<p>Well I have had a pretty unique experience: being locked up in a small jail for an entire day with my uncle in a third-world country. The reason for being locked up was actually due to a huge misunderstanding (as well as a corrupt judicial system), and we were released at the end of the day. The jail conditions were horrible, to say the least.</p>
<p>Would it be okay to write a few lines on this experience? Or will admissions officers take it the wrong way?</p>
<p>I think this could make an outstanding essay, provided you were actually innocent and you don’t make it a laundry list of complaints. You could talk about the other prisoners you saw there to make the essay less egocentric and include some historical background and recent facts about the justice system in the country to back up your experience. Explain how the experience has changed your outlook.</p>
<p>Definitely don’t make it about the negatives involved with the country - you never know if the person reading the essay has some ties to that particular place or not. I would definitely use it to demonstrate a better understanding of our legal system along with how it was a learning experience for you.</p>
<p>I think it’s a really cool idea to write about- as the other posters have said, just be careful with it.</p>
<p>Just make sure that, by the end, the adcoms see just how your flexibility, perspective, awareness, etc, make you a great candidate for that school. Done well, this could be one of those that adcoms remember long after the reading. Good luck.</p>
<p>Alright, thanks everybody! I’ll be using this story as a sort of introduction to my essay. I’ll try to be careful.</p>
<p>I think this is a great idea, don’t worry too much about it just make sure you don’t come off as discriminatory or negatively prejudiced towards other countries… But yeah talking about the injustices of the justice system? It’s perfect. Guess it depends on the prompt though.</p>
<p>The prompt is the UC Prompt #1 (Something along the lines of describe the world you come from). I’m not really making this the focus of my essay, just going to use it as a grabbing anecdotal introduction to my essay.</p>
<p>thats so interesting, you should make it the main topic of your essay. if i was an admissions officer reading essays all day, id love to read about that</p>
<p>Yeah but the thing is, I’ve actually been in a few more “hairy” situations like that, haha. I can’t really put them all in my essay, though.</p>