<p>I don't know, I guess my shorter answer for the shorter U Chicago essay is ok, the question was:
"Would you please tell us about a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, films, plays, pieces of music, musicians, performers, paintings, artists, magazines, or newspapers? Feel free to touch on one, some, or all of the categories listed, or add a category of your own."</p>
<p>But I only talked about one of my favorite bands and 1 of my favorite books. They say to keep it one or two paragraps and I did- 260 words. I don't see how I could have written about "a few" of my favorite bands and my favorite books without my essay being several incoherent pages. Is it ok though?</p>
<p>My longer essay is about 450 words too. I don't see how I could add more to it without inflating it and detracting from the overall quality of it.</p>
<p>anybody know? please?</p>
<p>How are other people handling this short essay? I am not sure whether I would be better off listing many things that I enjoy from different categories or doing like the OP.</p>
<p>Imho, I think quality, not quantity, but Im just not sure. I think it would be better to cover one of my favorite books, one favorite magazine, and one favorite band than to just give a laundry list of what I like. I know it says to describe a few, and technically I am. Im only describing one of each category that I like, but I am covering a few categories. I want to be able to be specific, and to name a few, I would have to write several pages (which is not allowed), or cover them superficially (which I dont want to do).
And, despite what my parents think, I dont think its a good idea to write that my favorite book is War and Peace and The Awakening and my favorite magazine is The Economist and I listen to classical music. Im describing what I like, even if it is a bit odd, even if it is what many adults would frown upon. I like hard rock, and I have morbid interests- but you know what, Im 17 years old, and its perfectly normal. I want to be me. My favorite magazine maybe isnt the most intellectual, my favorite band isnt the most conservative, and my favorite book wasnt written by Plato or Ptolemy or Chaucer or Hegel or Milton, but so what- thats who I am. And I hope the University of Chicago agrees and can judge me based on how I justify my interests, not based on what my interests are.</p>
<p>I think you'll be fine. For God's sakes, they admitted Tucker Max, didn't they? Something about him makes me think he didn't give the typical intellectual answers either. Be yourself.</p>
<p>Call Tucker Max what you want, but don't call him stupid. U Chicago and Duke Law, I would hesitate in questioning his intelligence.</p>
<p>I'm not calling him stupid. I'm saying I doubt he wrote about Plato or Ptolemy.</p>
<p>"Call Tucker Max what you want, but don't call him stupid."</p>
<p>Isn't that a contradiction?</p>
<p>I don't see it as a contradiction, I was just placing a limit. Maybe I didn't phrase it correctly, i meant something along the lines of say whatever you want, but don't... idk, i didn't originate the phrase. this is a message board, so im sorry if my grammar isn't polished.</p>
<p>and i didn't mean that in a hostile way, just clarifying, it's hard to tell over the internet.</p>
<p>lol ok well the point i'm just trying to make is they admitted tucker max. I've read his essay on his website to Duke law and it's not necessarily "philosophical." I doubt he was bringing up Plato and Ptolemy in his Chicago essays either. I'm betting that his were very similar to yours (and what mine will be) with real, teenager-based examples. I think you'll be fine and I'm sure Chicago enjoys hearing about what we really enjoy in our everyday lives.</p>
<p>it's only short answer like 2 paragraphs, so i could only briefly describe things, not go into too much detail. I though about adding more detail but I decided I didn't want it to read like a Wikipedia article, and its not a research paper so i didnt give specific examples. w/e, short answer.</p>
<p>That leaves one final question: Resume- to submit or only use the activity box provided? my activities are pretty standard.</p>
<p>I covered books, authors, films, and music in a laundry list-like format. I didn't go into much detail- a sentence or two for each thing listed. I wonder what the adcoms thought when I wrote that my favorite music was Christmas and country music and that my favorite entertainer was Jack Benny? I think I redeemed myself with my favorite author being a Chicago grad. :rolleyes:</p>