<p>I know this question gets asked incessantly about countless essays, but.....
How long is a typical response to this? Obviously it's probably not to rant or go on forever about every single book you've ever read or song you've listened to, but exactly how in-depth should we be?</p>
<p>Back in the days of the Common App (poor, poor common app. May you rest in peace) the directions were to write “a paragraph or two” or however much you felt was enough.</p>
<p>That’s the wrong question. The right question is, “How do I frame a discussion about what I like so that it communicates something important about me that nothing else in my application does as well, and doesn’t bore the reader, and makes it look like I belong at the University of Chicago?” You could accomplish that at all sorts of different depths, ranging from completely superficial to a Proustian deep-dive (but probably somewhere in between). You’re not selling the book/song/movie; you’re selling yourself.</p>
<p>My daughter wrote her main UChicago essay about a single phrase that she used sometimes in conversation that she had picked up from a young adult book she liked in 6th grade. The phrase, and the book, were both completely trivial. Her analysis of why the phrase (and the book) had stayed with her for years showed that she had a sophisticated, personal understanding of literature, and that she was capable of writing effectively about complex ideas. I thought it was a really good essay. It included hardly any facts about her at all – and before I read it, I didn’t even know that she had ever cared about the book involved, it wasn’t one of her known favorites – but it showed how her mind worked, what she cared about, and how she wrote.</p>
<p>I did not write this essay last year, but I would say that you should limit it to one or two books/movies/whatever, and if you use two, they should contribute equally. I’ll just tell you now that “I like this book because…” is not going to work. In fact, I would avoid using any words such as those in your essay.</p>
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<p>What do you mean by this? Isn’t UChicago using the Common App this year?</p>
<p>Mine was ~ a place long</p>
<p>I wrote two paragraphs… and wrote about everything. I used it to explain how diverse my interests are. (PS: got accepted so something worked ^^) I don’t think the essays are meant to be specific in anyway. Instead, they are looking for you to show a part of yourself in them.</p>
<p>oops - I meant the UNcommon app. </p>
<p>FAIL on my part :-(</p>
<p>Mine was pretty much on medium length paragraph talking about how I hate Kindles, haha. Don’t stress out about it. I didn’t go in depth at all. I would definitely say don’t list books, or you’ll sound like you’re just name-dropping.</p>
<p>S1 wrote about the pile of books he found under his bed the day I made him clean his room. They represented the confluence of all the various strands of interests in his life. </p>
<p>S2 is contemplating writng about a “fine art,” but not books/music/art/movies. It is, however, VERY unique.</p>
<p>S1 wrote one long paragraph and covered, music, books, and cinema and tied it in to a common thread that appeared in all of his essays. </p>
<p>S2 wrote (this essay was required in the application for the UofC summer program) about watching a science fiction TV show over a 10 year period and how is appreciation for the show changed over the years reflecting changes in his development. It was quite clever.</p>
<p>CountingDown - I did something like that. </p>
<p>My entire essay was about my friend (a dance major) and her thesis performance.</p>