<p>I mean have you seen all of those 'homeless to harvard' people?</p>
<p>“Sob stories” and “stories about hardship” are two different things.
If you can’t tell the difference, better keep it to yourself.</p>
<p>Genuine stories are always interesting.</p>
<p>Those stories are rare. </p>
<p>Much more common are the applications from overprivileged students with 15 AP classes, high test scores (in 3 attempts with coaching), expensive summer programs at brand-name schools, international mission trips that really don’t accomplish anything, ECs that require money (as well as someone providing driving time to practices and competitions) or connections (research at a university or hospital lab). They send messages from their smartphones, presumably not while driving their new cars. They want to be doctors or investment bankers because the money is good. They have as little concept of hardship as some of our political leaders and are ill-equipped to make any real contributions to their communities. Why wouldn’t adcoms get tired of them?</p>
<p>^Half the apps to the Ivies.</p>
<p>Kids who’ve tailored their lives to the Ivies. Rather artificial imo.</p>
<p>Anything wrong with going from homeless to H? Btw, sob stories and stories relaying how one has faced and overcome adversity are worlds apart.</p>
<p>@Twinke:</p>
<p>Those students are pretty hard to come by. Yes, there are a TON of people with very rough upbringings, but the bottom line is that top schools are looking for those students to show some kind of extraordinary potential, or an academic prowess that defies common preconceptions of what that student should have been able to accomplish. Those stories are rare, and they ultimately result in a negligible amount of acceptances to the top-tiers.</p>
<p>As far as admission essays go:
Could I write about by dad being tetraplegic, as it explains my interest in neuroscience?
When I was 3, I promised that I would invent something to make him walk again 
I did not pursue that all my life of course, but I just happen to have taken an interest in it over the course of the past years.</p>
<p>^I find that heart warming. :3</p>
<p>Don’t write about your father being tetraplegic.</p>
<p>You can, however, use your father’s story of being tetraplegic to segue into a story about YOU. That’s the main problem with “sob stories” about someone else, I think - a lot of times the student focuses too much attention on the other person’s story than their own story. The admissions essay is supposed to showcase who you are as a person. So if you use your father’s tetraplegia as a short, neat segue into your own story of a passion for neuroscience, then it can be ok if done well. You should pose it as blossoming into an interest in improving the human condition in general through neuroscience, how interest in your father’s disability made you more broadly interested in disabilities and diseases of all kinds and how life science (and neuroscience in particular) can fix those problems. Then you talk about your place in that.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, any “story” about diversity, overcoming adversity, or hardship should have a point about how you are well-suited for the incoming class. It shouldn’t be “boo hoo my life has been so hard, I deserve this.” It shouldn’t even be “if you admit me I will make your class diverse!” Especially at the top schools, there are tons of poor and disadvantaged students they can admit. It should be about how that adversity has changed you as a person, or made who you are - someone they’d want to have in their freshman class not just because of the color of your skin or your socioeconomic status, but because of how you view the world through that lens.</p>
<p>Perhaps struggling to work to support your family has given you a wise, mature lens with which to view the world and you are far more mature than your peers - and willing to work harder than all of them to achieve your goals. Or being called a racial slur (or watching someone get called one) made you realize the importance of standing up for your beliefs and identities. Or triumphing over a tragic accident or disability made you realize that you can do anything, or that you want to help others get through the same thing. The story should focus on the unique qualities of you and how you are prepared to succeed in college, rather than the relatively un-unique category you fit into.</p>
<p>I disagree with most of the posters here. There really isn’t much of a difference between sob stories and stories about hardship unless you actively try to make humor (or at least considerable light) of your plight.</p>
<p>To be honest, hardship stories are a little overdone. Doesn’t matter how heart-warming it is. Just too many of them. Writing such a story doesnt make an applicant stand out.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, though, shouldn’t folks write about what defines them? Imo, the essay should revolve around you and your experiences. If your life experiences have been arduous, write about it. It isn’t a sob story if you aptly evince how the hardships have made you a better person.</p>
<p>If you’re using a hardship story to tell a story of how you overcame a challenge, or how that hardship caused you to have a passion for something, or maybe even about how it defines you, then it’s a story worth telling. </p>
<p>But if you’re using a hardship story to basically say, “I’ve lived a tough life. Pity me,” then it may be better to find something else to talk about.</p>
<p>Agreed.</p>
<p>For instance, I wrote my common app essay on how hardship developed my love for books.</p>
<p>No, sob stories are not overdone. If you overcame hardship to succeed academically where most in your circumstances would have not, that says a lot about you. Here’s a video that was uploaded earlier this year about a teenager who overcame struggles and was accepted into Harvard.</p>
<p>[Homeless</a> Teen Accepted to Harvard - YouTube](<a href=“Homeless Teen Accepted to Harvard - YouTube”>Homeless Teen Accepted to Harvard - YouTube)</p>
<p>be honest and superior then the people who are applying as well… sound confident and let them know what sparks you.</p>
<p>Thanks got your opinions and evaluation.
I was not planning on causing any tears. It is just very honest, as I truly is why I am so driven and passionate about it 
but I would rather write about where my passion stems from than about how I overcame hardship. I don’t complain. And there has not been real “hardship” in my life. It is nowhere close to where my dad’s would be, or so many of the people who are struggling with all sorts of problems. I would not be fair to present anything I have encountered as real hardship… I am too young to even tell what real hardship means, as in my opinion you can only truly understand that once you have (voluntarily or forcefully) taken on responsibility that is greater than that for me, my loved ones and my surrounding which I currently have to an extend.</p>