<p>If a student is transferring and has not done the best during high school due to abuse and/or depression/anxiety, would it be appropriate to write about this? Or would it be seen as a simple sob story? </p>
<p>Would it be better to focus on something more positive but less relevant to why you are who you are as a person?</p>
<p>Or should one write about something else but briefly mention it and go on to other things in the essay? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’d go with option 1 or 3. </p>
<p>@bomerr Okay! </p>
<p>Although you can certainly write about it, colleges tend to want corroboration from a professional adult that functions in a supervisory capacity who will attest to the reasons why your grades have fallen. That corroboration can be in the form of your guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), a teacher/professor letter of recommendation, or an additional letter of support from a therapist or psychiatrist. For example, see: <a href=“How to write good letters of recommendation | MIT Admissions”>http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs</a>
Students in your situation are often better off having an adult be their advocate so that their essay doesn’t become a sob story. This also allows colleges to understand an applicant’s back story while allowing the applicant to focus on giving Admissions Committees powerful reasons to accept them.</p>
<p>@ gibby
I agree. It’ll sound better if some else writes the hardships. </p>
<p>Also, if you do write about depression or anxiety (or an even trickier topic, eating disorders) you need to be careful to make it clear this will not be an issue once you enter college. I would imagine at least some admissions folks worry about a kid possibly having a relapse under the stress of the college transition.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the advice!</p>
<p>@gibby @bomerr I have possibly 3 people from my high school who can attest to my experiences.</p>
<p>However, I am currently in community college. I am transferring with only about a year’s worth of credits so I haven’t been out of high school that long, but I have made a big change in my academic behavior.</p>
<p>I will have one letter of rec from a professor at my community college and another one from a current private music teacher who was also my high school music teacher.</p>
<p>Would it still be appropriate to have recommendation letters back from high school? </p>
<p>@InigoMontoya Would you suggest having the bulk of the essay focus on the present day and positive and only gloss over the darker stuff? I was thinking of writing an essay about putting the hardships of the past behind and my capabilities of the present, but I didn’t want to get overly detailed, or not detailed enough.</p>
<p>@sofiacee</p>
<p><a href=“College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room - YouTube”>College Admissions: Inside the Decision Room - YouTube;
<p>In this video they talk about a girl whose dad had an affair. Basically colleges cut applicants slack for real hardships.</p>
<p>@bomerr That video was very insightful! Thank you for sharing it.</p>
<p>It contradicts some of the information I’ve read in articles though such as avoiding personal trauma so as not to make admissions uncomfortable or see you at your worst, that type of thing.</p>
<p>I suppose if I choose to right about something related to this I’ll have to figure out how to present it in the best way possible. I feel iffy and don’t want to rub admissions the wrong way. </p>
<p>@sofiacee</p>
<p>I think a lot of people talk down playing hardships because it’s intrinsically unAmerican to have hard work and merit be relegated by situational chance. </p>
<p>It depends on what school you are applying to tho. The lower ranked schools like Top 30+ most likely won’t even care about PS for transfer applicants. The higher ranked schools are still reaches / stretches so it’s worth playing the odds and going to a hardship story IMO. </p>
<p>@bomerr </p>
<p>PS stands for personal statement, right? I will most like only apply to one or two reaches. </p>
<p>So overall, even for the lower ranked schools, and considering I’m a transfer, it won’t hurt me to talk about hardship and possible have a letter from a high school teacher to back some of it up? </p>
<p>I have a 4.0, but I only have 18 credits (all gen. requirement classes such as eng 101 and his 101) from my current institution, some CLEP credits and transfer credits from classes taken in highschool (which some colleges won’t accept) so that’s why I felt they might still consider my high school grades and my essay.</p>
<p>
Please realize that most of the comments being read out load from Admissions Directors in that video are probably from a guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR) and teacher recommendations and NOT from essays. The exception is at the end of the video when the Admissions Director says “This is a quote from his essay.”</p>
<p>@gibby oh okay that’s good to know I didn’t notice that. Hmm…I have some thinking to do then over this essay I am not sure anymore. </p>
<p>Your main essay should reveal something of who you are as a person. If there are difficult circumstances that have affected your performance, you can submit a supplemental essay to that effect. </p>
<p>If you let the explanation of difficult circumstances be the centerpiece of your main essay, you deny the committee a chance to find out what you are like aside from the difficult circumstances, who you truly are.</p>
<p>@ADad Thanks for your response! </p>
<p>Yes I agree now, I actually went over this with a professor and got similar advice, that it is better for colleges to know who I am right now.</p>
<p>I am going to look into the supplemental essay, I know the common app allows an extra essay along with the personal statement. </p>
<p>Thank you again!</p>