Top Law Schools

I'm in the process of finalizing my essays, and was wondering what the general consensus is on optional essays. Some schools (Michigan for example) have prompts that specifically ask "Why our school?" but others do not. For my top choices, I do have genuinely compelling (I hope) reasons and have thus written optional essays, but I'm debating on whether or not this is necessary for schools like NYU and Columbia, for example, that don't have a prompt asking why you want to attend their school in particular. Would it bring me more harm than good if I were to write a relatively unconvincing optional essay for these schools as opposed to writing nothing?

FYI, GPA 3.80 LSAT 172.

Writing nothing is better than writing shit. Hth

not necessary for CLS and NYU, since they are very numbers-based, and with your numbers, you have a great shot. OTOH, Michigan will look at your app and consider yield-protecting, so the optional for them make sense. Do it now, before the WL, so you can get a $$ offer.