<p>My story: I was in foster care from when I was 9 to when I was 12. After that, I was adopted by my 80-year-old grandmother and I lived with her in a senior citizens' building until the summer before 10th grade, when she died (RIP). Now I live with my biological parents, so currently I'm just another random lower-middle-class kid and to all appearances the worst thing I've ever gone through was, like, forgetting my lunch or something. Which I'm grateful for. </p>
<p>So basically I was wondering if it would help/hurt me any to talk about this stuff in the Additional Information section of the Common App. I don't want to make my whole Common App essay about it because most of it happened before high school, but having been in foster care still affects me today and I think if someone really wants to know who I am it's important that they know that story. I just don't know if colleges only want to hear about stuff that actually happened mostly in high school?</p>
<p>(Living with my grandma affected my ability to participate in ECs at school during freshman year because she didn't like driving and I had to ride the bus home right after school every day. But it wouldn't really be an "explanation" for low grades or anything.)</p>
<p>This thread is kind of old, but I’m going to try again (with some updates). </p>
<p>I don’t want to mention my grandmother’s death, even though it happened during high school, because I’ve decided it would be disrespectful and exploitative to use someone’s death to further my admissions chances.
But I was wondering about discussing foster care and adoption. A lot of people would be inclined to write their essays on this, but I don’t know if that would be a good idea. (My current Common App essay is on a pretty fluffy topic.) I was thinking of having my guidance counselor mention it in the recommendation letter. </p>
<p>I will also be moving this summer so I can take dual-enrollment classes at a university next year. I’ll be staying with my cousins and living in a city for the first time. So that’s kind of interesting, even though it’s not really a hardship, and I was wondering if there was anywhere on the application I could talk about that.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go into full detail on the whole situation, but I would definitely mention your situation freshman year because that affected your high school life.</p>
<p>If you think your GC will do a good job of explaining it, that is a good option. Another choice would be to put a very brief paragraph in the “Additional Information” section. However, I am not certain that section survived the revision of the Common App this year; I keep hearing that the ability to upload a resume is going away, and I sort of think that is how people doing resumes added them… I hope they didn’t do away with it, though, because it is very good for listing non-credit courses, EC information that didn’t fit in the EC section, and something like a brief paragraph explaining your foster care during middle and grandparent situation that kept you from doing ECs until sophomore year.</p>
<p>Your grandmothers death is a part of your story. Don’t feel bad about telling it if you choose to do so.</p>
<p>The only thing I don’t understand which may be confusing (and I’m not asking you to explain it to me, just be aware) is how you are so normal and average now that you are with your biological parents. There seems to be no reason for why you were in foster care.</p>
<p>The challenge with such deeply personal and tragic stories is that if you aren’t ready to tell the whole story, no matter how others may look or feel or because you feel like it may be exploiting someone else’s situation for your gain, then big holes are left which means you are either deceiving us or holding stuff back (you have unresolved baggage which can be a liability). Just remember that its your story too. The things that the people around you went through had an impact on you too. You didn’t ask to go through the stuff you went through and noody asked you if you wanted to go through it. So, don’t feel so considerate that you omit what others did that impacted your life and helped shape you into who you are today.</p>
<p>And remember that you are writing about your world from your perspective at specific points in time. We all know how perspective can change with time and how ones perspective may not necessarily portray the truth. You’re not telling “their” story, you’re telling “your” story, through your eyes.</p>
<p>Or, don’t tell it at all.</p>
<p>Just my two cents worth.</p>
<p>Do you have a court-appointed legal guardian now? Find that out and get copies of all the documentation. You should qualify as independent for financial aid purposes as your legal parent is deceased.</p>
<p>Do you have a teacher you’re close to who would write a recommendation letter detailing your challenges and who you are today? That would be the best case scenario.</p>
<p>The facts of your early life do play a significant role in assessing the totality of your application.</p>
<p>It is not self-serving to write about it, but it can be difficult to do it well.</p>
<p>As Happymom suggested, I would look at the financial aid side and see what you can figure out. It will depend on how the paperwork was drawn up, if there was any.</p>
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<p>No, my biological parents have custody of me.</p>
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<p>Most foster children go back to their birthparents, as far as I know.
My mother neglected me because she’s an alcoholic…it wasn’t too bad, and I wasn’t really suffering, but I mentioned it to the guidance counselors at my school and they called CPS and CPS came over at a really inopportune moment.</p>