What is the point of a 300 word limit if listing the books hardly takes up a quarter of that…did you explain why?
I just listed - that is what my regional admissions officer told us to do when she visited my high school
Don’t try to read between the lines; there is nothing there. If they wanted an explanation, they would have asked for one. A list is just that. It’s just another oppy for them to get to know the “real you.”
No, your explanation should come from the unique book list you put. Hopefully you read interes
ting selections!
How many words did you use up?
Much as I wish we’d had 300 words, the supplement’s actually [limited to 150](http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/writing-supplement). As for your question, yeah—sort of. I did put a few of my more unusual choices into some very brief context, but that was only because I genuinely believe that it makes the supplement more meaningful/cohesive. That said, those comments were very short and only followed two, maybe three books on the entire list. That said, I’m the sort of person who’s obligated by nature to wryly comment on everything, ever, so maybe you shouldn’t listen to me. Who knows? I may very well get rejected, come Thursday.
All in all, don’t comment just to fill up whitespace. Actually, don’t ever write anything just to fill up space. And if you find yourself short of titles to list on your application, that might be fate telling you to get up and walk on down to your local library 