I’ve been starting work on my essay already to try to get a solid draft of it, and I plan to answer the first question:
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
I’m the youngest of 6 children, which would be my meaningful “background,” so I plan on having a paragraph for each sibling and how I’ve been able to learn from them each. At the end I want to recap on how they’ve lead me, but how I am still a unique individual and desire independence or something like that. I also want to emphasize on how I plan to apply all that I’ve learned from them to my life so I don’t have to make similar mistakes.
I just don’t want to fall into the trap that I often hear about where people talk about their grandpa or someone influential, and the admissions officers want to admit the grandpa and not the student because they didn’t learn anything about the actual kid. Does my plan sound okay, or leaning towards not enough about me and more about my siblings?
I like the premise, but you do run the risk of making it about everyone but you. Come up with a rough draft and pm me when you do. I will tell you what I think.
Thanks Lindagaf, when I finish a draft I’ll send it over to you!
And bjkmom, any idea on how I could talk about how I’ve being the youngest of 6 children shaped me otherwise? I would keep the paragraphs brief for sure if I did them, but I’m not sure how else to do it so I’d love any suggestions. Thanks!
I think you can generalize about the lessons you learned without mentioning each sibling. You can talk about how you’ve learned the value of support, because your siblings always provided it. You learned the value of speaking up for yourself, because in a family as large as yours (and mine,almost. I’m one of 5) if you don’t speak up, you miss out. and so on. I would concentrate on the lessons, not the people.