<p>this "essay" question asks us to list our favourite actors and so on.
but is it expected to be an essay or rather a list?</p>
<p>i'm fairly sure it's open to interpretation. i wrote in essay form with complete sentences</p>
<p>I wrote about only 1 band and spent a paragraph explaining it, but I don't know either.</p>
<p>The way I understood it, the optional essay is just another chance to express who you are and to give an example of your writing. I think a short essay would probably be better than a list, because while a list tells about your tastes, it doesn't necessarily say anything about your writing skill and it doesn't tell anything about how much you care about the things. You express what you like more through explanation than simple listing.</p>
<p>i wrote it somewhat like this:</p>
<p>"I like Lolita. My friends like to laugh at me because it's about a pedophile. Astor Piazzolla writes great songs. One time, I saw Mean Girls. It punched me in the face. It was awesome -- just like Beethoven's 9th symphony in D minor, movement I. But I think Mahler 2 is great too...and Shosty 5...and Rach 3"</p>
<p>something like that...not even kidding...it was very ME though.</p>
<p>oh, and i was accepted based on my essay-list of incongruity. so yes, i think it's open to interpretation...pick whichever you think is better for describing what you like, whether it be an essay or a list. or you can be like me! haha</p>
<p>Mine was a brief list of my favorite genres (of literature), an explanation of why I love then so much, and a list of several from each genre. Boring, but it got the point across. I really like CrystalPineapple's. I think that if any essay got me in, it was my Harry Potter essay (I spun the essay about a road and wrote about Harry Potter :D), though I also really liked my "Why Chicago" essay -- I talked about the "nerdy" stereotype.</p>
<p>D, who is a dancer, wrote an essay about attending a performance by the ABT, and about her two favorite dancers, one male and one female.</p>
<p>S wrote about the pile of books stashed under his bed. Said pile completely covered his wide range of interests as well as his general sense of organization and neatness (?!). Don't know if Admissions sent the essay to Housing for matchup with his roommate questionaire, though. ;)</p>
<p>thanks spazzity! :)</p>
<p>i also wrote about the road! but mine was a political criticism of a country that i shall not name. it was actually probably the most depressing thing i've ever written. i'm usually a really chirpy/happy person, and i was quite surprised i managed to pull something...not so happy out of my heart.</p>
<p>i love harry potter. if i were an adcom, i'd accept any HP fan right on the spot on the sole basis that they like harry potter. i once had a heated debate with a friend about which school was more hogwarts-y -- uchicago or upenn. haha</p>
<p>countingdown, your S's essay sounds so cool!! it's such a wonderful idea. i would love to know what my future roommates have under their beds. i have a stash of books under mine too...ranging from gossip girl to this huge barnes and nobles book of hemingway to kurt vonnegut (!!! <3 )</p>
<p>The essay came about because the summer before senior year began, I made S clean out the cr<em>p under his bed. Lo and behold, a huge pile of books emerged. I took a picture because it was such a *typical</em> stack for him. He decided to write about the pile after dumping the favorite author/music/artist essay he had already done.</p>
<p>See, this essay was one of my favorite things I've ever written. I was so tired and burnt-out by the time I came around to writing it, that I just decided to be utterly ridiculous, and so I dissected a Windex commercial, the psychological bits and everything. It was really sarcastic and oddly passionate for talking about some silly advertisement, yet I was still really proud of it :)</p>
<p>mine was a very developed short essay (400 wordish) with a strong voice. i wrote it on photography and my favorite artist/piece. i personally believe that the extent of formality to which i took it did me a favor in the end.</p>
<p>i wrote about my favorite film. i talked about how i was influenced by it to pursue my major that i indicated on commonapp and impacted my world view. i saw every essay on the app as a part of a big picture that constructs who i am, so the optional essay fills in the gap to explaine why i have passion for that particular area. hope that i will help xD</p>
<p>I wrote about The Communist Manifesto loool</p>