“What’s your favorite book?”
“What podcasts are you listening to these days?”
“Do you have any movie recommendations?”
These are questions that sometimes come up in conversations with friends, family members, or folks you’ve just met. If you’re a rising senior preparing to apply to college, it’s likely that you’ll find versions of these questions coming up in your supplemental college essays too. When talking with friends, the stakes feel pretty reasonable; but when you’re writing an essay for your college applications, talking about books you’ve read or other content you consume can be daunting. What kinds of materials should you discuss? Should you only mention content that’s intellectually rigorous? How can you communicate the versatility of your interests in a simple list? Read on for some tips on how to use your summer to read, listen to, watch, and otherwise engage with content that you’ll not only enjoy, but might come in handy when you’re writing those essays.
For starters, check out last year’s supplemental essay prompts from Columbia University:
List the titles of the books, essays, poetry, short stories or plays you read outside of academic courses that you enjoyed most during secondary/high school. (75 words or fewer)
We’re interested in learning about some of the ways that you explore your interests. List some resources and outlets that you enjoy, including but not limited to websites, publications, journals, podcasts, social media accounts, lectures, museums, movies, music, or other content with which you regularly engage. (125 words or fewer)
And last year’s short response prompts from Wake Forest University:
List five books you have read that intrigued you. Title. Author. Required reading? (Y/N)
Explain how a text you’ve read–fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or literature of any kind– has helped you to understand the world’s complexity. (150 words)
And Boston College’s 2023 supplemental essay prompt:
Each year at University Convocation, the incoming class engages in reflective dialogue around a common text. What book would you recommend for your class to read and explore together – and why? (400 words)
These three colleges are among the many schools that ask students to talk about books or other types of content that inform, interest and inspire them. When responding to these prompts, our first piece of advice is: use this space to show the college who you are by writing about books that genuinely interest you. Often, this will mean writing about books that weren’t assigned reading for school. If books you read for class are among the books that truly transformed you, that’s great. But whether it’s Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun, many high schools across the country assign the same texts as required reading, and many applicants will be writing about those texts. Writing about books that you didn’t read for school will automatically set your response apart from others. In your list of intriguing, thought-provoking books, there should be numerous titles that you discovered on your own, out of your own curiosity and initiative.
It’s possible–and fun–to use the books you’ve enjoyed reading for school to point you in the direction of other non-required works of literature. If you loved reading a novel from a certain historical period, check out other works from that same era. Enjoyed Jane Austen? Seek out novels and poetry from early 19th-century England. Devoured Kurt Vonnegut? Check out other writers of 20th-century psychological fiction. You can also read other works by authors you were assigned to read for school. If you were captivated by Toni Morrison’s Beloved, head to the library and check out a few of her ten other novels! Aim for an expansive group of literary genres, too. Short fiction, poetry, plays, and essays all provide critical perspectives on human experience. As you’re exploring books to read this summer, make sure to include some of those genres too.
Chances are, you already have a collection of books you’ve read that have informed your worldview. Is science fiction your thing? Are you a lifelong fan of manga? Is there a series of graphic novels that you can’t get enough of? All of those categories of literature count as material for these types of supplemental college essays. If there are history, nonfiction or self-development books you’ve read that have changed your thinking, those can also appear on your list.
Some colleges, like Columbia, ask about other types of media you engage with, such as podcasts, movies and even social media accounts. As you’re choosing what to watch and listen to this summer, try expanding your repertoire with these questions in mind. If there’s something you’ve been meaning to check out, like a philosophy podcast or a show at an art museum, this summer is a great time to do just that. Even if you don’t end up writing about what you encountered in your essay, you will have had an interesting new learning experience. And it’s also a wonderful idea to write about the media you’ve already been enjoying. What TV show or album could you talk about for hours? Consider the work that gives you joy and makes you who you are; writing about those experiences, along with media you’ve recently discovered, is a win-win.
Leave a Reply