<p>for example on the johns hopkins supplement is states that the essay requirement is met by the common app. essay, but you can choose from two of their extra essays if you want. Should one take the time do do this, or could it only hurt you if you don't do well?</p>
<p>bump bump bump</p>
<p>Yes! Any chance to give an ad com more information about you is worth doing! Not doing the optionals may be seen as a lack of interest.</p>
<p>that's not true. do it if you have a good essay. if not don't do it. they wouldn't be it optional if people would be hurt by not having it.</p>
<p>"Optional" essays are a way adcoms can gauge how interested you really are in their school. Do you even bother to do it? If you do it, does it measure up to the quality of your other essays?</p>
<p>Stanford does the same thing with their little gimmick, the "note to your roomate". What do you talk about? Does your note show you've really thought about life at Stanford, or is the Farm just one of a bunch of top schools you're applying to?</p>
<p>A student dying to go to JHU would put as much effort into optional essays as into the common app essay. And the adcoms would recognize that the prose didn't just flow onto the paper, it got there because the student wrote and revised and spent the time it took to make it a good essay. That says something about the desire to go to JHU, don't you think?</p>
<p>i disagree with you. a school would not have an optional essay if it wasn't optional. the additional essay will only help you if it is good, it will not earn you brownie points.</p>
<p>Many schools (colleges, law schools MBA programs) offer an optional essay for interested applicants. You want to be one of those applicants. While it's more work, the optional essay also gives you an opportunity to rise above the crowd in the applicnat applicant pool. You need to convince the adcom that you have more to say. Use this opportunity to demonstrate your writing skills and your determination to rise to the challenge, and to give them another insight into who you are outside of the numbers.</p>
<p>Remember that objective factors (the numbers) only get you over the first hurdle, as it is ususally the subjective factors that will move your application between the admit, deny or wait pile.</p>
<p>bottom line:</p>
<p>if you are good at writing essays....do it
if you are not....don't
writing something just to write it will hurt you.....
but a good essay will help you...</p>
<p>the end</p>
<p>do it if you've something different to write. don't do it for the sake of filling it up.</p>
<p>Amen. banedon17 sums it up best.</p>