globalcitizen wrote:
Using the optional essay is totally up to you. One of my friends who is in at CBS submitted an additional essay, that further stressed why he might be a good fit to Columbia (he was an international student), for that optional essay. But he had a 770 gmat and insane extracurriculars. So I can't really say if it helped or not. If you have the time and you really feel like adcom isn't getting the whole picture, then go ahead and submit an extra essay, I think they will read it. I personally just submitted my application and felt like essay 2 allowed me to show that "other" side of me so I didn't use that optional essay space.
Oh and about mentioning past work experience, I wrote about 180 words on that. I think its important to mention, but thats just me.
Thanks globalcitizen! It totally makes sense. I'm likely going to write an optional essay to discuss a very unique career choice situation. Hope it will work out.
About past work experience, I wrote about 200 words too and tied them to the career goals.
Best of luck!
I did an optional essay where I just accented my value to CBS. Dunno if it had an affect on my app, but I did get an interview invite (still have to do the interview).
Really, all the optional essay says is "Got anymore stuff you wanna share?"