Providence lists their supplemental essay as “optional” on the common app. My stats are well above Providence’s middle 50% and the school is a safety for me. Would it be bad to not do the optional essay? Or will it just show the college that I am not that interested and give them a reason to deny me. Any advice is appreciated.
Yes, it would be bad to not do the essay. College counselors always tell us that optional means required. You do not want to give Providence any reason to reject you. Good luck! It’s a great school!
Agree with above. Because your stats are so high it’s more likely they’ll think you’re using them as a safety which would give them a reason to reject you to increase yield.
Hi @mnx9xx! It wouldn’t be a negative to not do the optional supplement essay. If I had to guess, I would say about 30-40% of our applicants complete it, but it’s not at all a “must have.” It can be helpful for our counselors to build the presentation they will make about your file for our Committee on Admission deliberations, but if you’re comfortable about your academic fit to campus and don’t feel it is necessary, don’t feel like you need to complete it.
And to @sunshine232, I can assure you we wouldn’t deny, defer, or put on the waiting list students who are above our profile because they are, in fact, less like to enroll. We do typically enroll about 40% of our class from those students who are above the admission middle-50% and, though it may take more admission spaces and as a consequence hurt yield, those are some of our best academic contributors to campus and we wouldn’t want to miss them!