How would you answer the following question for a college application?
"We're interested in what you've read, both as assignments and on your own, and in what that reading has meant to you. Please list up to 20 of the most significant items that you've read since the start of your junior year. Your list may include books, magazines, e-texts, websites, or other material. It should represent what has meant the most to you -- what has altered your perspective, taught you something important, challenged your thinking, enriched your life, comforted you, delighted you, bothered you, etc. Select one or more of these readings and explain its or their significance. Help us to understand who you are in terms of what you've read recently. Put an "X" beside items that were school assignments. Your answer is limited to 4000 characters (approximately 500 words). (USC Honors College, 2015)
This was a prompt that one of my seniors had to answer on her application to the University of South Carolina. Would you be ready for it as a senior? More importantly, what are you doing NOW to prepare for this question? It is important to demonstrate that you are a real person with real interests and that those interests span the gamut of sheer entertainment to intellectual curiosity. As a student at CHS, you will probably have plenty of material to include on a list of titles that have been assigned to you; however, you may be missing the opportunity to build the part of your reading list that includes titles YOU choose to read for pleasure or curiosity. We all get busy during the school year; it's easy to forget to read for pleasure or to follow our intellectual curiosities.
We all have our guilty pleasures, but good students also follow natural curiosities that stem from what they learn and discuss in an intellectual setting. When you find yourself interested in an idea, you should WONDER more about it, INVESTIGATE more information, and READ or RESEARCH to learn more. As you approach your AP studies junior and senior year, you should read more and more fiction from the Suggested List of AP Titles to build your repertoire for the open/free-response question on the AP Literature exam.
We all have our guilty pleasures, but good students also follow natural curiosities that stem from what they learn and discuss in an intellectual setting. When you find yourself interested in an idea, you should WONDER more about it, INVESTIGATE more information, and READ or RESEARCH to learn more. As you approach your AP studies junior and senior year, you should read more and more fiction from the Suggested List of AP Titles to build your repertoire for the open/free-response question on the AP Literature exam.
Your reading assignment this year
To encourage you to build your reading list, I will do my part to assign titles that will build your reading fluency and broaden your reading experience; however, I will expect you to choose titles on your own to read each grading period. Your goal is to produce a list of at least TEN titles before the end of this school year that you have been assigned and that you have chosen. At the end of the year, you will be expected to discuss and write about the titles on your list. Here’s your modified question for the year:
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Check Google Classroom for more specific assignments as we build this list. |
I’m interested in what you've read, both as assignments and on your own, and in what that reading has meant to you. Please list at least 10 of the MOST SIGNIFICANT items that you've read since the start of this school year. Your list may include books, magazines, e-texts, websites, or other material; however, it must show variety. It should represent what has meant the most to you -- what has altered your perspective, taught you something important, challenged your thinking, enriched your life, comforted you, delighted you, bothered you, etc. Select one or more of these readings and explain its or their significance. Help me to understand who you are in terms of what you've read recently. Put an "X" beside items that were school assignments.
Other college essay prompts and interview questions that concern your developing reading list:
Recommend a book to me that you've read in the past year for pleasure. |
List the books you've read in high school. Place an asterisk beside those titles that you've chosen to read on your own. Then, discuss the three most significant titles and their impact on you. |
List the titles of the print, electronic publications and websites you read regularly. |