What Reviewers Look For in the OLSAS Law — Optional / Part B Essay
This rubric reviews whether your essay gives relevant context, explains your place in it, and clearly addresses the current prompt. It also looks for a focused, self-contained response that connects the experience or circumstance to its effect, meaning, or current relevance without relying on other application materials.
What We Check
Whether the response identifies the additional context, intellectual experience, future direction, background, identity, barrier, circumstance, or other job it has chosen to supply.
Whether the response supplies enough visible facts to understand the chosen subject and the applicant's position inside it.
The relationship the prompt asks the applicant to explain: how a circumstance affected a record, how an experience shaped judgment, why a future direction follows, or why an identity or community connection is relevant.
Whether the response completes every countable job in the supplied current prompt and remains understandable without an unseen application field.
Mistakes We Flag
- Opening with uncertainty or apology
- Starting by saying you were unsure whether to include the essay delays the context the reader needs. Begin with the circumstance, experience, or purpose you are addressing.
- Combining unrelated leftover topics
- An optional essay is not a place to collect achievements, explanations, and interests that did not fit elsewhere. Choose one coherent subject that serves the prompt.
- Using a label instead of context
- A category such as first-generation student or access applicant does not by itself explain your experience. Provide the relevant setting, relationship, responsibility, condition, or circumstance.
- Forcing hardship into a success story
- You do not need to claim that a barrier made you stronger or that it is fully resolved. Explain its bounded effect, your response, or why it matters now, if that is what the prompt asks.
- Referring readers to another application section
- The response should make sense on its own. Do not rely on a personal statement, sketch, link, or other unseen material to supply key facts or explanation.
References
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to disclose hardship or a personal identity to write this essay?
No. The essay may provide additional context, an intellectual experience, a future direction, background, identity, a barrier, a circumstance, or another relevant purpose. It does not need to justify itself through the severity of hardship, an unusual identity, or an exceptional achievement.
What should I include besides describing the circumstance?
Include enough facts for a reader to understand the subject and your position in it. Address the relationship the prompt requests, such as an effect on your record, how an experience shaped your judgment, why a future direction follows, or why an identity or community connection is relevant.
Can I answer several optional topics in one response?
No. If the prompt offers alternative topics, address the one you choose rather than combining several options. For a prompt with multiple requested parts, answer each part clearly.
How long should the essay be?
No minimum length is required if you complete the prompt's requested work. Limits vary by school and prompt, so follow the current limit supplied for the essay and use the space for relevant explanation rather than repeated background or courtesy language.
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