<p>Um. How long should the part about my summer activities be? It gives 2500 characters...</p>
<p>I worked in a lab both summers, primarily (8 weeks each time), and went on brief vacations to Europe and California. Should I mention the family vacations? How in detail should I go on my science research work?</p>
<p>So very long o_O</p>
<p>No - just list them.</p>
<p>Just mention the things that they would care about. Why would they care about your family vacations?</p>
<p>thanks 
that’s what I thought, but I was just thinking about how they give you <em>so</em> much room…why? :P</p>
<p>you idiots, yes mention them, they look to see that you are a person too, not just another robot, they know you cant work all the time</p>
<p>“Oh, this person went to vacation in Hawaii for a week after working 40 hours a week on biomedical research. In that case, how can we not accept him!?!”</p>
<p>Dude, it doesn’t matter. They just want to know that you didn’t waste your summers. Actually, go ahead and mention it. Why not, lol. It doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>haha ok. my main question is just whether I should make it almost essay format, b/c they allow for like five hundred words…</p>
<p>^ i second that.</p>
<p>I wrote it in a list, and I’m here now.</p>
<p>ok thanks so you basically used a fraction of hte 2500 characters, yes? haha</p>
<p>I definitely don’t remember. lol, really, don’t stress about these little things.</p>
<p>ok thanks I was just afraid theyw anted you to write a full-on essay</p>
<p>nice! It doesn’t matter if that part’s an essay? Thank god - essays suck</p>
<p>“you idiots, yes mention them, they look to see that you are a person too, not just another robot, they know you cant work all the time”</p>
<p>You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?</p>
<p>So is there a consensus among Princeton students that the summer question should be answered in a list and not essay format? (2500 characters sure seems like essay)</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>Do it however you want as long as it is clear and accurate. They care more about what you actually did than how you word it.</p>
<p>how long were your lists? I was thinking of writing an essay about a deep, spiritual experience I had with one of my friends…as well as mentioning my volunteering in a hospital lol</p>
<p>b u m p…</p>
<p>Actually I think people here have it wrong. They give you all the space why? Not to just list your summer activities (that can be listed on the common app). It is to tell how your summer experiences impacted you.
For example I have spent my summers doing research and working at target. Instead of writing about research (which is displayed throughout the rest of my app) I wrote about an elderly man that I worked with at Target and about how remarkable he was and what i learned from him. I thought that would be better than just stating “I did blah blah blah”.
I really think it is an opportunity for the applicant to show how the summer experiences impacted them, that is why it is so long.</p>
<p>see thats what i was thinking…i volunteered at a hospital over the summer but i wasn’t planning on writing about that as it is on my common app…i was gonna talk about the aforementioned spiritual experience with one of my friends and how it impacted me…yes or no?</p>