<p>As someone that has lived with MD since childhood, I understand your son’s reluctance to write about it on an essay. It is the choice to let him define his life, and not let his life be defined for him.</p>
<p>I also know that when I told my parents that I was not going to play that card on my admissions essay that they thought I was nuts and tried their best to change my mind. My parents tried to convince me to write about the people that I had known that had died… no that was not the foot I wanted to put forward. </p>
<p>The thing is that I do not see personal tragedy as something I have accomplished, I chose instead to focus on the rather mundane accomplishments that I had.</p>
<p>BTW: if I had a kid applying to college and they wanted to do the same thing that I did, I would probably hit the roof and try to convince them otherwise.</p>