how to treat additional essays that are similar?

[littleaaron]

I'm noticing that there are a few optional essays that seem to want similar answers. For example, there might be four essays, and one might say "how have you been shaped by your past experiences" and another might say "tell how you might add to the culture at X school because of your diversity".

I'm making these up, of course.

But these could theoretically both be answered by an essay that talks about how you grew up poor and a minority and it shaped your worldview. In this case, or in similar cases, are you obligated to write two separate essays and make sure they're distinct, or should you just do one? Or, can you write one essay and just say, this answers questions one and two?

What's best here?

[mandyjay11]

I find that my diversity statement can answer a few different optional essay questions for other schools, with a little tweeking of course.