You’re working your way through a college application when you come across yet another essay prompt. But this one has a word beside it that changes things:
Optional.
If the essay is optional, can you skip it?
Technically, yes.
It isn’t a trick question. When a college says an essay is optional, it means exactly that. Every student applying has the option to answer the question or choose to leave it blank.
But you’re not off the hook yet. Optional doesn’t mean we recommend skipping every essay without a required asterisk beside it.
In most cases, we encourage students to complete optional essays because they provide another opportunity to tell the admissions committee something meaningful about themselves.
Most students ask, “Do I have to write this?”
When they should be asking, “Could answering this question add something valuable to my application?”
Why Do Colleges Have Optional Essays?
In general, colleges use supplemental essays to learn things that aren’t necessarily captured by your grades, activities list, or Common App personal statement.
An optional prompt might ask you to explain why you’re interested in a particular college or major. It might invite you to share more about your background, interests, experiences, or community. Some provide space for additional circumstances or information that may be important for an admissions committee to understand.
A lot of times, supplemental essays are a required part of the application. But many colleges make some or all of their supplemental essays an optional part of the application.
Why?
The college may want to reduce stress and barriers to make their application a little bit easier to submit (which, yes, can lead to more applications being submitted and an overall lower acceptance rate).
The college may be asking a question that isn’t relevant to every applicant.
The college admissions office may not have the time or capacity to read a supplemental from every student. An optional essay means less for the admissions officers to read.
The important thing to remember is that not all optional questions serve the same purpose.
For example, an optional “Why do you want to attend our university?” essay is very different from an optional question asking whether there are circumstances that affected your academic performance.
Most students can meaningfully answer the first question. Plenty of students have no reason to answer the second.
When Should You Write an Optional Essay?
Our general recommendation is to complete most optional essays.
That doesn’t mean you should write something simply to fill the box. It means an optional prompt deserves the same consideration you would give a required one before deciding you can skip it and move on.
Consider writing the essay when:
The college asks why you’re interested in attending. This is an opportunity to demonstrate that you’ve researched the college and can explain why it fits what you’re looking for.
The prompt lets you share another side of yourself. If your application already says a lot about your academic interests, for example, an optional essay might provide an opportunity to show your personality, values, community involvement, or another important part of your life.
You can add something that isn’t represented anywhere else. With limited space throughout the application, an optional essay can help round out the picture an admissions reader has of you.
You have important context to provide. If circumstances affected your grades, course choices, activities, or opportunities, an appropriate optional question may give you a place to explain them.
And don't give up on an optional prompt just because you don't immediately know what to write.
Some of the best essay topics take a little brainstorming. “I can't think of anything” may mean you need to spend more time with the question, not that you should leave it blank.
Pro Tip: When you’re brainstorming for any supplemental essay prompt, ask yourself: What do I want an admissions reader to know about me after reading this that they didn't know before?
If you have a good answer, the essay is probably doing its job.
When Is It Okay to Skip an Optional Essay?
There are times when leaving an optional question blank really might be the right choice for you.
The question doesn't apply to you. If a college provides optional space to explain an interruption in your education and you haven't had one, you don't need to manufacture something to discuss. The same applies to other questions designed for students with particular experiences or circumstances.
You don't have additional information that needs explaining. If responding to the prompt would mean repeating information already in your application, or if forcing an answer would result in fluff or filler, you might consider skipping the optional essay.
But only if you’ve been truly honest with yourself about the quality of your brainstorming.
There’s a big difference between “I genuinely don’t think I have substance to add,” and “I couldn’t think of anything in the first 30 seconds of brainstorming.
There's also one very practical reason you might skip an optional essay: you're running out of time.
This is not an argument for procrastinating. Ideally, you'll begin your applications early enough to give every required and optional piece of your application your full attention.
But sometimes a deadline is approaching, and you have to make choices. If the alternative is rushing through an optional essay and submitting a generic, poorly written response that doesn't represent you well, you may be better off spending that time carefully reviewing the required portions of your application and submitting them on time.
An optional essay isn't automatically better than no essay. What you submit becomes part of your application, so a weak response written simply to check a box doesn't necessarily help you.
If You Write It, Take It Seriously
The word “optional” describes whether or not you have to submit the essay. It doesn't mean the admissions committee has the option to ignore what you write.
If you choose to answer the prompt, treat your response with the same care you would give any other part of your application.
Answer the question that was actually asked. Be specific. Don't paste in an essay you wrote for another college if it only loosely fits. And especially with a “Why Us?” question, avoid a response so generic that you could replace the college's name and send it somewhere else.
Make good use of the opportunities in your application to help an admissions reader understand who you are, what matters to you, and why you might be a good fit for their institution.
So… Are Optional Essays Actually Optional?
Yes.
Just don't confuse “optional” with either “secretly required” or “not important.”
For most students, we recommend completing most optional essays that apply to you.
These supplemental essays are valuable ways to add context, demonstrate genuine interest, or share something the rest of your application doesn't capture.
So when you encounter an optional prompt, take some time to understand what the college is asking and brainstorm what you could add to your application.
Then ask yourself one final question:
Will my response help the admissions committee understand me or my interest in this college better?
If the answer is yes, take advantage of the opportunity.