Hi guys, I think I may be thinking too hard into this portion, but I’ve always been into hip-hop, trap, and rap music. However, my mom keeps telling me that if I put what I actually like on this portion, I will be judged. I’m really into artists like Kanye West, Travis Scott, Bryson Tiller and the like. However, I’m scared to put recordings from any of those artists because their songs are all explicit. However, this genre of music is my absolute favorite, and if anyone were ever to ask me about it, I would be able to talk forever. I don’t really listen to anything else, except a couple of pop songs here and there, but they’ve never given me the same feelings hip-hop does.
If you are not expecting to be judged on your college application, then you should not be applying to any colleges. Of course, each college is going to judge your application; each is going to judge if you fit into the class it is trying to put together.
The question you need to ask yourself is, “Do you want a college to accept the real you or some fake caricature presented in your “smoothes over” application answers?” I think the question kinds of answers itself.
The major and only downside is really for you not the college because if you do not present the real you you may very well find yourself part of a class where you do not fit in at all because the college chose the caricature to be part of the class, but then the real you shows up.
Your Mom may want the best for you, but I do think her approach is being too political/too much gamesmanship about such an important decision. I will tell you want I told my kids - if you present yourself truthfully to a college and the college does not accept you, then it did you a favor. Present yourself honestly and go to a college that accepts and wants you for being you.
You’re not going to be judged the way that you are afraid of. I put down the Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate and talked about controversial political issues and got in.
The admissions officers were once your age, and I’m sure some if not most of them have listened to “edgy” music at least once during their adolescent years.