<p>Well, I applied SCEA a few weeks ago and didn't answer the 500-character "Why Yale" prompt because the Common App said it was optional, and I had a paragraph about Yale in particular in the "Second Essay." Then I came on here and found that that's apparently a bad thing to do! </p>
<p>So my question is, how badly will not answering it affect my application?</p>
<p>I don’t know. </p>
<p>You have submitted your application and you can’t change it anyway. Knowing how badly it will affect your application won’t help at all. Relax and enjoy the month and a half you have.</p>
<p>I’m not an admission officer, but I think it’s pretty bad. That’s my honest opinion. </p>
<p>You did address Yale in their supplemental essay–that’s good–but I still think it looks like you were lazy. The rest of your app will have to be pretty impressive for them to justify taking you over a kid who did answer the Why Yale question.</p>
<p>Honestly, if I were to make the choice between you and someone of comparable stats, I would use the fact that the other applicant took the time to answer the “Why Yale” as incentive for his/her acceptance over yours. It was only 500 characters!!! That was literally only two sentences for me; you shouldn’t have skipped over it.</p>
<p>They definitely made it optional for the sole purpose of determining who’s completely serious about Yale. Don’t stress too much about it though, what’s done is done and if your other essay was good enough you’ll be fine :)</p>
<p>mj rothlan:
Relax, and enjoy life =)
If the rest of your application is strong, you never know!</p>
<p>If it’s not required then I don’t think it matters a lot. I don’t think it was supposed to be a competitive piece.</p>
<p>Did the common app truly state it was optional? I know it was possible to submit it without the “Why Yale” portion, but I don’t recall it directly saying it was optional, in which case, you should take it as being required, imo.</p>
<p>Oh man, you guys are harsh 
I honestly don’t think it’s that big of a deal. And if it is, there’s really no point in making them feel horrible when there’s nothing they can do to change it.</p>
<p>I have a friend who left out the optional essay on her UChicago application. She still got in.
So don’t fret too much.</p>
<p>If it makes you feel any better, you can think of it this way:</p>
<p>You wouldn’t have gotten in anyways, so you saved yourself 2 minutes by not writing it!</p>
<p>(jk of course, but I wouldn’t worry about it - what’s done has been done)</p>
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<p>That’s a fair point, but does UChicago label it as an “Optional Essay” on their application?</p>
<p>I believe they do, which is a good point.
Yale might have been tricky, just to see who answered and who, as they might see it, “took the easy way out.”</p>
<p>Hm, thanks for the advice everyone. Nothing I can do now. </p>
<p>(And I think I’m answering every possible question on the rest of my apps, lol.)</p>
<p>It does seem a little sneaky to me but it serves their purposes I guess.</p>
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<p>I actually see it differently. If they had said the Why Yale question was “optional,” (but secretly expected serious applicants to respond) then that would be sneaky.</p>
<p>The truth is, I didn’t even realize it was optional (because they didn’t say it was optional in the question) until I saw on CC that people didn’t answer it.</p>
<p>I think they won’t flat-out reject you because you didn’t answer it. Perhaps they use it as a deal-maker, or a tie-breaker between two applicants. You never know.</p>
<p>I personally hit the save and check button and it didn’t flag it (did do it in the end though), so maybe people could have missed it cause of that, or just didn’t want to do it if they didn’t have to, etc.
I doubt it’s that big a deal though. Probably something slightly more influential than interview (High scores/good response helps, and vice versa).</p>
<p>Not trying to be mean, but in my opinion, if you can’t take 5 minutes to tell an admissions officer why you want to go to their school, that’s kind of like a slap to the face to them. </p>
<p>They obviously know you want to go there since you applied, but not answering the question makes it seem like you don’t have any idea why you’re applying and you lack sufficient interest in the school.</p>
<p>OP, if you are not an athletic recruit, I believe that not answering the Why Yale? question will be instant reject.</p>
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<p>That’s a bit (actually, very) extreme, but I do agree with the general thought that ignoring this question does not bode well for you. Honestly, you really shouldn’t worry about it. A strong applicant would probably get in regardless.</p>