I guess I’ll just jump in. I missed all, not some, all of sixth and seventh grade due to being severely depressed. I was hospitalized a couple of times. I was also diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Anxiety. Before enrolling at the non-traditional 6-12 private school I went to for eighth grade, I took the SHSAT (NYC) since I had near nothing to apply to high schools with. I got into a specialized high school, and I am currently attending there. I’ve been doing somewhat well, mostly low 90s with no gaps in attendance. My question is, when I apply to colleges, should I mention all of this (maybe write my essay about it), or should I just let it be since none of it impacted what’s on my transcript in a macro way? Sorry if I went into too much depth.
There’s a lot of talk that colleges may discriminate against students with mental illness because they are considered “at risk” for doing poorly in the college environment (I disagree with all of that, but that’s just what I’ve heard from other posts on this website). Since it didn’t impact your transcript much, I would leave it out of your college app just to be on the safe side. If you do want to mention it, you don’t have to center your essay around it. You can have your guidance counselor include it in his/her letter of rec and tell him/her to emphasize that you are doing better and that it hasn’t impacted your academic performance. If you do choose to write your essay on it, again I would emphasize how you’ve worked through your issues and have not let your mental illness prevent you from pursuing academics/activities. Best of luck to you whatever you decide! (:
I do not think you should talk about this. It was in middle school, and colleges almost never care about anything that happened in middle school, barring some truly spectacular achievement, and probably not even then. Let sleeping dogs lie. You don’t want to give them a reason to question your ability.
I disagree that your GC should write about this. It has had no effect in your high school experience, other than, it happened, and you live with it, and have obviously done really well. It ain’t broke, so don’t fix it. Good luck.
If it were high school, you would probably have to since it would be a disruption your academic record. Since it was middle school, I wouldn’t mention it.