College Application Reading List

[ValRN]

Will you share with me what the front page of your DC's reading list looks like? Do you have a cover page? Is your reading list a part of your course description packet (with 1 cover page for everything)? What does your cover page look like?

 

I'm trying to figure out how to include DS's reading list. This is my first rising senior, so I'm clueless :confused: to how things should be submitted. Any suggestion is appreciated.

 

Oh! And do you include "father" or "mother" in the " XXX, Teacher/Administrator underneath the signature on the transcript? For example: do you have

Jane Doe, Teacher/Administrator/Mother; John Doe, Principal/Father

Or

Jane Doe, Teacher/Administrator; John Doe, Principal?

Edited July 12, 2012 by ValRN

[Murphy101]

Our booklist is in the course descriptions.

No cover page.

One signature for the principal.

 

I keep it simple and direct.:)

[ValRN]

but beneath the principal's signature, do include "/mother" or "/father" ?

 

Underneath my signature, I have, "Teacher/Administrator/Mother" but a friend and fellow home-school mom said not to include the parental relationship.

[MamaT]

Our booklist is in the course descriptions.

No cover page.

One signature for the principal.

 

I keep it simple and direct.:)

 

This. No, do not include parental relationship.

[Gwen in VA]

We submitted the book list as just another part of the packet.

 

I used "expensive" typing paper of different colors (all pastel) -- ivory for the transcript, gray for the book list, blue for the course descriptions, peachy for the activities sheets, etc.

 

We thought that having everything easily sortable by color would help the ad cons. Who knows -- if everything is downloaded onto a computer first thing, it may have been a waste of time, but it satisfied my inner organizer!

[ValRN]

We submitted the book list as just another part of the packet.

 

Gwen - do you include a heading on the sheet of paper that has the book (literature NOT texts) list?

[dirty ethel rackham]

I didn't include a book list per se. No one asked for one. However, I did include an extensive reading list in the detailed course descriptions. If my child read a book, I found a way to include it in a course description. As for my title, I used Principal/Counselor under my signature. We applied online so there were never any hard copies. None of the schools my son applied to wanted paper anything from us. Even LORs had to be uploaded by the person who wrote it.

[Candid]

For my book list, I can only tell you what I've got thus far. My oldest just finished his freshmen year so this has zero "got into Harvard" endorsement ;).

 

I have created a chart which lists each book used in school. The chart includes the following information: title, author, publication date, isbn, publisher, and subject. I may remove some of this information at college application time (like ISBN), but for now I have it and I can easily remove a column later if I want.

 

In my case, since I use Tapestry of Grace, I have no clear text book for history. Since I know college admissions officers won't have a clue about the various title I list and Tapestry has books published by several different university press folks, I decided to include the publisher information purely for impression purposes. Several sources indicate that colleges rate a student's curriculum on a difficulty scale and I want to take a stab and garnering as high a score on the scale as possible.

 

I include the titles on the individual course description pages I am preparing.

 

At the moment I do not plan to include any extra/fun reading my son does, but I am open to changing my mind about that. He a voluminous reader and some of the stuff he is reading won't be things I want to mention and I'm satisfied with my overall school only reading list.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Candid

[lauranc]

Just wondering, for those who do... why do you include a book list? In course descriptions, I have included what he read (if applicable), but I'm curious to know why a separate list would be necessary.

 

Is this something that specific universities ask for?

 

Thanks!

[ValRN]

Just wondering, for those who do... why do you include a book list? In course descriptions, I have included what he read (if applicable), but I'm curious to know why a separate list would be necessary.

 

Is this something that specific universities ask for?

 

Thanks!

 

DS has not applied to any colleges yet, so I do not know if this is something the university will ask for. I want to have everything ready when DS starts applying.

 

I'm including a separate literature list because my son reads a lot of material that is not a part of his English or literature classes. If I were to only include the literature that was assigned, the list would be sorely lacking.

[Kareni]

... why do you include a book list? In course descriptions, I have included what he read (if applicable), but I'm curious to know why a separate list would be necessary.

 

Is this something that specific universities ask for?

 

 

I sent a reading list as part of my daughter's application materials. I did not include titles in my daughter's course descriptions, so in addition to a reading list, I also included a text book list.

 

I believe at least one or two of the ten colleges to which my daughter applied did request a reading list.

 

One reason that I felt a reading list was of value in my daughter's case (as a prospective Classics major) is that it included a list of her Latin reading both serious and for pure pleasure -- Ferdinandus Taurus by Munro Leaf,

Asterix Olympius by Rene de Goscinny, and Virent Ova! Viret Perna! by Dr. Seuss as well as works by Catallus and Cicero.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[dirty ethel rackham]

DS has not applied to any colleges yet, so I do not know if this is something the university will ask for. I want to have everything ready when DS starts applying.

 

I'm including a separate literature list because my son reads a lot of material that is not a part of his English or literature classes. If I were to only include the literature that was assigned, the list would be sorely lacking.

 

My kids read a ton also. I included these books in their literature class descriptions. Even though I may not have assigned them, I wanted them to have credit for having read them. It never occurred to me to put them separately because it didn't fit neatly into any of the common app categories and no one I knew actually included one.

[Kareni]

Will you share with me what the front page of your DC's reading list looks like?

 

There was not a front page per se; however, there was a footer on various application documents that included information such as my student's name, Reading List (or Course Descriptions), page number.

 

* Do you have a cover page? Is your reading list a part of your course description packet (with 1 cover page for everything)? What does your cover page look like?

 

I included a cover page for application materials that were mailed. It looked like this:

 

"Application materials for Student's name

 

Applying Regular Decision for admission to XX College as a first-year student and requesting consideration for scholarships

 

Materials enclosed:

 

Secondary School Report

Official Homeschool High School Transcript

Counselor Letter

Homeschool Profile

Course Descriptions

Reading List

Textbook List

Letter of recommendation from AA (student's employer for several years)

Portfolio of supporting materials with explanatory cover sheet

 

Materials being sent separately:

 

Common Application and Common Application Supplement were submitted on-line

Transcript from BB Community College

SAT scores from the College Board

Letters of recommendation from:

CC (Instructor), submitting on-line

DD (Instructor), submitting through the mail"

 

* I'm trying to figure out how to include DS's reading list. This is my first rising senior, so I'm clueless :confused: to how things should be submitted. Any suggestion is appreciated.

 

My daughter's reading list included the following divisions:

 

Fiction

Non-fiction

Essays

Fantasy (a favorite genre of my daughter's)

Latin works

 

* Oh! And do you include "father" or "mother" in the " XXX, Teacher/Administrator underneath the signature on the transcript?

 

At the conclusion of my daughter's transcript, I had the statement

 

"This signature certifies that the information on this transcript is true, correct, and complete." This was followed by a line for my signature. Under that was 'my name, Homeschool parent/administrator'.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Gwen in VA]

I've had three apply to college. We only included a book list for #2 -- he is a real bookworm, and his reading list was an integral part of both who he is and his education.

 

At the top of the page we just put "reading list (non-academic)" and then the month and year the reading list extended through. The list consisted of a table -- book and author. We didn't put ALL the books he read, but we chose a representative assortment, which still came out to two pages in small print. We listed the books by author instead of by date just to make it a bit easier to glance through, and for some authors we just put "assorted works".

 

The textbooks and books he used for classes were listed in the course descriptions.

 

Again, we did this because ds2 was highly autodidactic, and the booklist reveals a side of him that doesn't really show up in any other specific place in his application. We did NOT include booklists for my other children. They read, but their reading did not form a major part of their educational experience.

[lauranc]

I've had three apply to college. We only included a book list for #2 -- he is a real bookworm, and his reading list was an integral part of both who he is and his education.

 

At the top of the page we just put "reading list (non-academic)" and then the month and year the reading list extended through. The list consisted of a table -- book and author. We didn't put ALL the books he read, but we chose a representative assortment, which still came out to two pages in small print. We listed the books by author instead of by date just to make it a bit easier to glance through, and for some authors we just put "assorted works".

 

The textbooks and books he used for classes were listed in the course descriptions.

 

Again, we did this because ds2 was highly autodidactic, and the booklist reveals a side of him that doesn't really show up in any other specific place in his application. We did NOT include booklists for my other children. They read, but their reading did not form a major part of their educational experience.

 

Sorry... just trying to understand... my son is also an autodidact-- also an avid reader. It sounds like you're saying you felt that adding the book list would give the univ. a better picture of your son that his transcript, letters of recommendation, and essay would not. Is that correct?

 

I am asking because I hadn't considered adding a book list to his application, and wonder if that ought to have been something I thought of ('course it's too late now!). But maybe something I can think of for my other kids...

 

Thanks :)

[Musicmom]

Will you share with me what the front page of your DC's reading list looks like? Do you have a cover page? Is your reading list a part of your course description packet (with 1 cover page for everything)? What does your cover page look like?

 

I'm trying to figure out how to include DS's reading list. This is my first rising senior, so I'm clueless :confused: to how things should be submitted. Any suggestion is appreciated.

 

I put ds's reading list at the end of his course descriptions. It's one big Word document with a title page that reads (all centered and spaced neatly on the page):

 

Home School

Course Descriptions

and

Reading List

 

 

Child's name

child's birthdate

street address

city, state zipcode

 

 

Contents:

 

English Course Descriptions.................#

Mathematics Course Descriptions.........#

Science Course Descriptions................#

Social Studies Course Descriptions........#

Foreign Language Course Descriptions...#

Physical Education Course Descriptions..#

Elective Course Descriptions.................#

High School Reading List......................#

 

 

I generated the Table of Contents and page numbers automatically using Word. Also, I had a header on each page of the document with my ds's name, birthdate and address (a good idea to put this info on everything in case a page gets misplaced).

*ETA--also, the headings in the Table of Contents above were the headings I had for each section within the document. I.e. the page with the reading list says "High School Reading List" at the top.

 

I included a reading list for ds because he had read so extensively and I wanted to highlight that fact. Also, he had read, completely on his own, a number of books related to his intended major--computer science--and I wanted to point that out. The reading list itself is just a table, and is organized into 3 categories: Computer, Fiction and Non-fiction (as Kareni suggested--thank you, Kareni!), and then alphabetical by author within each category. I also had a code in the last column to indicate whether the book was read independently or for a class. There was some redundancy since my course descriptions also mentioned some of the books read, but it was easiest for me just to make the reading list complete.

 

Then this whole big document (25 pages! :tongue_smilie:) went snail mail to ds's colleges in a neat folder along with ds's transcript, the secondary school report, homeschool profile and one extra letter of recommendation. I also had cover sheets inside the folder listing the contents of each pocket.

 

Oh! And do you include "father" or "mother" in the " XXX, Teacher/Administrator underneath the signature on the transcript? For example: do you have

Jane Doe, Teacher/Administrator/Mother; John Doe, Principal/Father

Or

Jane Doe, Teacher/Administrator; John Doe, Principal?

 

We have 2 signature lines at the bottom of our transcript. Underneath the first it says "dh's name, father/administrator" and underneath the second it says "my name, mother/teacher". So far, this has not seemed to raise any eyebrows.

 

HTH!

Edited July 13, 2012 by Musicmom

[Gwen in VA]

It sounds like you're saying you felt that adding the book list would give the univ. a better picture of your son that his transcript, letters of recommendation, and essay would not. Is that correct?

 

Exactly.

 

I think the admissions people will glaze over if we provided everything in excrutiating detail, so we tried to include a LOT, but we tried to have everything we included add a new dimension to ds's application.

 

For my other kids, their readings lists don't provide a real window into who they are, but my son is a passionate reader and autodidact. His reading list truly reflects many of the interests that show up elsewhere on his application but in a different way. We felt that his reading list was too important to leave out.

 

 

The reading lists of my other kids reveal something about them, but their reading lists were pretty standard "I'm a good student and read all of the standard college-prep books" lists. Their reading lists did not add a new perspective, so we chose to focus on their other strengths -- academics and EC's.

[MicheleinMN]

I included the books used in each course description. My dd also included a reading list at the end of her common application somewhere (sorry, not sure where) to give the colleges a look at the breadth of her reading over the years, but that was on her part of the application, not mine as her counselor/instructor.

 

HTH

[lauranc]

Exactly.

 

I think the admissions people will glaze over if we provided everything in excrutiating detail, so we tried to include a LOT, but we tried to have everything we included add a new dimension to ds's application.

 

For my other kids, their readings lists don't provide a real window into who they are, but my son is a passionate reader and autodidact. His reading list truly reflects many of the interests that show up elsewhere on his application but in a different way. We felt that his reading list was too important to leave out.

 

 

The reading lists of my other kids reveal something about them, but their reading lists were pretty standard "I'm a good student and read all of the standard college-prep books" lists. Their reading lists did not add a new perspective, so we chose to focus on their other strengths -- academics and EC's.

 

Thanks. This was helpful!