Should you see graduate schol application questions as opportunities to provide relevant positive information about yourself, or as fiats to list absolutely everything in a category of your experience?
For example, here are a few questions from Harvard's GSAS application (I don't know what, if any, general instructions are given--such as whether it says "Provide complete answers to each question" or "Please provide the following information"):
Academic Honors/Fellowships
List any articles, books, and other material published, and any inventions.
Other universities (Program/Department) to which applying
Employment experience (including part-time) since secondary school
With some of these (#1, #2) it seems easy to believe one could choose which examples to report. That is, you wouldn't be ethically obliged to list that you once published a crossword puzzle in your town's local paper, or that you won the Latin prize in high school, even if both are true. Instead, it seems reasonable one would list the honors and publications providing the best evidence of one's qualification for the program.
By contrast, some of these (#3 and the submission of transcripts, for example) would seem to suggest that a thoroughgoing answer is expected. Others (#4) are in a gray area--it's not clear to me which approach should be taken.
There is usually a statement at the end of the application where you must affirm that your responses are "complete and accurate." However, I don't really understand what this means in light of the nuances above, and in the absence of clearer specifications. Please help!
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