<p>Because the Williams writing supplement is optional, I was wondering about this. </p>
<p>Probably better to write a semi-decent one, unless it’s really bad. Not sure though. I was wondering the same thing, can somebody else chip in?</p>
<p>When it comes to writing, ALWAYS do the optional supplement.</p>
This is just my opinion.
As you know, college application season is really stressful, and I barely had enough time to finish all the writing requirements. When it came to Williams optional essay, I had to decide between submitting a semi-poor one and submitting none. I was told to always write an optional essay as it shows the level of the student’s interest in that particular school. But at the end, I deleted my my short semi-decent essay and just submitted a blank page for optional essay. (which means I didn’t write the optional essay.) Last week, I was accepted at Williams RD (early write) with full ride. The result would have been different if I submitted my mediocre optional essay which didn’t have any polishing and proofreading.
TL;DR: It is GOOD to write optional essays, but make sure you do set aside some time for proofreading/polishing.
When it comes to last-minute decision and you don’t have enough time to write a good one, just go without the optional essay as this might serve you better than a poorly-written one without any revision.
The same thing happened to me. I decided not to write the supplement, and was admitted through early write.