I am currently working on pre-writing the secondaries. In order to be complete early, I am thinking about skipping some of the optional essay questions. Does it show lack of interest if I do not complete the optional essays and will it affect selection for an interview? Are there any other downsides to not completing optional essays?
What is the downside to not completing the optional secondary essays?
- Thread starter x465798
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Based on what I've been reading, the most important thing for your essays is to make sure they don't hurt you. This implies that if you don't have anything meaningful to say or an eloquent way to present it, then you shouldn't write the optional essays. It is a very small subset of people that can both say meaningful things and present them well. Not writing the secondary essays also makes your application shorter, and thus (presumably) less time will be spent reading essays and more time (though probably no significant amount) will be spent on the rest of the application.
I'm just speculating in the dark, but this is what makes sense to me.
I'm just speculating in the dark, but this is what makes sense to me.
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Leave it blank unless you have something really important to say.
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Actually, I found that I wrote some essays I really liked in response to a particular prompt question, so sometime I just reused those essays in the optional portion. So, if you write all of your required essays first, you may find you have a good one you want to submit in the optional portion. Otherwise, I agree with the others--don't write anything if you don't have a well-written essay that reveals something more about you that you want them to know.
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