Length of Supplemental Essay

On the CommonApp —> UChicago —> Writing Supplement, one of the FAQs reads as follows:

Q: Are there word limits?
A: There are no strict word limits. We suggest that for the first essay (where you choose one of the seven prompts), the extended essay stay around 500 words. While we won’t as a rule stop reading after 500 words, we cannot promise that an overly wordy essay will hold our attention for as long as you’d hoped it would. For the “Why UChicago” and “Favorites” essays, we suggest about 250 words.

I understand that the extended essay should be 500 words an that the Why Chicago essay should be 250. But I’m confused as to the “optional favorites” should be 250. I just listed my favorite book, poem, singer, etc…so mine was about 50 words. Are we supposed to list tons/elaborate for each favorite category, write this as an essay, just list a couple, etc? It just seems like 250 words is a lot.

There are several ways people end up interpreting this and people have gotten in writing all of them:
-Straight up listing favorite things
-Listing favorite things and adding a small explanation about each one
-Choosing one favorite thing and then going into detail
-Leaving it blank
There is no “right” way to approach this essay, just write what you think represents you best.