Dear Joel, I was wondering if you recommend answering the optional essays on the supplemental application. If you do not answer them will that hurt your chances of receiving an interview?

Good question. When I started this blog back in 2008, I posted specifically about the "Statements of Educational Opportunity" portion of our application. What I blogged about then still holds true today. It would be easy for me to just cut/paste a link to that blog post here -- but I'd rather you go back and find it (because you might find some other interesting insight/posts/hints/treasures along the way!)

Ask me anything