<p>Our daughter has overcome an eating disorder and is justifiably proud as are we of how she faced this illness and kicked it's behind.
Is there any potential downside to her making mention of her experience with this in her communication with Colleges that she will be applying to? She see's this as one of her greatest achievements as a young person. She is a very healthy and well adjusted young woman and to her credit she doesn't want to hide from this conversation. I am embarrassed to potentially suggest to her that she not be open about it since she has worked so hard to successfully overcome it. I do not want to be na</p>
<p>IMO it is fine to mention - especially if she keeps the positive spin on things. How she achieved her goals - what she has learned and how she will use this experience to her advantage going forward. She has met adversity and wrestled it to the ground.</p>
<p>I do not think it would benefit her to focus on the details of the struggle itself and what was involved with living with it. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>First, congrats to your D! It’s a great thing to be healthy and a struggle makes it that much sweeter.
But I wouldn’t use it as an essay topic. To be blunt, you have NO idea who is going to be reading it and what their reactions/opinions/sympathies are to disorders (mild/ major, physical/mental, overcome or not) that could impact the admission of your D. It could run the gamut from “she was weak to begin with” to “great–strong kid!” to " but what if history repeats itself?" I don’t think that SHOULD be the response to the essay (except great kid!) but every admissions officer (just like every human on the planet) carries biases.</p>
<p>I’d have to agree with Gouf. It could just be viewed as a mental disease which leads to all kinds of potential down side risk.</p>
<p>I think if she feels this is a big part of who she is now and she wants to write about it, then she should. I don’t know that ad-coms have way of sussing out who is going to need mental health services, and I’d bet they don’t even try. </p>
<p>FWIW, We know a girl who overcame an eating disorder and is now a happy and productive senior at Tulane. I don’t know if she wrote about it, but in her case it would have been obvious because she had to take a leave of absence from HS.</p>
<p>quialah–and I bet they don’t even try.
They don’t need to try because there are a ton of applicants.</p>
<p>I don’t know a single school that doesn’t have a thriving mental health practice within Student Health. If they are trying, they’re not doing a very good job.</p>
<p>lol–touche!</p>
<p>The OP made a point of stating that they would be embarrased to strike up a conversation about why not to use the topic - and I agree that it could be discouraging. But that is not the point. The point is that she made it through to the other side of this issue - and that takes tremendous fortitude and she should be proud of that fact - not ashamed.</p>
<p>As long as she if positive about the experience I think it will be a plus.</p>
<p>If she were my daughter I’d recommend she not write about it. I understand that it’s been a meaningful and profound process for her, but I think schools are wary about mental health issues, even if they shouldn’t be in all cases and even if it’s no longer an issue for the student. I think by writing about it you raise the concern in the reader, and then have to make sure the essay resolves the reader’s concern. A good essay may well accomplish that… on the other hand, it wouldn’t be a hurdle that has be cleared if the issue isn’t raised.</p>
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<p>If you really feel she wants to mention it, could she do so in a supplement (as opposed to her main college essay)?</p>
<p>Or maybe have her do an alternative essay, let them both sit, then see which one best represents her as a person?</p>
<p>I agree with classof2015 and I would add that you might want to assess the essays with what I call the “reality TV” test (after those subtitles they put under the contestants’ names). When the admissions committee is discussing your child’s case how will they shorthand her? Will she be “North Carolina, soccer, eating disorder girl”, “North Carolina, soccer, gutsy girl” or something else altogether?</p>
<p>If her recovery is relatively recent I would avoid it as a topic as the admissions committee might be wary of a relapse.</p>
<p>How long has she been cured? If she has been completely free of the disease for say 2 or 3 years now, it might make a good topic for a compelling essay. But if she has been “cured” for only a month or so now, I’d avoid the topic for fear that the school would be concerned about a relapse.</p>
<p>There is a significant downside. Congratulations to your daughter for being in solid recovery. That is a big accomplishment.</p>
<p>However, she is “in recovery”. As you probably know, recidivism rates for eating disorders are extremely high. The stress of college could be seen as a relapse trigger.</p>
<p>Colleges are very wary of admitting students with mental health issues, because there is liability involved.</p>
<p>Find a school that does have a very solid program for students, and doesn’t stigmatize kids who advocate for their mental health as a true priority - this is most schools these days, thankfully.</p>
<p>(I’ve worked with kids in adolescent psychiatry for over
20 years</p>
<p>To build on what I’ve already said, I would have an outside reader who doesn’t know your child at all read the essays. You know her as stable and healthy and probably take for granted all of her other strengths. Her admissions readers won’t have that background. All they’ll have is what she presents in the application.</p>
<p>A friends’s daughter ran into difficulty in this regard. She was a serious and accomplished student and athlete at a high-powered prep school and her parents and teachers loved her essay, which showed her lighter side. After she was rejected outright from her ED school, a college everyone was convinced she’d be admitted to, her parents took her application to a consultant to be reviewed. His comment was that after reading her essay he didn’t like the person presented. What in the eyes of people who knew her balanced an overly serious applicant came off to a stranger as flippant.</p>
<p>This is not to say that an essay on your daughter’s success in overcoming her eating disorder would make her unlikeable or would necessarily damage her with admissions, (heck, a family member was admitted to her first choice school after writing her essay on spending her 16th birthday in a mental hospital!), just that you may be too close to her to judge how she presents herself in an essay on such an emotionally laden topic.</p>
<p>Just put yourself in the position of the admissions officer/committee: You have two students whom you have likely never personally met before, they exist purely of folders of marks and essays and maybe if your lucky notes taken from an interview with the students. The two students have roughly equal grades and test scores. One has a history of mental health problems the other does not. Which student would you choose? Remember these Universities do not know your daughter as a person they will see her past ED as a liability, that increases here chances of her being a drain on the university health system and at greater risk of dropping out due to a relapse.</p>
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<p>There’s a difference between not hiding from the conversation and waving a flag…a red flag. It’s admirable that she is proud and willing to discuss overcoming her eating disorder, but a college application from which the adcom will form an opinion and evaluate her is probably not the best place. There are so many other topics she can write about to shine a light on the great kid that she is, why risk it.</p>
<p>There is something fundamentally wrong about asking this young lady to hide who she is. I don’t have a kid with a similar concern - so it is admittedly hard to put myself in OP’s place. I do believe that it is possible to present her challenges without seeming desperate or mentally ill. However if she can’t do that then I agree - she should not submit an essay on the topic. Not because I think she should hide - rather because she is unable to find a way to effectively communicate her journey, her strength.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’d use it as THE “essay.” My son addressed his LD in a supplemental essay…about 150 words. There are many attributes that “define” our kids and I would probably tell one of mine, if in the OPs situation, to find a different topic for “the essay.” The only way I could see this work was if the eating disorder occurred in middle school which is possible since you say “she is a healthy and well adjusted” person which implies some time has passed, then the essay could be crafted in a different light than the overcoming adversity theme maybe focusing coming of age and body image or learning that media does not always reflect with accuracy, something on that order.</p>
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<p>I don’t think it is necessary to mention on an application every serious illness the child has had, especially ones that are cured. Would it be “hiding” who she she is if she didn’t mention the case of scarlet fever she had, or the broken lag she suffered, or the painful ovarian cyst she had removed? </p>
<p>If such past aliments are not relevant to the student’s current ability to succeed in college, and the college will not be asked or expected to provide any sort of special accommodation, then not listing these diseases on the app does not constitute “hiding” who she is. Same for the eating disorder. If she’s over it then it’s no longer “who she is.”</p>