<p>Hi everyone! I'm applying to Duke in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, and the essay is on Why Duke? I've filled that out, but there is an optional essay that goes as follows:</p>
<p>Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. If you'd like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you've had to help us understand you better-perhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background-we encourage you to do so. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke.</p>
<p>There is also a place where you can upload a resume.</p>
<p>Should I write the optional essay or upload a resume? I can write based on communities and family/culture, but not based on the sexual aspect as I am straight. </p>
<p>Trinity’s Class of '19 application includes two optional essays. Your foregoing post (immediately above) provides the instructions for one of the optional essays. The instructions for the second optional essay follow:
<a href=“Apply - Duke Undergraduate Admissions”>Apply - Duke Undergraduate Admissions;
<p>Germane section quoted:
“• Duke will learn about your extracurricular involvement through the Activities section of the Common or Universal College Application. If you wish to include a brief resume you may include it here. (Upload a document smaller than 500 KB using one of these file formats: .pdf .doc .docx .rtf .txt.)”</p>
<p>Hi @TopTier. Do you think I should write the optional essay…it doesn’t entirely pertain to me, as I’m not a member of the LGBT community, but I can write based on other communities I’m involved in.</p>
<p>@tkashyap: If none of the specific circumstances delineated in Duke’s instruction apply to you, I would not do so. On the other hand, if (for example) “family or culture background” is both accurate and pertinent, you may wish to do so. I can tell you, however, that this essay is absolutely optional.</p>
<p>@sparkl3: It certainly will not be advantageous if this option essay is perceived as self-serving and disingenuous, which is a real risk if it is written without deeply held experiences in either of the specified communities. </p>
<p>I am going to disagree with my wise colleague here in part. The guts of the “new” essay prompt read as follows: </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>While we all know from public statements that the question was prompted by Duke’s efforts around sexual orientation and gender identity issues, I believe the prompt is written broadly enough – “share a perspective you bring or experiences you’ve had to help us understand you better” – to support a thoughtful essay that does not fall within the “perhaps” clause but shows what you would contribute to the Duke community. But I’d echo TopTier’s caution about not trying to shoehorn yourself into one of those categories if you wouldn’t have had them top of mind in the absence of this prompt. </p>
<p>On the optional resume, my analysis is simple. If an admissions officer were to print out an applicant’s entire Common App, Duke supplement, recs, transcripts, and test scores, he or she would have at least twelve pages of paper to read for the file. There will be over 30,000 files in the RD round. If you think that there is some burning item/accomplishment/achievement that is not accounted for in those twelve pages, then you should submit the resume. If not, you should consider how that overworked admissions officer is going to feel about seeing an additional page of reading that really doesn’t add any new information. (The same goes for extra letters of recommendation, by the way.) </p>
<p>I fully agree with @SomeOldGuy ‘s wise post. My concern – and it’s a serious one – is with applicants who may perceive this new optional essay as “another” opportunity to enhance (read, to pad) their dossier and to improve their competitiveness, BUT who really don’t have any applicable, deeply-held “perspective or experiences.” Therefore, they potentially might contrive an essay that fundamentally reeks of self-serving disingenuousness. To do so would be, in my opinion, a major mistake; Duke Admissions’ Readers and Officers will review 30,000+ application packages in this cycle, 85+ percent from truly worthy and quite distinguished candidates, and they are EXPERTS at separating substance from self-aggrandizement. It is clearly far better not to employ this optional essay than to be labeled as a phony – and especially by the KEY assessment officials who grade your application. </p>