Writing about my rapping?...

joseph95
Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:14:46 +0000

Ok, so I know this is probably a strange topic but hear me out. I am a top student (4.0 GPA, 2370 SAT) applying to Princeton Early, and one of my principal (or at least most unusual) extracurriculars is that I have written and sold my own original rap songs since 9th grade. I wrote about it for my common app short activity essay, and it actually came out quite well; I managed to twist it in such a way that I portray myself as trying to counter the negative stigma against rap, and that I speak about intelligent and socially conscious topics, which is true of my newer songs. Now, for the questions/problems:

1. I do not include a link to my Youtube channel on my app as I included a link to a short film I made instead (I’m into creative things); is there a chance that adcoms will be interested enough to find my music anyway through a search of my rapper name? If so, I am concerned because…

2. While my newer songs are pretty smart, my older songs are admittedly pretty vapid. Not Lil Wayne level of killing women and doing crack, but they are largely inane and self-glorifying. I think looking at my songs over time shows my progression as an artist and becoming more of an individual; would this hurt me? Also…

3. While I deleted most of the songs in which I use profanity, a few songs are left in which bad words are used infrequently (“s” and “f” bombs) but are censored out and the messages are good. Will this upset admissions if the word is edited and inaudible and no negative messages are sent?

Thank you in advance to anybody who can help me with this rather unusual college issue. Rapping is mentioned in my short activity essay and by one of my teachers in a recommendation (he found it pretty interesting that I rap given my personality). While there are some risks to including this hobby in my app, I think it gives me a huge edge of uniqueness which is apparently quite important. Please help!