<p>I'm just wondering for those of you who wrote the optional how long you made it. I'm trying to keep mine around 350 or so, is too long? Did they kind of want another 200 word one?</p>
<p>im not sure but i was wondering the same thing...what did you decide to write about? i mean which one of the essays?</p>
<p>i think i did the "who are you" one. it was somewhere around 450-500 words i believe</p>
<p>i still havent decided on which to do...im leaning towards the books one but im not sure...i would write about who are you...but im not sure which angle to approach it from</p>
<p>I'm doing the retirement one, the who are you one was pretty cool, but that was basically my topic for my common app essay, so I thought it'd be kind of repetitive to hit that twice.</p>
<p>Alright, I got in ED I and did the books one, and it was 820+ words....so, pretty much, as long as it doesn't drag...I wouldn't worry about it, lol. :) GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>optional essay is supposed to be 500.</p>
<p>man i talk about the same two topics in 3/4 essays...i hope they see it as passion rather than one-sidedness.</p>
<p>haha.</p>
<p>Do you send in the optional essay in the mail?</p>
<p>I wrote the Who Are You essay about why I hate fruits and vegetables. I figured I needed to write a light-hearted essay because my common app essay was about why I support women's reproductive choices. Yeah, serious topic so I thought some laughs would be good, and hey, it worked! Oh yeah, it was 590 words.</p>
<p>hmmm, im looking at the common app supplement right now and im not seeing this "optional essay" thing... where im i going wrong???</p>
<p>The Tufts common app supplement is not on the common app website. It is on the special Tufts supplement. In the upper right hand corner there is a thing that says "Payment" and another that says "Optional Essay." If you click on the optional essay one it will lay out your choices.</p>
<p>mine was around 350... I figured they didn't want their students to write the Great American Novel. Anyway, it's the quality that matters!</p>
<p>Tufts was/is my first choice. I didn't write an optional essay. Too late, cuz I've already sent it in. Basically, I'm suffering from serious application burn out and I've kinda stopped caring. So Tufts can take me or leave me without the extra essay.</p>
<p>ok let's not kid ourselves, I care. and now I'm thinking that I should've sent an optional essay in. Think it'll kill me that I didn't send one?</p>
<p>Can't you still send it in?</p>
<p>Yeah I sent mine in seperately from my application. Don't worry!</p>
<p>Oh I know I could send one in now, but I still don't have anything to write about. I did my personal statement on who I am as a whole person. I tried to do the one about my retirement, but I don't have much to say. I have never been able to write editorials very well. and I can't think of only 3 books that everyone should read. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish? I haven't finished applying to my last 2 schools anyway. Everything for Tufts is due in 4 days, so it's ok, I'll just test my luck. </p>
<p>If you don't have anything good to say, don't say it at all, right?</p>
<p>When Lee Coffin, the head of admissions, visited my school for his little info session thing, he said that he is way more interested in hearing stuff like One Fish, Two Fish than The Great Gatsby. He said like everyone does The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, and there was one more.. I think Invisible Man... He said it's SOOOO boring. But hey, he only reads DC apps so maybe someone else doens't like Suess and comic books as much as he does=-)</p>
<p>Either way, I wouldn't worry. I wrote one and got in, my friend David is a freshman right now and he didn't write one.</p>
<p>Yeah, mine were on: Guns, Germs, and Steel; Sophie's World; and Confederacy of Dunces.....so, who knows what they like lol.</p>