Drug Addict turned College Student :: Question about The Personal Statement

Applying to College
1

This is my first post on this website and I am seeking some advice for my upcoming transfer from a California community college to university (leaning towards UCI and UCSD). I am going to sum up a long and crazy story in an effort to get some advice. Here goes nothing…

I graduated high school in 2006 and quickly got into drugs soon after. I “went to school”, and by that I mean signed up for community college courses, barely went, and received F after F, withdrawal after withdrawal. When I finally got clean, I went back and figured out my major (computer science), wiped out old bad grades through academic renewal and repeating courses, and all-around grew up. My GPA is pretty solid (3.75), and I am guaranteed entrance into UC Irvine through the Transfer Admission Guarantee program that California offers.

However, I am beginning the process of drafting my personal statement and have a simple question… how do I approach the following prompt?

Prompt :: Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud, and how does it relate to the person you are?

I am most certainly going to have to explain years and years of bad grades, the time I didn’t go to school at all, and how I pulled myself out of it and started to get nothing but A’s and B’s. Should I directly mention that I was a drug addict? Should I summarize it a bit but not directly state that I was doing drugs? Really not sure how to approach this.

Any and all information will be appreciated. Thanks!

2

Perhaps not mention the addiction, but focus on the “learning how to be an excellent student” part. Perhaps just state that you hadn’t emerged from high school with these skills in place.

3

I would not mention drugs. I think its better to say you made bad choices and decisions and to speak about immaturity.

4

do not mention your drug use. it will raise red flags. talk about recovery and bettering yourself.

5

I would only mention the drug use if it is a matter of public record. If you’ve been convicted of a drug-related offense you’ll have to address that head-on. Otherwise, I’d simply focus on the underlying narrative as others have suggested: how you went off the path, and how hard you worked to get back onto it.

In particular the latter, because a university wants to admit not just the student who has overcome some adversity, but the student who is capable of that 3.75, Make the skills you have developed along the way part of the narrative; show how you have created new facets to your identity that have made that kind of excellence possible for you.