<p>How is everyone approaching the Tell us about a few of your favorite books, poems, authors, etc. short essay in the application? I think Im going to focus only on one area (book), but even then Im not sure what to write obviously, I cant just make a list of I like ______ because ____________ yet I dont want to go off on a tangent and not answer the question </p>
<p>My favorite play is...and this is why...
My favorite newspaper is...and this is why.</p>
<p>i think structure is key for any short answer. they want to see that you can write. the longer essay is for creative structures. but you can delineate very clearly, i sure did: i like this, this is why. write artfully, but elegantly.</p>
<p>i wrote about what kind of things that i like, then said which particular pieces, authors, films, etc. fulfilled my desires.</p>
<p>by the way, what does the yellow versus grey icon on the left of the thread title mean?</p>
<p>Yellow denotes a post or posts that you haven't yet viewed within that thread. Grey means that you've viewed all of the posts already.</p>
<p>Haha, I wrote about a page and a half single-spaced about my favorite building. My "short-answer essay" was longer than my mustard one. But I think it was worth it...</p>
<p>wow, that's a cool idea, jlp. what building and where?</p>
<p>I'm not sure how important structure is in these questions. I don't have an application in front of me so I am not sure how the questions were worded, but my "favorites" was really just 2 paragraphs. One for a midsummer nights dream and one for a little weekly alternative paper. They dont want a paper, they want an answer.</p>
<p>I actually don't know the building's name or what it was for or anything. I saw it on a trip to Chicago my friends and I took over the summer. Maybe it's an important building? A well-known building? I don't know. </p>
<p>The cool part about it was that, all along the front facade of the building, there were little peices of various types of stones imbedded into the rock of the building itself. And there were plaques next to each of the stones, proclaiming their respective origins: "Crying Wall, Jerusalem. Great Pyramid, Egypt. Coliseum, Rome." etc.... there were a lot more, cooler places that I can't remember. It was just really neat... being able to touch the same stones that thousands of people from all across the world and all throughout time (slaves, religous devotees, warriors, princes) had touched. I considered the fact that none of the stones were real, but they were still a connecting factor between me and the hundreds of other modern-day people who walked by the building and wondered and imagined. </p>
<p>I think it's my best essay so far out of all of my college apps. And I tinkered with it a little bit, and now it's good to go for the Common App essay (and it served as Stanford's main essay, too....). But Chicago got it first!</p>
<p>i just wrote a really casual bit about a book which wasnt my favorite but sort of a personal goal of mine to finish/understand. it was rather strange, actually, but pretty casual because my other essays were kind of intesne.</p>
<p>I think you are talking about a building downtown so I dont know (but I think I have seen it) but, the building on campus with the co-op bookstore in the basement (I think it is part of the divinity school) has a bunch of random stones from places placed in the wall in one of the hallways.</p>
<p>do they care if you arent really cultured? i dont read too much, and i dont listen to classical music. will this be a huge detriment to my app? i just like to listen to music that probably isnt considered "smart people" music for hours on end. is that okay to write about?</p>
<p>i wouldn't pretend to like something that i dont anyway- it usually ends up horrendous. just write about what you know. and if uchicago rejects you because you're not cultured enough- well, thats just so pretentious that you shouldn't go there anyway.</p>
<p>i agree with wondrlst. to pretend to be cultured...height of pseudo-intellectuality. always seems insincere and uncompelling. the better they see who you are, the better you'll look.</p>
<p>well, i never planned on writing about stuff i really dont care about. i was just wondering if what i wrote about would be held against me. personally i like art by rothko and techno music as well as music like chevelle and new found glory. thanks</p>
<p>i just wrote several books down, artists and then radiohead. i then wrote a paragraph on the band the postal service explaining why i liked them and how i like to find patterns and motifs in art. it worked.</p>
<p>i read alot, so i put my favorites in all the different genres that i read. If the list had been longer then my list of favorite books and pieces of music would include everything I wrote down, but I made sure that variety was apparent even in the small space they gave us.</p>
<p>I wrote two paragraphs, separated by concept, not medium. I wrote about John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, and Fyodor Dostoevsky for the first paragraph and Manu Chao and Dan Eldon in the second. I wrote it really quickly before I sent the application, and I think it was good. Obviously it was good enough for them.</p>
<p>Haha, Manu Chao. Hell no.</p>
<p>Try Caf</p>