Dealing with Illness and Explaining it to Colleges

Applying to College
1

<p>So I'm a senior in high school. I've been sick since the beginning of tenth grade. I need advice. Please read the whole thing.</p>

<p>-First of all... what I have is barely diagnosable and I don't know if colleges will take it seriously; they might think I'm lying or exaggerating. Basically this is what has happened: I got mono sometime early in 10th grade. The symptoms never went away. In addition, this past April a bleeding ulcer developed and I went to the emergency room. They stopped the bleeding but couldn't find a cause for the Ulcer. Consequently I have gastritis and acid reflux that won't go away along with the mono symptoms (the doctors said my stomach should've been fine by May). The doctors had no idea why all this was happening, until a few weeks ago, when they came up with Leaky Gut syndrome. It does explain most of my symptoms. It may or may not have developed because of my body reacting weirdly to contracting mono. I have also stopped getting worse in the last few weeks, which is actually a big breakthrough for me.</p>

<p>-I wrote my college essay about this. I didn't go in depth at all. It is about my ability to reflect and improve upon myself as a result of the boredom and fatigue from these ailments. What I want to know is should I elaborate on my situation in the additional information section of the common app? My guidance counselor is incompetent and I don't trust her to properly explain this to colleges so I think I have to. I don't want to be redundant by focusing on this in my essay and in the additional info but they won't get the full story just from my essay.</p>

<p>-These issues have really dragged down my abilities... My grades and Sat scores are way lower than they should be. (My gpa is 3.4 unweighted and 3.7/3.8 weighted and my combined Sat score is 2100 with 700 in each section.) I have dropped out of most honors/Ap courses and stopped playing most sports. Will colleges take this into account and overlook the surface value of my application?</p>

<p>-Will this make my chances worse instead of better? Do they care if I'm still sick by the time I go to their school? To be honest, I have no idea if I'll be completely better by the time I go to college. Should I just lie and say I'll be fine by the summer? </p>

<p>If it helps, I am looking to apply to Stony Brook, Binghamton, New Paltz, Penn State- University Park, Hobart and William Smith, and a couple of safety's I don't really care about. If my situation is taken into account, would I have any chance at getting into better schools?</p>

2

<p>Most apps will have a way for you to explain your situation. I would be honest about what happened and describe it in non-emotional terms. </p>

<p>Also f this is an ongoing situation consider describing yourself as a disabled person. That may be accurate.</p>

3

<p>The best way to handle this is to explain the situation to your GC and let them handle it. You should be as positive about yourself as possible in the application, let your GC explain any illness and how you’ve dealt with it in their part of the application.</p>

4

<p>I am the parent of a chronically ill teenager, so please believe that I have some inkling what’s going through your mind and the minds of adults in your life.</p>

<p>Your greatest obstacle–probably generally, and not just in terms of college admissions–is this: “I have also stopped getting worse in the last few weeks, which is actually a big breakthrough for me.” I realize this is really big and important news for you–and I’m really happy for you!–but it’s still going to look like a danger sign to colleges, I think. There’s an important difference between I’ve stopped getting worse and I’ve gotten dramatically better. Colleges are likely to forgive a drop in your grades caused by illness or other problems if you can give them good reason to believe that the things that interfered with your achievement in the past won’t be an issue going forward–because you’ve recovered from your illness, or found a way to manage your symptoms, or what have you. But your post makes it sound as if you may still be getting a handle on your illness and figuring out what your path will be to the rest of your life (and, I hope, to recovery).</p>

<p>Is it really essential that you go straight from high school to college? Could you take time between high school and college to focus on your medical issues, and perhaps to earn some money too? It’s scary to veer from the path that it seems everybody is following–high school, then college, then a job or graduate or professional school–but sometimes it may be a person’s best option. You could also consider attending college part-time while focusing on your health, but if you choose that option, you have to realize that sometimes transfer students’ options for both admission and financial aid are more limited than those for freshman applicants.</p>

<p>Whatever you do, do not just lie and say you’ll be better by summer. Think about it. That just leads to disaster. College isn’t going to be easier than high school–especially if you’ve already dropped back from your school’s most academically demanding classes. How on earth can you be sure you’ll be able to do much more a year from now than you can today? Your focus right now seems to be on whether you can get into these schools, or even “better” ones. It shouldn’t be. Your focus should be on how you’ll get through whichever college or university you do attend. Getting into is an alluring goal, but it has no long-term value; only getting through matters in the long run.</p>

<p>We did take my teenage daughter off that traditional educational path. It hasn’t worked out great for her, but it’s been much less bad than it would have been if she’d persisted in public school and tried to go off to four-year college as most of her age mates will be doing in the spring. (By contrast, my daughter dropped out of high school. She was home schooled for a while. She got a GED. She has been taking classes at community college, and is planning to start studying part-time, as a commuter, at a nearby university in the spring.)</p>

<p>The way you describe yourself in your post makes me worry that colleges will doubt that you’re medically ready to be a full-time undergraduate–especially if that means being some distance from home, and from your doctors. I’m sorry to say it, but that’s the impression I have. For your sake, I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m just projecting my kid’s situation onto your story. But that’s the impression I’m getting.</p>

5

<p>Thanks guys. I’ll go over these options and see what I can do.</p>

6

<p>I fear I may have been awfully discouraging before. I really do wish you the best, Clyde. I just urge you to make sure you don’t crash and burn because you blithely figured, “It’ll all be fine.”</p>