles.