It depends on the size of the applicant pool. When a school has tens of thousands of applicants, they generally don't look at anything other than the raw numbers. It's just not feasible to read and compare thousands of individuals' personal essays. If you already wrote an essay for a different application, go ahead and add it to the optional one if it makes you feel better. I wouldn't waste my time writing another one, though.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I applied for a college with an optional essay, didn't write it, and still got in.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Not me. The advisor pretty much told me that they'd accept my based off my GPA and ACT score.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Chances are they won't look at it unless you're on the border and they need a deciding factor.

by Anonymous 12 years ago