I was helping my daughter with creating her resume using Naviance which leads me to this question. My D spends much of her free time reading, idk 20 hours a week during the school year and lots more during free time. She’ll print off a list of “great novels” and try to read everything on it or she’ll read a book from an author like Cat’s Cradle and then go and find everything else by Vonnegut and read it. So is there a good way for her to mention this? Obviously if she has the chance it could come up in an essay/short answer but it’s one of the big things that she’s passionate about and I think needs to be noted some how.
I don’t really think reading in and of itself is an EC…however, it could be a topic for an essay, it could be an interview discussion etc. Maybe be could turn reading into an EC by starting a reading club, book group, volunteering at the library or something along those lines.
Is there a place on the Common App for “additional information”? My thought is to advise her to add a short write up about her passion for reading there if it exist.
-Reading was important to me and I felt it was important to include it to give a complete idea of who I am
-It supplemented my academic studies, it was literally extra-curricular
-A (definitely a bit immature) desire to fight against the culture in my chance-me-obsessed high school that had very strict ideas of what was acceptable to list on your college application and what wasn’t
Was it dumb/unnecessary/inefficient? Maybe. I have no idea if it even affected anything. But I don’t really regret it.
You clearly really want her to do it, and nobody’s going to be able to convince you otherwise if that’s the case. But I seriously can’t help feeling that an adcom’s reaction is going to be “So what?”…
I would think all Chicago applicants like to read (or listen to audiobooks). I don’t know why they would apply to Chicago if they didn’t. Some read more than others. But it doesn’t make sense in a list of ECs.
My hope for this thread was for ways for her to present her passion for reading and how much a part of her life it is. Obviously most kids read but not to the extent she does. She’s not unique as there are other kids like that and they may have come up with a good way to show this. I agree that essays and interviews are the best way to present this aspect of her life but that can be said for any EC. There will probably be jaded and cynical Admissions Officers that may say “so what” but I’m sure there are plenty that do try to get an accurate picture of a candidate and appreciate all the information.
I don’t think it’s true that all top students are reading to this extent. A surprising number of them hardly read at all (though maybe it’s not that surprising considering how much time they devote to other activities). But of course many do. I recall my daughter being asked to list books she had read in the past year, and I’m sure this helped her application, though she didn’t list reading as an EC. Whether this was on the common app or a supplemental question, I don’t know.
I think the issue is that colleges like to see kids engaged with the community, and unfortunately reading doesn’t lend itself that well to engagement. Even though college is ostensibly about learning, and most of that takes place by reading, I suspect that in today’s admissions climate she would get a lot more brownie points for a lot less time spent on related activities such organizing a book club, tutoring kids in reading etc. that may be related, but aren’t actually reading. But they are “leadership” and “community engagement” and “volunteering” which are probably all valued more highly than anything she might do alone.
^^ That is probably true but that’s not who she is. She has to take herself and present to colleges in the best light and hope that someone see’s her as an asset to the class they are building. She already doesn’t fit many molds as her school has a different curriculum and she wants to make sure the colleges are aware of how she is using her time.
You can use Addl Info for anything you want. Just use it wisely. It might be a great place to add something about a lust for reading. Just realize the app is about an admissions review.