CommonApp Additional Info: Schizoaffective, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, other problems.

College Essays
1

I’ve had a variety of struggles that have impacted or limited my extracurricular and curricular activities… I don’t know how I should try to mention the effects they’ve had on me without naming the conditions themselves.

I screwed myself over this time around. I was supposed to graduate this year, but I got rejected from all my colleges I applied to because I has dealing with Fibromyalgia and Lupus for 1.6 years, but no doctors knew what was wrong with me. It resulted me writing crazy, typo-ridden things to lots of colleges. I just couldn’t sleep. I’m finally going to be put on Plaquenil, but the damage is done. When I did sleep, I had so much stuff going wrong in my brain from the Fibromyalgia that I’d wake up or leave REM stage sleep dozens of times within 5-6 hours. The result was losing 1-2 hours of sleep from this stuff and waking up exhausted every day. I hope you can imagine the anxiety, stress, and overall feelings of misery I was going through. I was in constant pain, exhaustion, and my academic abilities plummeted.

My senior year course load got wrecked. Since these are chronic conditions, they’ve affected my SAT scores, why I came off sounding off my rockers to colleges that I want to reapply too, and they’ll be affecting my new-Senior year course options and extracurricular activities. I had typos and mistakes in most of the e-mails I sent to them.

I’ve had to deal with Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia as part of my Schizoaffective Disorder. I thought of mentioning this and explaining that Schizophrenia is not dangerous when diagnosed and treated, and that how I was (and continue to be) affected was basically giving me emotional apathy and other things to the point where I function more like a kid Asperger’s. Thus, I actually try to avoid group activities because I’m not interested in them and trying to keep up friendships is very difficult. I don’t understand subtle (or even obvious) social cues easily. The Bipolar Disorder resulted in me dropping out of 7th and 8th school due to kids bullying me and two adult men psychosexually abusing me for a few years. For 9th - 10th grade, I didn’t feel like I should try hard at school because I felt like I was going nowhere in life, so why bother?

I feel like telling them that I now have osteoarthritis throughout my body, especially in my spine. I have moderate to severe scoliosis and flat feet plus degenerative spinal arthritis, so sports activities are out of the question for me. Instead, I took home economics/cooking and gym each for 4 years, which people seem to think are blow off classes, but they’re essential to me. My medications and medical conditions result in making trying to lose weight and keep it off very difficult, but I need to do it anyway because excess weight makes the conditions even worse.

Quick facts for those who don’t know about Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s, etc…:

Lupus is a systemic autoimmune disorder or cutaneous, which means it affects the entire body. It damages your organs, nervous systems, etc., and can cause neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression from brain inflammation. If not treated, you can get a stroke in your early 20s. I have systemic and cutaneous. Cutaneous lupus causes discoid rashes (raised, coin-shaped rashes) that make my eyelashes and hair fall out all over my body. Osteoarthritis, Fibromyalgia, and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis are often co-morbid, which means they occur at the same time. You’ll never know how you’ll feel from day-to-day. For me and many others, a good day means that I feel like I only have the flu. A bad day is when I’ll scream from the pain and fatigue and break down into tears.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain and fatigue disorder. The current mode of thought is that Fibromyalgia is caused by disorders to the central nervous system. I’m hypersensitive to pain and can almost never get a good quality sleep. Sometimes I don’t sleep at all, even after taking sedatives.

Both Lupus and Fibromyalgia cause “brain fog” where it becomes very difficult to do things like write e-mails or college essays. Sometimes it seems like we’ve lost 40 IQ points overnight.

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is caused by antibodies attacking the thyroid gland. It causes hypothyroidism, which results in more hair loss, depression, weight gain, fatigue, cognitive issues etc… etc…

Osteoarthritis damages the cartilage in your joints. It hurts.

I feel like writing about all these challenges as the “additional information” so they could understand these parts of my application, but I’d finish it by saying “I’ve overcome all of this blah blah blah and will help my fellow students overcome their own challenges blah blah blah” and then include statistics about how common mental illnesses develop in new college freshmen and how common autoimmune diseases are in the American population. Then, I’d drive the point home that most kids don’t want to talk about it on-campus, but I will, so I could help them overcome their challenges and stay in school whereas they might drop out without that support.

Anyway, all of the college rejections, the pain, the fatigue, the malaise from Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis have combined to send me back into a major depressive episode. **Please, if you are going to comment, please be gentle. I’m obviously not going to mention this next part in my essay if I were to use it, but I’ve been struggling with severe clinical depression for a while now. **

  • Faith R.
2

Wow, Faith, my sympathies for all you’ve been through.

I’m no expert here-- I’m the mom of 3 teenagers and a high school math teacher.

So my first bit of advice is to speak to an expert: your guidance counselor or college placement officer from your high school. I realize it’s been a year, but I think you’ll find that most of us still have a soft spot for the kids we’ve dealt with, particularly those who have had as rough a time as you have. Make an appointment, stop in and get advice from the pros.

***** They trump me, they trump any of the kids who will respond. They’re professionals who do this for a living. Listen to their advice.

Beyond that, my advice is pretty general. The point behind your essay is to “give them a reason to say yes.”

Are you applying to the same schools as last time? If not, then I’m not sure there’s a huge reason to address some of the issues. If they weren’t a recipient of “crazy, typo-ridden things” then I’m not sure I would bring their attention to it.

As to this: "I’d finish it by saying "I’ve overcome all of this blah blah blah and will help my fellow students overcome their own challenges blah blah blah’ " – I think I would rethink it if I were you. You know the flight attendant speech when you fly? They tell you that, if the oxygen mask drops down, you need to put it on yourself first. You can’t help anyone else until you can breathe yourself. I think the same thing applies here. You’ve been through an incredibly rough time. Don’t worry about helping your fellow students overcome challenges you’re still dealing with. Make this essay about how you’re still a work in progress, and about how you’re determined to have a positive college experience, and someday help others. Make it about the strides you’ve made.

Don’t include statistics… it’s not your purpose to educate the reader, it’s to give him/her “a reason to say yes.” Each and every word you write should be with that purpose in mind. It’s not to educate, it’s not to explain, it’s not to get absolution, it’s to get them to say yes to your application. Repeat that mantra as often as possible.

Would you consider an essay on something completely removed from all these issues-- something positive and uplifting, and then a brief essay on them in the “something else you want to include” part of the common app?

And the mom in me has to add this last bit: are you sure that college is the right thing right now? Talk to your parents, to your guidance counselor-- would a year or even a semester of dealing with your issues make more sense? One of the really wonderful thing about life after high school is that you’re no longer on that 4 year timeline you’re used to. You begin when you’re ready and graduate when you’re ready. If you don’t go in 2018, you go in 2019… whatever works best for you. Would you consider a semester at an online school, or a school that has both an online/ on site campus?
It just sounds as though you’re dealing with so much, and that piling on the academic rigors of college might not be the best thing for your depression. Speak to your parents, to your doctors, to your counselors.

The best of luck to you!

3

I think the above advice is excellent. I alos think that you may have a tough time going right inot four year university. I think you should ease inot college with community college. Once your issues are being controlled, you can get great grades for a year and then transfer. College is stressful and demanding. Go easy on yourself.

As far as essays, I do not,think you shouldn rite about it, unless it’s in terms of “despite several medical issues, I have managed to …” What’s good and interesting and likable about you? Focus on that. Give them some kind of anecdote about the time you did this, and what happened as a result. Good luck.

4

Lindagaf offers the same response I had to your post. I was very close to someone with similar struggles and it is daunting, and easily slides into tragedy. So good on you for surviving!

For your essay I would focus on going forward. Trauma leaves such a huge mark it’s tough to ignore, but remember how limited the scope of your request really is: You want to be admitted to a school, you have a course of study in mind that you think fits that school’s profile.

Try to focus on your hopes for the future, your talents, your strengths. You need not spell out every trouble, your business is admittance. Sell to that as the survivor you are.

5

Faith, my heart goes out to you. My 24-year-old son has schizoaffective disorder, so I know something about it. Is there any way you could go to a local community college for a year first and see how it goes? You could take basic courses to get them out of the way and see how you handle the physical stress and mental demands. Be sure to register with the disabilities office so you can get accommodations if you need them.

I’m impressed that you want to go to college. You are a strong person!

6

I would definitely look at keeping close to home to
be near your medical care providers. Is there a community college or state university near you where you can do a year or two and possibly transfer once you get some academic stability? I honestly don’t think it’s a good idea for you to live on a college campus at this point. It’s extremely stressful and isolating for many students.

For most college students it’s a struggle just to get their work done. For you, you will be struggling with various medical conditions AND helping others with the same? It doesn’t sound feasible to me.