<p>How much does doing the optional essay increase your chance of acceptance? Would it be better to work on improving the other essays or adding the optional one? Thanks.</p>
<p>I was actually at an information session at the U of C today, and one of the admissions officers said that this is the first year that the essay is optional, so I doubt anyone here could answer your question. She did stress, however, that even though it's now optional you should DEFINITELY put in the extra time and write the essay.</p>
<p>"A paragraph or two" probably does not qualify as an essay tho</p>
<p>yeah i hope not, mine's not really in essay form, it's more of a list with commentary.</p>
<p>Alright thank you, that was pretty helpful. I think I'll go ahead and do it, my other essays are mostly sorted out. But since she seemed to stress it was important, I'll take your word on that.
Well in technicality I suppose it is a short answer, but I wasn't really peculiar in the wording. I was just trying to decide if I should do it or not.</p>