Hi,
When it says that I should list the titles of my favourite books, concerts, movies, etc, should I focus on 2-3 and explain why I enjoy them, or just provide the names?
How many characters/words do you have to compose your answers?
If there’s more than would reasonably be there to list a few titles, then I’d guess that you should probably do some explaining.
Just list them. I’ve heard so many other alumnus, current students, and even one adcom say it’d be best to list them, for the most part. On a few, I elaborated but not in the way you would think. For example: for “Lamb” (I’d highly urge you to run to your nearest bookstore and check this book out right after you finish reviewing my application. Funniest. Book. Ever.) I didn’t really show anything about its context or why it impacted me, just try to be personal.
It specifically says list and not to elaborate, so I think the best bet is list. Everyone I have asked said to just list the titles.
Thanks guys!
Sorry to hijack this thread, but how many titles should we list? Five? Ten?
As many as you feel best encompasses your interests, taking into account any word limits/restrictions imposed in the application. I had 5 books (1 talking about an entire series), 7 movies, and 8 musicians with a 50 word limit for all three combined.
@gearsstudio As many or as few as you want. I’d say 5 is something you should aim for as it is a list.
All I remember is my older son did the list thing for Harvard many years ago. He read on average two books a week. He listed everything he could remember - he listed series as series not each individual volume, and sorted it by fiction (mostly sci fi and fantasy) and math/comp sci books. He got in, though I doubt the book list made any difference.
I think I may have mentioned in a similar thread that the only way I could see an response to this question hurting a candidate might be if they only listed cheap pornography.
But H reminded me that this is the Sarah Palin interview question - so someone might be asking for a rejection if she lists no titles, but says “all of them”