for Harvard.
i’ve taken on the book list prompt (slight modification - I’ve included a little blurb with my thoughts on it for each book I’ve read). It’s a little long.
anyone willing to read and review (especially if you’d have an idea about whether my thoughts on the books seem apt) please message me. thanks so much!
I’m not an essay reviewer, but I doubt that an essay that offers your thoughts on a series of books is the best use of the very limited space to make your pitch as to why your app should go in the ‘yes’ pile instead of joining the 96% that have to go into the ‘no’ pile. If it is to work at all the comments would have to link together into a clear narrative arc that together shows something important about who you are- and that thing can.not.be that you are a super-intellectual or impressively well-read or full of keen insights.
This is specifically one of the prompts for Harvard’s supplemental essays. It asks for the following:
- A list of books you have read during the past twelve months
…as a topic for an essay for students who feel that they have not had “sufficient opportunity to. convey important information” about themselves.
Simply making a list, even an annotated list, is unlikely to be the best way to convey ‘important information about yourself’.* Not impossible- I can imagine a clever selection of books with equally clever annotations that together tell a story that shows the student to be particularly imaginative / creative / insightful, and that could be precisely the sort of student Harvard would welcome. I think it would be a very high-risk strategy to attempt something like that.
*also, technically a list is not an essay
they never mentioned that the book essay wasn’t a prompt to be attempted… it’s just a part of the other supplemental essays. i could probably include something like an intro and a conclusion to the book essay which shows hmmm. political consciousness? open mindedness, intellectual inquiry. there was a book fair at sch. that i contributed a lot to and a team of experts from the intl book fair seemed to be impressed by my thoughts on each of these books. this is in the context of reading being discouraged among my age group (at least non self-help, non strictly academic type) as it’s seen as “unproductive.” i’ve been the cause of many conversations about books in most of my social circles and have got a lot of people into reading. the selection of books also show further inquiry/my interests and personality, i think. i’ve included only a list from the past twelve months.
i’m a little against changing it because it’s so close to the deadline.
Absolutely your prerogative, but then why ask for advice?
This is what I was referring to: that is what Harvard sees as ‘typical’ for the students they want: in itself, it won’t impress them.
this is why you had context to the list (ie, turn it from a list into an essay)! It’s all very well that you have read a lot of books and have excellent intellectual thoughts. Think about it from the point of view of the AO reading your list / essay: why does this kid think this is an important addition to the rest of their app? Your intellectual analysis of [insert book name] just tells the AO that you are clever- which is their baseline, and should already be apparent from the rest of your application.
On the other hand, connecting the dots for the AO, as you did above, is additive. So you frame your list/essay for them: ‘I love reading / so many of my peers don’t read widely / so many parents/teachers think all reading should be school-related / productive, but sharing these books has opened the door to reading to so many people I know.’ Then, use specific books on your list as examples. The point is not just that you read and thought about them, but you did something with that.
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I will PM you.