<p>Just curious: how many of you did both the Trinity Arts & Sciences essay and the Outside Research essay?</p>
<p>i thought it was more of a research abstract rather than an essay</p>
<p>I did both. Think of it this way: if you were an admissions officer and you had to choose between two applications and one put in the effort to write an Outside Research essay while the other application did not, you may be inclined to accept the one with the added effort.</p>
<p>Also, my counselor told me optional = do it.</p>
<p>aznjunior: Yes the research thing can be an abstract but I actually didn’t really understand what I was researching so I made it a summary/essay… </p>
<p>tinyhope: I agree with you. What did you write about for the “Why is Duke a good match for you” or whatever essay? I don’t know what to talk about in two or fewer paragraphs…</p>
<p>@wangatang
I wrote about my family’s feelings toward Duke + Duke’s diversity and some of its programs that appealed to me.</p>
<p>I don’t think it needs to be creative or artistic, although it definitely would not hurt to employ creative license with the piece. I’d like to think that this essay is for Duke to understand why you’d rather be there than anywhere else.</p>