<p>Are you doing the optional essays? Will you be "punished" for not doing them?</p>
<p>I've done both but MIT says that they wouldn't hold it against you if you didn't do them. That said, I've seen many people in the consolidated thread who got rejected and reported no doing the additional essays. Of course there are many who get in without them, but I think that it helps the adcoms get a better sense of the applicant.</p>
<p>They're really, truly optional, but if you write good ones, they can really help. They're like application extra credit.</p>
<p>this is the funniest question I've read on this forum so far</p>
<p>Use every chance you get to communicate with the readers; this includes submitting every essay allowed. I agree that it seemed a disproportionate number of those on CC who didn't write an extra essay was rejected; of course this is impossible to verify.</p>
<p>^But, of course, that doesn't indicate that it's better to write the optional essays regardless of quality.</p>
<p>I see this as a similar issue to the interview: yes, having a great interview or writing a super optional essay will probably improve your odds of admission to MIT, because it helps the admissions committee understand who you are. Merely dragging oneself to a lackluster interview or writing a poor-quality optional essay doesn't do the job, because you're not getting points for doing it, you're getting points for doing it in an exceptional manner.</p>
<p>@molliebatmit</p>
<p>Would having a bad op. essay/interview hurt the applicant harshly?</p>
<p>It would probably hurt you. But the chances of it hurting you, are so much less then the chances of helping you.</p>
<p>Allow me to make an analogy (yes I know the essay really isn't based on odds, but anyway...). We're playing a game of chance. We have a spinner with nine number's on it. If it lands on a 4, I will give you $100. If it lands on 5-7, I will give you $10. If it lands on a 1-3 I will give you $1. If it lands on a 9-10, I give you nothing. But if it lands on an 8, then you give me $10.</p>
<p>If that was the odds, would you play the game? I would. Especially since your essay isn't based on chance, but on how well you write it, and what your reader thinks (thus there is 'some' chance). The moral of the story, write the essay. Unless you completely bomb it, (which I double will happen), it will either have little affect, to help you.</p>
<p>If you don't write it, it just won't do anything for you.</p>
<p>But will admission officers specifically notice that you didn't write the optional essay and wonder why?</p>
<p>Will they care if you don't write it if everything else is good?</p>
<p>i don't think so</p>
<p>They will probably care as much as if you weren't to do extra credit in a class. They won't hold it against you, but your giving up FREE MITpoints (I feel special for coining that term).</p>
<p>This is not about admissions officers noticing or caring -- this is about what will most help you as an applicant.</p>
<p>It's good to get into a mindset where you are thinking about presenting the best case you can for your admission, and get out of the mindset where the admissions officers are reading your application with a checklist and taking points off for things that make them "angry". They're really not doing that, and nobody is going to get mad if you don't write the optional essay. If they were going to get mad, they would have made it mandatory.</p>