<p>Hey,
I'm going to apply to colleges soon, and will do MIT, caltech, and University of Chicago Early Action.</p>
<p>I was wondering if it is good idea to disclose that you are deaf (I wear Cochlear Implants) in your main college essay?</p>
<p>Some people said I should disclose it, so they can see how "accomplished" or came far as I am now, but I don't want to make the Adcoms think that I'm excusing for myself, make them feel sorry for me, and so on.</p>
<p>If I were to write an essay on this, how could I write about my deafness in the essay in a positive light, or something like that? Please be specific (like, I shouldn't say it outright, but allude to it so the adcoms can figure it out on their own?)</p>
<p>Any suggestions will be welcome, and thanks!</p>
<p>I think your challenges with deafness could make a great topic for an essay. There is no stigma attached to deafness the way there might be for, say, drug addiction or mental illness. You probably have interesting and/or funny stories to tell, and you've obviously had a good outcome, since you are qualified to apply to these top universities. Obviously you would want to emphasize the positives in your story.</p>
<p>You might consider having your guidance counselor disclose it in their recommendation. Certainly there are no stigmas attached to deafness; it would make your application look even stronger.</p>
<p>I'm not saying you shouldn't write about challenges associated with being deaf, but you might have something else that you'd prefer to write about, that you think shows your personality and experiences better.</p>
<p>wow! what two different opinions on this issue!</p>
<p>One of my friend had suggested that I write (show) about how I perceive the world compared to how other hearing people perceive the world, just like an essay she had read about a weird artist who looked at colors differently from other people.
my english teacher said I can try to make it humorous and make a little joke, but only if it's done rightly.
So, what do you think?</p>
<p>Can the essay be "about" something else, while disclosing your deafness? For example, one of the choices of topics for one of Son's schools is to describe a risk you took and how the outcome affected you from a personal or educational standpoint. I'm sure you've done a lot of things outside your comfort zone....you could write about one of those experiences and why it was a personal risk (i.e. due to your deafness.) That way, the topic could be "why trying out for the school play/baskball team was a risk" rather than "I am deaf."</p>
<p>At times like these I shake my fist at Chicago for moving over to the common app-- their old application had a blank space for students to write about anything that wasn't covered in the rest of the app that they would like to share with admissions. That space is not there anymore.</p>
<p>For Chicago, you're going to be submitting two long essays anyway (one on the common app, one on the Chicago supplement) so if you want one to be about your physical condition (that term sounds so babying, I don't know if there's one you prefer), one can be about the rest of yourself. </p>
<p>You could also, for the Chicago supplement, take one of their prompts as a launch pad for writing about your deafness. For example, answering this question with regards to your personal experience could have fantastic results:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Zoom in and out on a person, place, event, or subject of interest. What becomes clear from far away that you can’t see up close? What intricate structures appear when you move closer? How is the big view related to the small, the emptiness to the richness?
<p>Or, as another poster mentioned, you could have your guidance counselor or teacher talk about it and use the rest of your application to talk about yourself as any typical high school student would.</p>
<p>I'm also going to send you a PM, so check your PM inbox.</p>
<p>Thanks, guys for your input! My GC said he will mention it somewhere else on his Secondary School report.
For U of C essays, I would like to do what unalove had suggested. One essay about my deafness and another about something else.
However, someone else had suggested that I tie my love for science/math, etc to my deafness when I apply to schools like MIT and caltech (which I will apply to EA), and then modify the essay to suit other schools like Harvard and maybe, U of Chicago? And for any other colleges' supplement, I will write about something else besides my deafness.
I will think more of this, and thank you guys very much for your inputs! They did help me a lot!</p>
<p>You sound interesting! Definitely write about your life experiences with deafness. They might learn something about it too. We all could learn from you.</p>