List or Describe: A question on the first essay.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

Hello! Congrats to everyone who got in last night and good luck to all those who were deferred. I am a current Senior about to apply regular to Harvard. While reading over my essays,I realized that I may have messed up with the prompt:

Your intellectual life may extend beyond the academic requirements of your particular school. Please use the space below to list additional intellectual activities that you have not mentioned or detailed elsewhere in your application. These could include, but are not limited to, supervised or self-directed projects not done as school work, training experiences, online courses not run by your school, or summer academic or research programs not described elsewhere. (Optional – 150 words)

The thing is that I wrote a creative description of the one activity that I did that fit this prompt. However, now that i’m looking at the prompt again I am wondering, since it says list, if they want me to just list it with minimal description? Would I be penalized for not totally following the prompt? Should I keep my current description, which is very creative and compelling? Thanks!

2

Strictly my opinion. And I’ll preface this by saying that I hate this prompt. If it’s important, you would already have listed it. That said, I think it’s fine to add some context and texture. But if you were answering the “List the Books” prompt, I would just list.

3

I think your response was fine, as long as it was under 150 words. And I think some deeper info on one interest or project is better than a laundry list anyway :slight_smile: Don’t overthink. Your answer sounds intriguing. Good luck!

4

Thanks! @compmom @skieurope