I wrote a book on my intended field of study, does that help?

Applying to College
1

I wrote a very very detailed book on programming, and I want to apply to major in Computer Science.
I wrote the book a bit ago to help people learn basic to advanced programming topics
However, the book is very long and very detailed covering some advanced topics in programming, not only from languages but also to memory understanding
Should I include this in my application and will it help me?

2

Was it not self-published? How has it sold? Those are two important questions to ask yourself.

3

@jarrett211 I published the book online and it can be downloaded for free (I did not put a price)

4

Self-published books carry little weight with most universities because they know anyone can self-publish. If the book has been mentioned anywhere (reputable blogs, newspapers, etc) that could help, but otherwise it won’t make any considerable difference.

5

@NotVerySmart Thanks for the rational answer! My book hasn’t been mentioned anywhere that I can call ‘reputable’, but it has been mentioned in more small programming community homepages. If I were to request a publisher to take a look at it and somehow get it published in reasonable time, would it increase the weight of the book?

6

Is it a nice EC? Yes. Should you list it on your application? Yes. Will it “increase the weight”? No. Sorry, self-published books are a dime a dozen. Maybe if it were on The New York Times bestseller list, it would give a bit of an edge, but other than that, it’s just another EC.

7

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Maybe if it were on The New York Times bestseller list, it would give a bit of an edge

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@skieurope I think that maybe might be a bit cynical!

8

Commercial publishing takes quite a while to propose and justify, the outside review process is actually lengthy, and then there’s the negotiation period.

Lots of kids say they write books. And they think “publishing” is the icing. What matters is the reception a book gets, from a higher level than homepages or random others.

Ski is right, it’s a nice EC, not a tip. Sure, say you wrote it, maybe include a link to some further info. But don’t include the book or count on them to read an abstract. Better would be if a math or sci LoR mentions it’s quality and your understanding of the areas covered. And they will still look for your math-sci activities, stats, etc.

9

@lookingforward I presented the book to a college professor and he stated the book was marvelous and that he would write a LoR off of it. Hopefully that will add some weight, if any, to my application.

Thanks everyone else for the answers! They were definitely useful =D
[new life objective: get ny times bestseller :stuck_out_tongue: ]