Trying not to make this too long winded...
I'm applying to Boston College soon, and I was wondering if I should write their optional essay. The directions are as follows:
"You are not required to submit an optional statement. However, you may upload an optional statement regarding your salient experiences; economic, cultural, or social background; impactful connections to Boston and BC Law; or other factors that you wish for us to consider when reviewing your application. Your optional statement should not exceed two pages (double-spaced) with one-inch margins and 11-point font size."
Obviously, I want to write it if I should. I understand that many "optional" essays really aren't optional. However, I'm having trouble figuring out if this is a diversity statement or a general optional essay. If I write a essay for diversity, it would harm my chances, but if I don't write an optional essay that will harm my chances as well. Any advise would be awesome!
5 comments
"Should" really depends on "could" and "want," you know what I mean? :-)
For what it's worth:
No optional doc is required or even "soft required." There are no mind games here. If a school wanted to make a question/doc required, all they had to do when making their app with LSAC was just check a little box next to the question/doc. That's it!
While optional truly is optional, optional is also an opportunity. This prompt is a pretty basic catch-all that could be a diversity statement / statement of perspective or a directed Why BC. I'm guessing the latter really isn't on the table based on the context of your question. But the former could be because that's a really generic prompt for a statement of perspective - basically, could you tell us a bit about yourself, your background, and where you come from. That's the most common optional statement across law school apps. If you haven't tried writing one yet, you should probably give it a shot since you're going to see it on a number of apps!
Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it!
My only other questions is this: could I answer it as a “why BC?” question? If I could i definitely want to, since BC is perhaps my top school!
Yup! You can absolutely do that. Like I said in my comment, I assumed that wasn't even an option for you because why ask if you should write an optional statement about BC Law if you have a high level of interest in BC Law? Seems like the answer is a pretty clear "yes!"
My only other two cents here is that BC specifically says "impactful connections." They're not looking for a long-winded explanation. You can really keep this focused to your high level points about why BC is your top choice!
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That makes sense, I guess i'm just worried that they'll look at it as if I simply didn't want to write an optional essay lol