Well, basically I’m thinking about writing about the first prompt - “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”
I’m schizophrenic, it started 2 years ago. And I’m thinking about writing about my illness, I’ll write how it started and how it changed me as a person, I’ll write how it changed my perspective and made me a better person and how it finished. I’m taking this topic because i can write a lot about it and its different. Do you think thats a good idea? Please help.
I’ve been debating whether to write an essay about my own illess, and my friend, who got into Stanford, showed me her Common App essay about her anorexia recovery – she tackled it in a really unfamiliar, eloquent way, and she tied it into her passion for music and how that ultimately saved her. So if you do connect it to personal growth, and in some loose way to your other interests, and make sure it doesn’t read like you’re trying to solicit pity from the adcoms, I think it can be a really effective topic.
Since it’s still early on, you can probably draft it, then show it to someone you trust in real life to see if they think it’s too personal/whatever. Also, I think a better prompt to put this type of thing under might be a transition from childhood to adulthood–I think the first question is meant more for like ethnicity/community/EC, whereas the second one would accurately deal with the changes that you went through as a person during those first two years.