<p>Background info:</p>
<p>I'm an international student. After finishing my grade 11 (when I took the O-levels), I went to study in a private secondary school in the capital for my A-levels (grade 12 and grade 13), but just 3 months I quit the program and transfered back to my old, public school.</p>
<p>Today, I just received an e-mail from a university to which I have applied for admission asking for "a brief explanation for leaving that private school".</p>
<p>Now I'm undecided how much information I am going to reveal to the admission office.</p>
<p>I performed well academically in that private school, but during that period, you can say it was the "troubled times of my life". I wasn't sure what I want to study after high school, at the same time I was troubled by the guilt of spending my parents' money without disclosing to them my erm...homosexuality. So I decided to move back to my hometown and sort out all this mess I was in with my family. At that time I felt that if I did not deal properly with these issues I wouldn't be able to "move on" with my life.</p>
<p>That's a summary of my problem and reason of leaving the private school. Now the question is:
<b>Should I disclose and elaborate so much about my personal issues? </b>On one hand I want to assure the adcoms that my transfer has nothing to do with any academic shortcomings, on the other hand I am worried that I might be seen as a troubled person (which I am not). Oh...and I'm also undecided about coming out to the adcoms, just in case it might disadvantage me. The college is a commonapp institution, so it shouldn't discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation, but I don't know to what extent that is true.</p>
<p>I was also thinking about turning my "explanation" into another admission essay, which I think would do myself a favour? What do you people think?</p>
<p>Any advice or opinion is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p><strong><em>bump</em></strong></p>
<p>I think you could write an essay about this event. From what you wrote here, you´ve convinced me that it was for the right reason, and you dealt with it in a mature way. I think you just need to be truthful, you have nothing to hide. I don´t believe adcoms would view you negatively because you are gay, I think they would appreciate the difficulty of you disclosing it to your parents.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I would focus on the word “brief” in the request.</p>
<p>The reason in general terms is universal: “You were needed at home because of family related issues that required your ongoing presence. Those issues were since resolved.” If you feel that this is an insufficient explanation say something like “the issues had to do with your relationship with your parents”, or " with one of your parents". You could flesh this out with another phrase or two, but I wouldn’t delve into the personal issues that you had at the time, nor bring up terms like “homosexuality” or “guilt”.</p>
<p>Come up with a brief answer describing the financial concerns and family issues. There’s no need to provide too many personal details.</p>
<p>I guess I disagree. It is too easy to say “due to personal issue,” when it is really academic related. No one is going to make up a story they are gay in order to give a good reason for transferring. </p>
<p>If you say it was due to some issue with your parents, it has since been resolved. Adcom may think, “Ok, he had an issue with his parents(don´t know what it is), who knows if he would have another issue with his parents when he is here, and he would withdraw and move back home again.”</p>
<p>You are allowed only few essays on your application to let the adcom know who you are. I do believe this is another opportunity for them to get to know you better.</p>
<p>This is my 2 cents. If you were my kid, this is the advice I would give. If your withdrawal was due to depression, or other mental related illness, I would advise you not to disclose it.</p>
<p>What they are looking for here is evidence that you didn’t leave the private school because you were flunking out. I’m all for short:</p>
<p>“Even though I was doing well at that school, I realized that I wasn’t quite ready to live so far from my family. Now that I’m older, I know that I will do fine even when I’m far from home.”</p>
<p>Thanks to everybody who replied. </p>
<p>I e-mailed the admission office a more-than-brief explanation. He replied thanking me for my thorough explanation, although the reason he enquired in the first place is to make sure I left the school not because of any disciplinary problems.</p>