<p>I think if they say optional, they mean optional.</p>
<p>P.S. Maybe I missed something but on my application, Yale doesn't have an optional essay... :s</p>
<p>there's always gonna be a few people coming here to say that they know a few people who got in without them. are you really gonna bet on being one of those few people? just use your common sense.</p>
<p>"Better safe than sorry"</p>
<p>(especially when it means getting into your dream university)</p>
<p>i think you should definitely do it, it helps to show passion in whatever you are passionate about.</p>
<p>UPenn's optional essay is only optional for the common app, not the upenn app. which means you better write it</p>
<p>on a different note, are the pictures really optional?</p>
<p>Take a look at this thread -- <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tufts-university/430266-optional-essay.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/tufts-university/430266-optional-essay.html</a></p>
<p>And in particular, look at the last post (DanAdmiss@Tufts). He's an admissions officer at Tufts who occasionally posts on the Tufts board.</p>
<p>I personally am not doing the optional essay, because I DON'T believe it would help me; as he says, the mere presence of an extra essay won't help you if it doesn't add anything. For me personally, I did not feel that any of the Tufts optional prompts would help to represent me in a better light, so I chose not to do them. This does not say I am disinterested in Tufts (on the other hand, it's my first choice), but rather that I would simply not be helping myself by writing a sub-par essay because I just can't get in to any of the topics.</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents. ^_^</p>
<p>I didn't do the optional essay and I still got into my ED dream school :D</p>
<p>My reasoning was that my application was already good enough (in my eyes), and adding more fluff to it would just annoy the adcoms, since I felt they had a decent idea of who I am and where I'm coming from from the rest of my app. The way I see it, only do them if you feel that there's more you need to tell the adcoms that they don't know about you.</p>
<p>what about MIT's "COMPLETELY optional" essay: Tell us about something that you have created. This can be, for example, a design, a device, an object, an idea or concept. (Please limit your answer to 500 words or fewer.)
I believe in doing optional essay but cant think of somethign for this.</p>
<p>that one sounds important to me- i would do it.</p>
<p>Optional essays will only enhance your application by giving college admissions the opportunity to see another part of your personality, character, or values. If you are applying to Ivies, it is practically mandatory to write these optional essays. Furthermore, I think colleges might use this optional essay to test a student's level of interest in the respective school. If you don't write it, it might put you at a slight disadvantage to other students and in this current competitive high school admissions world, any advantage may make or break your chance of getting accepted.</p>
<p>I think the MIT one is optional because if you haven't created anything, then they don't want you to make it up, so.... don't worry about it if you haven't "created" anything, but if you have--write a sick essay</p>
<p>My son did not do the "Why Duke" essay either - hopefully it will not work against him.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that i'm getting into Loyola-Md, so I didnt bother writing the optional essay.</p>
<p>The more the better. They are judging you on all the peices of info you submit. Why not do the Optional if it'll help you?</p>
<p>Sometimes actions speak louder than words. Some students have a stellar high school record of research and community contribution but write comparatively poorly. Making an essay mandatory would discourage some of these fine individuals.</p>
<p>Im class of 2010 and I didnt do any optional essays and still got in everywhere (HYS etc). I see it like this: The admission's officer is probably tired from reading hundreds of applications and having kids write about the same things over and over and over again, especially in the optional essays part. Soooo, by skipping it, I'm disassociating myself from every other kid who does them and writes about the same thing, or merely uses the space to try to brag about something that isn't worth bragging about (weak ECs, volunteering that doesn't matter, etc). I just make sure I can paint a good portrait of myself (as good as someone who did write it) without having to do the optional and look like every other kid trying write about his ECs or why he loves the school so much...</p>
<p>NewJerseyMom, Why didn't he do it? It seems pretty lazy especially since its only ONE or TWO PARAGRAPHS. That essay was important because it shows what you know about Duke, besides it begin prestigious. It shows you didn't just throw them an app for fun.</p>
<p>Why do they have optional essays? Its easy to answer, and a deeper investigation of the principle won Michael Spence a share of the Nobel prize in Economics in 2001. It's called signaling. Signaling is used to convey information that helps distinguish the sender everyone else.</p>
<p>The signal you're sending by writing the optional essay is "I really want to go to this school", and the reason its believable is that it takes a few hours of effort to produce and is something that can only be used to apply to this school and nowhere else. Just look at all the people that said "too much bother" and you can see that the signal stands out. </p>
<p>Next think about who the signal is likely to benefit. Not the strongest applicants, because they're getting in anyway. The benefit goes to those on the bubble; if you've got 10 apps of kids on the fence and can only take one or two, wouldn't you want the ones that really want to go to your school? </p>
<p>So if you <em>know</em> you're getting in to all your schools, then don't bother. If you want to present the best possible face and want to do everything in your power to tip yourself in if you end up the fence, write the essay.</p>
<p>Essays are more beneficial for you as long as you take the time to write it.</p>