<p>so what's up with those? several schools have some in their app. like MIT with the "smthg you built" one.</p>
<p>they say it's COMPLETELY optional. but if truly so, why would anyone bother to write one?</p>
<p>and don't use the "can't hurt you, but may help you" line. if everyone else wrtites it(thus helping) and you don't, it hurts you quite badly.</p>
<p>Writing the optional essay can and does help you because it does help to give the adcoms a fuller picture of you as an applicant. I know my D did do all of the optional essays and it certainly did not hurt her in the admissions process; she was accepted everywhere she applied.</p>
<p>Yes, but from personal experiences I know that you can get by without doing the optional essays [though I didn't do them due to laziness and time], but nonetheless you should obviously try to do them.</p>
<p>any essay obviously gives you a leg up if you make it good.
i heard that if you decide to do an optional essay, make it REALLY unique and original. for instance, i know that tufts had an optional essay last year (which I actually wrote, and which I'm sure contributed to my acceptance- not tooting my own horn, just sayin'...) and one of the four options they gave read something like "do you have a tattoo? do you like spaghetti? can you ride a unicycle? do you have a scar on your elbow? who ARE you?"
In the optional essays they're really looking for you to be creative and unconventional. It's much less a showcase of good writing and much more a "forget all the pretense, lay it down on the table for me" kind of thing.</p>