<p>Hi, I am a rising senior (18 yrs old). I have been lurking around the forum for quite some time now, and thought that I should start posting.</p>
<p>I had a small accident when I was 11, and my right leg's patella (round disk on top of the knee joint) dislocated. I had an operation and although I can walk/jog and even run without any major problem, I can't participate in intensive sports (soccer, football e.t.c). Even not in sports that are not very leg intensive (Badminton e.t.c) as my right leg can't support the agility required to play them.
May left leg is fine though.</p>
<p>My question is that should I mention about my knee in college applications (It's impossible to notice that I have a problem with my leg when I'm walking)? Will they think that i wouldn't make a good addition to their student body? Will they think that I am not competitive (considering my lack of sports)? I am an academically bright student (Alot of A's e.t.c)</p>
<p>I am planning on applying to Boston U, Villanova and schools of similar calibre. </p>
<p>Any response will be greatly appreciated. thank you.</p>
<p>Hi Ocean, quite frankly, I think the info about your knee is irrelevant to your application— unless it is something you wanted to talk about in your essay. I don’t think it would have an impact one way or the other in terms of admissions. Good Luck.</p>
<p>I don’t think mentioning it could hurt you, but I’m not sure if it would help you either. You could write an essay about it if you feel it’s relevant!</p>
<p>I agree. The injury to your knee will have no bearing one way or the other on your prospects for admission. If this injury has contributed in some important way to the person you are today–you learned some kind of major life lesson, or something–you could write about it in an application essay, but otherwise it’s nothing that you need to address. </p>
<p>After all, it doesn’t interfere with your ability to study or think or write papers or do math, right? Unless you’ve been suggesting to colleges that you could play wide receiver for them, it’ll be the thinking and studying that they base their admissions decisions on.</p>
<p>Sorry if I’m sort of hijacking the thread, but something similar happened to me. I was actually a good sportsman early on and would have made high-level sports teams if it were not for my injury - instead of sports I did more volunteering, well atleast this is what my counselor wrote in his evaluation. Certainly they would at least take this into consideration when they make an admissions decision for me right?</p>
<p>I actually would mention it, especially Mandatory and probably OP too. I mentioned an injury that took me out of sports for four years. This injury basically explained the lack of sports on my EC list. </p>
<p>I wrote my common app essay about it. I think it’s important to not sound too morose about it though. I talked about how being out of sports allowed me to discover and further other passions.</p>
<p>My case is actually quite similar to mandatory’s, I was good at sports before the injury. I have decided to include mentioning this in order to explain the lack of sport’s in my ECs list (just like Lagging said)</p>
<p>A point to consider: can you do more than just explain why there are no sports among your activities? A lot of people get into highly competitive colleges every year without playing sports. Absence of sports is not a deficiency per se.</p>
<p>Now, clearly, you feel that the absence of high school sports is incongruous for you. So I would suggest you not write explicitly about why you haven’t played sports in high school; I think there’s a risk that that could sound like excuse-making. Rather, write something about yourself that incorporates the fact that you couldn’t participate. How did you cope with your disappointment? Did you learn something about life, or about yourself, or about how people think about athletes vs. non-athletes? You’ll make the point that you couldn’t play because of your knee injury, but you’ll also give the admissions committee deeper insight into who you are.</p>