Optional essays = optional, not "optional"

[Sekiray]

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After getting an interview invite myself and hearing my 06 applicant friends speak, I really believe that optional essays are truly optional. Sure it wouldnt hurt to add stuff if you got it, but its not death if you decide not to. I think people repeatedly beat the dead horse by mentioning their stories over and over again. Seriously, if you got nothing to say dont worry about it. Just a message to all who are stressing out over these "optional" essays.

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

After getting an interview invite myself and hearing my 06 applicant friends speak, I really believe that optional essays are truly optional. Sure it wouldnt hurt to add stuff if you got it, but its not death if you decide not to. I think people repeatedly beat the dead horse by mentioning their stories over and over again. Seriously, if you got nothing to say dont worry about it. Just a message to all who are stressing out over these "optional" essays.

Thanks for the feedback! 👍

 

[Doctor~Detroit]

yeah, thanks for the 02 cents.

 

[Guile]

After getting an interview invite myself and hearing my 06 applicant friends speak, I really believe that optional essays are truly optional. Sure it wouldnt hurt to add stuff if you got it, but its not death if you decide not to. I think people repeatedly beat the dead horse by mentioning their stories over and over again. Seriously, if you got nothing to say dont worry about it. Just a message to all who are stressing out over these "optional" essays.

Where did you get this interview invite that had an optional essay? I take this to mean that you and your friend didn't write anything for the "optional" essay and still got an interview...

 

[Sekiray]

Where did you get this interview invite that had an optional essay? I take this to mean that you and your friend didn't write anything for the "optional" essay and still got an interview...

yes, we did not write any optional essays, but we did turn them in asap because we didnt have to do them. For him it was schools like davis, BU, columbia, pritzker, tufts, etc
i doont remember the rest. He said that if they asked him about those things, he would tell them in person during the interview instead of writing a 600 character description of why and how he did research and somehow connect it to your interest in medicine in the space allowed.Im sure great writers can pull it off, but he knew he couldnt haha. And I assure you that his stats and ecs werent perfect or superman like but a little bit on the above average side.

 

[dantt]

Well...I know BU's was optional. Which one on columbia was optional, the satisfactions one??? It doesn't seem like any of Pritzker's were optional either except the additional information one.

 

[dimebag darrell]

Well...I know BU's was optional. Which one on columbia was optional, the satisfactions one??? It doesn't seem like any of Pritzker's were optional either except the additional information one.

Columbia allows you to upload an additional document containing anything else you'd like to add. That is optional. The satisfactions one is not, unfortunately.

 

[DrVanNostran]

Optional essays are really good for borderline applicants at a school. When your numbers don't stand out, your optional essay really can. Thats just my take on it.

 

[Gabujabu]

I guess there are two different kinds of optional essays. Optional optional and mandatory optional. For instance, if you have really high stats compared to a school's average, are out-of-state, and don't write an optional essay about why you want to go there, it might look bad. However, there are also some essays that you really only should answer if you have something useful to add.