<p>I'm not going to go into detail. Long story short, in my senior yr of H.S, my father shot himself after a long torturous bout with addiction that I was very closely the witness of. I dropped out in the last year of h.s with a few credits needed and he died and I was left shattered and hurt for a very long time. Fast forward 5-6 years later, and I have decided to apply myself and get a quality college education. Since this event played such a huge part of my life and has given me so much strength/perspective/maturity/everything, shouldn't I make it a focus of my admisssions profile and/or essays? I am doing extremely well in community college now, and I have a 3.9 GPA(hope to be higher by the last semester, which I am halfway reached with 30/60 credits. Want to go to law school and attend a great undergrad but a Top-Tier Grad School; such as, Yale/Harvard/NYU/Columbia/UCBerkeley/UVA/etc. I am a 25yr old white male(with some american indian heritage, not verified or anything). </p>
<p>What are some notes on this subject I could benefit from? Thanks</p>
<p>It’s long been advised to avoid the three D’s (Death, Disease, Disaster) for the simple reason that they happen to everyone, and the adcoms read about them all the time. </p>
<p>It’s better if you show resilience, and maybe mention it at most in one sentence showing how quickly you bounced back.</p>
<p>Focus on how the death influenced you. Did it inspired you to do anything special or extraordinary? Did it make you work harder in your academics? By working harder i mean significantly increase you grades.</p>
<p>If yes, you should talk about it. If no, just briefly mention it.</p>
<p>I think you could wriite about how ur father’s death affected you and you overcame that and now succesfull in college in your personal essay or one of your essay. That might give you a plus.</p>
<p>Not sure though as I am no expert and no one knows what the adcoms see in ur app. So thats my one cent advice. All the best.</p>
<p>As one who had a parent die when I was a teen I know what an agonizing, life altering experience you went through. The hurt is unimaginable to those who have not gone through it.<br>
But the pain and the hurt is not what you should write about.
Write about the strength that you gained from the experience. Write about he courage that you had to develop to get through. Tell about the determination you have had to reach the point that you are in your life. You have done some great things and have the ambition to do much more!
It takes unbelievable fortitude to recover from the death of a parent at that age. I know - I did it.
You dig deep, you work hard and you discover things about yourself that you might never have known without that terrible tragedy.
So yes, I would write about it. But not about the bad things. Write about the good that came out of it.
If my father had lived, my life would be so different. Would it be as good as it is now? I’ll never know. But it sure is different. His death changed me in many positive ways. I became so much more resilient, independent, self-reliant. I had no choice.<br>
I share that little bit just to show you that you too, I am sure, have very positive things to write about the things that happened to you as the result of a tragic experience.
I think that would make a great essay. Just accentuate the positive.
I wish you all of the great things that life has in store for you. Don’t let anything stop you from reaching your goals. :)</p>
<p>Man, I must say, your post touched me. It’s reassuring to know there are others who felt the same things as I have, and have been through the same harrowing situations. Your advice is absolutely appreciated. It is a sort of bond that people like us share that only we can understand truly. I thank you for your kind wishes and I hope the same for you as well.</p>