Hello Everybody and Happy Easter Day! I have a question about GMAT. Is the essay portion optional or mandatory? Thanks.
Mandatory. This doesn't mean that the college you send it to will care. At my institution, we only look at the essay if a candidate becomes a committee decision (Low GMAT or GPA). Incidentally, the essay is computer-graded. The computer scores the essay, a human scores the essay, and the essay score is the average of the human and computer scores.
Another note about the GMAT essay is that it is basically the standard five-paragraph essay we all remember from middle school. Blowing it out of the water (getting a 6 out of 6, if I remember correctly) doesn't help you much, but blowing it off or worse, tanking it certainly can hurt you.
