How to treat Stanford's optional essays? Forum

[asterixes]

Hi yall,

I'm about to apply to Stanford but noticed that there are some optional essays, which appear to be new for this admissions cycle. The prompt says to answer at most 2 of the following in 100-250 words, if doing so would help the committee get a better sense of who you are: what literary character do you most identify with, what class would you teach fellow Stanford Law students, what 3 books would you contribute to your hometown library if it were destroyed, or what three songs would you play in the background as the Admissions Committee reviews your materials.

What are they looking for here--a lighthearted fun essay, or a Yale-250 style serious introspective one? I've written the library one but in a very non-serious way (giving the library picture books, bad poetry, etc.) Should I take this in a more serious direction and write about my actual favorite books? On the one hand, I don't want to sound like a pretentious jerk; on the other hand, I don't want to be unprofessional if they're looking for a solemn answer.

[cavalier1138]

If they're asking what your application playlist is, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that they'll be ok with a lighter read.

[InterLaw]

Fwiw, I went with the lighter option!