<p>can only help you and cannot count against you because it is optional? It's not a college essay which is a key factor in deciding your admittance, but additional information on yourself - is this perception correct?</p>
<p>I honestly don't think that the admissions office even takes the personal statement into account when deciding whether to admit or reject. For a state university like Rutgers, the high school transcript and standardized test scores are all that count. So it neither helps nor hurts you, unless you come across as completely insane in your writing.</p>