The Optional Essay
Virtually all top business schools offer applicants the opportunity to address anything unusual or problematic within their profiles. MBA candidates can use either the additional information section of a school's application or the optional essay to proactively explain any irregularities/inconsistencies so that the admissions committee understands the circumstances behind these issues and is not left trying to solve a mystery. Common reasons to write the optional essay include explaining or revealing the following:
- Poor academic performance in a specific class, semester or overall; differences in universities' grading systems
- Low verbal, quantitative or overall GMAT score, or any combination thereof
- Lack of a professional reference because of the candidate's desire not to disclose a potential departure
- Absences from work or college, or gaps in resume
- Academic probation/suspensions, firings or criminal records
Not everyone needs to write the optional essay, and by opting to not write this essay, you are not at any kind of disadvantage. The optional essay is an opportunity for you to explain problems or issues that the admissions committee will likely notice anyway, and by proactively addressing the topic, you can essentially "get ahead of the scandal." So, if you have earned an F, had a bad semester, scored low on the GMAT or were dismissed from a position, you should write the optional essay. Alternatively, if you and your partner are both applying to a school and the admissions committee might not realize this, you may want to use the optional essay to inform the committee of this relevant information, which is not a problem, but simply of interest.
There are many reasons to write the optional essay, but you should absolutely not feel that you need to write it. If you have nothing to explain and have generally performed well, you should not submit an essay that you wrote for a different school just to fill the optional essay space or write a new essay that simply repackages your strengths. If nothing about your candidacy needs further explanation, you are in an advantageous position and should take a step back and appreciate your situation, not fret about it.
If you feel you must write the optional essay to address a specific problem, be as brief and direct as possible. By offering additional text, you are essentially asking an overworked admissions committee to do even more work and are demanding more of their valuable time. Thus, a discussion of your academic problems need not begin with a rundown of your excellent grades in high school; similarly, an explanation of a gap in your work experience need not begin with a chronology of how consistently you worked before the gap.
We have seen candidates overcome any number of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, from very low GMAT scores to arrests for drunk driving. We always encourage applicants to address such issues in a "short and sweet" manner (completing optional essays well within word limits), and time has proven that this strategy can yield results. However, you should not take a minimalist approach and present only the problem itself, such as simply noting that you have a low quantitative GMAT score and declaring that you feel it does not represent your abilities—the admissions committee already knows your results from your score report, and merely expressing your dissatisfaction with the score does not give the school any more information with which to evaluate you. Instead, offer the admissions committee evidence that despite the low score, you truly have the quantitative skills to succeed in business school, and demonstrate that you can indeed contribute via your quantitative abilities.
