<p>Alright, so I've been reading quite a bit on here about EC's and seeing how you should address them in your application, but I've got a couple things I do I'm not sure about.</p>
<p>I understand that adcoms are looking for your personality in your app as well as what you're passionate about. I'm doing everything I can to make that clear. My question is, how do I fit my love for reading into my application? Books are extremely important to me, and you can't describe me without bringing up the fact that I read all the time. Reading is my escape from life, but I don't want to talk about it as if I'm complaining about my life and that's my way out. Also, I'm so attached at the hip to the idea of reading that I've started writing my own story/book, but where would I even talk about that? My main essay for the Common App has nothing to do with any of this at all, so I feel like it would be out of place there.</p>
<p>At the same time, reading isn't volunteering 500 hours or something like that. It means just as much to me, but I feel like saying "I love to read" doesn't hold nearly as much weight. Am I right in thinking this? I have no idea what to do about this. My personality would shine through very brightly if I were able to talk about this.</p>
<p>I can explain more if anybody has any idea what I should do, but hopefully that ^ makes some sense!</p>
<p>Also, Vanderbilt is my #1, so anybody knows what they think about this kind of thing in particular, I would greatly appreciate it!</p>
<p>CC usually has a narrow idea about passions. It’s not how much you really love something but what you do with that interest, what that says to adcoms about you for their college, what sort of member you will be. </p>
<p>Likewise, it’s not specifically your personality, but how your strengths, experiences, resilience, willingness, energy, etc, come through. The whole. I don’t think they’d see reading as a complaint, per se, but they likely will also be looking for ways you engage. So, what do you think will shine brightly? Remember the advice to “show, not tell.” Have you used your love of reading to reach out in some way or has it led to something? Thinking points.</p>
<p>I completely get what you mean here, so thank you! My love for reading has led to me seriously starting writing my own book. Is that the kind of thing you mean with “what I’m doing with the interest”? Or something else entirely? </p>
<p>And not to sound like a complete social failure, because I’m not at all, but should I refrain from mentioning at all my “online presence”, for lack of better word, when it comes to the world of books? I guess this would be my reaching out, but not in a volunteer at the library kind of way. It’s more of a getting people excited about books and reading because it makes me really happy when something I say gets someone as excited as I am about a book. </p>
<p>I’ve definitely been financially limited when it comes to getting involved in my actual, physical community in this aspect, so I don’t know if I could explain that or…</p>
<p>Maybe your teachers or GC will mention it. I feel like my kids’ apps oozed “reader” without them even having to say it. D2 wrote her Common App essay about trying to emulate Sherlock Holmes since middle schools after introduction to him through books. Their CR, WR, and SAT Subject II Lit scores pretty clearly screamed “reader” (very high scores). One school asked about books/music/etc that they liked, and D2 wrote a very nice piece about Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow” – guessing no one else picked that one to write about. One of my kids was a literature specialist in Quiz Bowl, which showed up in her activities. One founded “Library Club” at school, and the other was a four year member of the “Inkslingers” writing club. So they didn’t need to say it – it was “all over” their applications without a specific mention. </p>
<p>I don’t see why it can’t be your essay. Just be sure to write about not just that you like to read to escape, but how reading has impacted/transformed your life.</p>
<p>As intparent says, kids who are serious readers are easy to spot. They have no trouble getting 750 plus on SAT cr reading, for instance, and their teachers often note a sophistication that they have picked up from reading huge amounts of literature. Now, I am assuming that when you say you are constantly reading, you mean literature and not just the usual young adult fare. There’s nothing wrong with young adult books. Don’t get me wrong. Personally, I loved The Fault in Our Stars, for instance, with all its existential underpinnings. But it isn’t exactly Camus or Sartre. The kids who have devoted many many hours to reading the Great Books are very comfortable in the world of Great Ideas and this oozes out of every part of their application. </p>
<p>Ahh, that makes sense. If only my school would allow the starting of a library club or had a Quiz Bowl or something like it. I have advised one of my teachers to write about it in their rec for me, so hopefully it’ll be brought up there. I just wish…I don’t know…that I could go on a rant in my application. If only that were possible haha.</p>
<p>Annnnnnd now I’m cringing…
I love the young adult genre because it encompasses every genre and twists it all into one, and it takes themes from all the great books and presents them in a way I can relate to them. It is literature. Sure, a plethora of people see it as a silly, immature genre, but they don’t always look past the surface either. Many of the books deal with serious issues in a mature way (particularly The Fault In Our Stars) and are believable. I think that’s what gets me about some of the Great books: I just can’t believe the characters. For instance, I’m reading Dubliners right now, and I honestly don’t like it at all because of the way it deals with certain issues. It makes everything seem unrealistic, especially since you’re making assumptions the whole way through. I don’t know if you know anything about this, but hopefully I’ve made myself clear.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think my only question now is (since I don’t think my entire app is oozing with sophistication in this sense), is it worth it to add something about books, perhaps in the additional info section, or just leave it up to my teacher to mention it? I’m writing my main essay on how a wildfire this summer came dangerously close to destroying everything I know, and how it changed my view on life and the world, so books don’t really fit into that.</p>
<p>Did it almost destroy your books? Books would be one of the last things I would give up (ever) in life. I would give up peanut butter, sex, cross country skiing, TV & movies, autumn leaves, ice cream, daily bathing, THE INTERNET (including CC), probably my car, and possibly my children on some days before I would give up books. I am pretty sure I could work something into an essay on a wildfire about the possible trauma of losing my books…</p>
<p>In the draft I have now, I did mention not being able to take my book collection with me (I could really only take what I could carry and then we had to get out of there since it was a Level 3 Evac), but I’m kind of focusing my essay on the idea of losing my version of the “teenage veil of invincibility”, since it came sooo close, as well as how I’ve realized more than I did before how much I take for granted simply because I live in America. Unless you guys have any suggestions??</p>
<p>I attended a case study seminar with an admissions officer from Vandy and he was really good at reading between the lines. He’d definitely have come to the conclusion you were a reader based solely on your scores for CR/lit etc, as the other posters said. He would also definitely spot a reference to a book collection in an essay.</p>
<p>That said, isn’t writing your own book a big achievement? I’m in no way qualified to give advice, but some of the examples in the case study had more trivial things in their activities section (and they got accepted to Vandy).</p>
<p>That’s really good to know! I think I’ll probably just stick with having it mentioned in my essay, since it flowed quite naturally with it in there. But should I put writing my book as an activity I do? I write pretty regularly for it (I haven’t self-published it or anything yet). I’m gonna take a shot into the dark and guess that most applicants won’t have done this? Therefore I’d earn some original points there?
My scores are a little on the low side (2010 total, 670 CR). I keep telling myself that they have a 50 percentile that they report, but there’s gotta be people out there that are on the lower side that impress them in other ways. Is it ridiculous to think like that or…?</p>
<p>The way I see it, if you say you spent X amount of time writing a book, they know you spent X amount of time writing a book. If you leave the slot blank, then for all intents and purposes, you may as well have spent that X amount of time doing nothing. When I was speaking to the Vanderbilt admissions officer about my gap year, he said they want as much information as possible about what I did with my time. If I were you I wouldn’t hide the fact that I spent it writing, I’d show it off. During the case study he kept pointing out little things like this in the applications that made them interesting. IMO you only stand to gain from including it unless you’d need to cut out the part about you single-handedly curing ebola to fit it in.</p>
<p>Hahaha alright thank you! I’m definitely going to add it then! I still have three spaces left for activities so I don’t know why I didn’t think to add it before. Thank you again!</p>
One of my kids was a literature specialist in Quiz Bowl, which showed up in her activities. One founded “Library Club” at school, and the other was a four year member of the “Inkslingers” writing club. So they didn’t need to say it – it was “all over” their applications without a specific mention. </p>