Depression not acceptable as essay topic?

I am wondering why many are saying not to write about depression or why that would make a college not want you. My child (HS Sr) was recently diagnosed & now takes meds. Grades are straight A. Unfortunately grades in previous years not so great. 3.3 GPA (9-11). This is a child who could have been top of class. Child has hereditary chemical imbalance. No other issue whatsoever. Just needs to take a pill. Not really any different than being diabetic. People who have depression & anxiety aren’t dangerous so I am confused - are colleges really that uninformed? I don’t see how child can address grade issue if that is the case. I am new here & would appreciate advice.

Perhaps you can search for posts about “academic dismissal,” “appealing my suspension,” “appealing loss of scholarship” to see how often depression and anxiety are given as explanations for poor academic performance in college in these forums. Haven’t read of a student appealing academic suspension due to diabetes.
The essay is supposed to convince the admissions committee that the student would be a great fit for the college.

My child is fine on meds. If students who have other medical conditions don’t take their medication they wouldn’t be successful in college. I get your point though. I understand that depression doesn’t make a great essay topic but my question was how to explain grade discrepancy.

You ask the child’s counselor to explain it in his/her letter of recommendation.

Guidance counselor knows nothing about the situation. Not sure how that would work out but I will look into it.

A general rule of thumb is to avoid the three Ds: divorce, death, depression. There are many other ways to touch on depression without having an essay focus on it.The counselor who writes the reco should probably know this about your child to provide an enhanced “overcame adversity” story for them. Some schools have parents do “brag sheets” that counselors use to help write recos. With 300 students per counselor, our school really uses brag sheets!

In my memory there is sometimes an additional question on applications, something along the lines of “Is there anything else we should know about you?” This would be a better place to explain that his grades suffered because of medical problems, since resolved.

The problem is not that the students are considered dangerous. It’s more around how major life change - such as moving off to college - can often trigger new issues or make existing problems worse. Sometimes when this happens the student does not seek help - or does not follow recommendations. The schools cannot notify parents due to HIPAA issues. As mentioned above, this can in some cases cause a student to fail and end up on academic probation or dismissal - and the parents, who may be paying the bill, have no idea since FERPA regulations prohibit schools from sharing academic info with parents.

Will this happen with every kid? Of course not. However, it does happen often enough that it’s generally advised to avoid topics such as depression just because, if an admissions counselor is evaluating two otherwise identical students, the fear of negative effects due to depression may be the tipping point for not accepting the student.