<p>How should I write about my research experiences in Completely Optional Essay about something that I created? The online application said the word limit was 500. Would it be good to excerpt from my paper, or would be better to just talk about it? How personal and/or technical should this get?</p>
<p>yeah, I actually submitted one too.
just make sure you put a great abstract.
I asked admissions officials, and she told me that it annoys them if you submit entire research papers.</p>
<p>I too have this problem. I mention pneumatic haptic interfaces and five-link bipedal semi-passive walkers in my application, but I don't want the MIT adcom to have to pull aside a professor to understand what I'm doing (chances are they won't... and they shouldn't have to). I've heard they don't like full research papers too, so I think I'm just going to summarize my projects and experiences.</p>
<p>Then again, my friend last year (freshman this year) submitted his whole NASA research paper and got accepted, so I guess you never really know.</p>
<p>Hee, learning to write an abstract is a good idea for applications and for life, if you're thinking of doing academic science/engineering for the rest of your life. :)</p>
<p>Mollie: Should we just submit abstracts then? Or the whole clunky research paper with an abstract on top?</p>
<p>If it were me, I'd just submit the abstract (that's what I'm doing for grad school apps, assuming the committees don't want to read an entire paper).</p>
<p>If you want to submit the whole paper, go ahead, just make sure you also submit the abstract for the short of time/attention span. :)</p>
<p>Mollie: Do you mean like submit the whole paper(with the abstract) as a separate part of my application, but then write about my personal experiences in that project in the Completely Optional Essay (500word limit) box?</p>
<p>Sorry, I'll clarify: What I would do is submit the abstract as the Completely Optional Essay (with a sentence or two of context, I guess), and if you were so inclined, include the whole paper itself as supplemental material.</p>
<p>I think it would also be reasonable to write about the experience of the project as the COE and submit the paper + abstract as supplemental material.</p>
<p>ok, I think thats what ill do.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I like Mollie's idea. :)</p>