Humor on Applications and COOKIES

<p>Right now, on the CommonApp, I have baking listed as an EC. I enjoy it, have gotten good at it, and it takes time. (If someone knowledgeable thinks that shouldn't be listed, do tell). Anyway, the accomplishment line hard to fill because all I've done with it make and eat food (and possibly gain some weight). I want to jokingly brag, saying something like, "{insert dessert} that puts {insert dessert brand} to shame." Is this pushing it in terms of formality?</p>

<p>Yes, at least to me. You can slip humor in elsewhere. :)</p>

<p>But you think baking as an EC is acceptable, even if I’ve never done anything ‘official’ with it?</p>

<p>its definately acceptable as an EC but i dunno if you want to put opinion stuff like that in the accomplishments… you could probably describe what you do with baking (what you make maybe?</p>

<p>Think hard before including it. It would work on some sort of high school summary- eg, for the yearbook. Witty’s hobbies include baking… But this is a college app. And, if you are serious about the schools I saw listed and your scores, adcoms want to know about your responsibilities and impact.</p>

<p>Eh, I’ve always been told not to include humor for fear of offending someone with different tastes. The point is you want to be taken seriously. I figure that it would be more possible to include humor in an essay rather than part of your application. It kind of makes it less professional and/or not as serious as other candidates.</p>

<p>Some schools would respond better to that than others, but I honestly don’t think it would hurt that much. Adcoms are human and get bored and something like that might attract their attention. At the info session I went to for NYU they actually suggested that we use humor in our apps (especially the essays) because they get ridiculously bored and appreciate the entertainment, especially when paired with strong credentials and background.</p>

<p>I think it depends on the adcom. my instinct tells me that it’ld be a good thing to put though, but I’ld be worried that there are some adcoms who might look down on it.</p>

<p>There are two problems:

  1. It isn’t very funny
  2. It uses up space on the Common App where you could be highlighting something meaningful.</p>