OPTIONAL ESSAYs?

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LawGirl30: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 13; Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:48 pm

by LawGirl30 » Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:13 am

Many peopole have been talking about how to best utilize their optional essays. Do all schools have an optional essay? I've just begun working on my essays for the 2012-2013 admissions cycle since I want to be in the first round. I'm basically working on the "Why MBA?" essay and also writing about some of my softer accomplishments and some setbacks. I haven't seen optional essays for any of the schools I'm interested in though. Does anyone know if there is an optional essay for the following schools:

Harvard
Wharton
Columbia
MIT

What do you typically use the optional essay for? Does everyone utilize this opportunity?

Source: Beat The GMAT — The Application Process | Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:13 am

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Jon@Admissionado: Elite Legendary Member; Posts: 3135; Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:55 amFollowed by: 332 members; Location: Everywhere; Thanked: 589 times

by Jon@Admissionado » Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:15 pm

Well since you are applying next year, I'd wait to see if there will be optional essays for those schools. Harvard had no optional essay for example, but there is a small text box for you to add additional info.

Anyhow, overall, there are basically two types of Optional essay:
1. Dealing with issues - These optional essays have questions worded in such a way that it's clear that you should only write the essay if you have ISSUES, meaning medical problems, want to explain poor grades, why you don't have a recommendation from your current employer, why you have been unemployed for the last year etc.
2. Open Ended - This type of question basically asks "Do you have anything else you want to tell us?" And here you are free to choose the topic at your leisure. And in this case if you have nothing to "explain away", try and choose a NEW and unseen aspect of your profile to write here.

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