Mental Health and College Admissions

Applying to College
1

<p>Should prospective students mention to colleges that they have a history of mental illness in the immediate family?</p>

<p>My (college-age) sister was recently diagnosed with a form of psychosis. She spent a couple of weeks in the hospital and is now home taking a gap year from school (she is doing fine now). Should I mention this in my applications next year (currently a HS junior)? My mother recommends I don't because there is a 20% chance that I will develop it too and schools will look negatively upon that. On the other hand, mentioning it might give them a little more context for my level of academic performance this year.
What are your thoughts? Are colleges allowed to (overtly or covertly) pass on an applicant because of an illness he or she might develop?</p>

2

<p>4 hours and no responses… I guess this is sort of a niche topic, but does anyone have experience on this topic? Any input would be greatly appreciated.</p>

3

<p>It seems to be the general opinion on CC that telling colleges about a mental disease you have or might develop is not a good idea, because colleges don’t want to admit people who might be trouble or not be able to cope with the workload. They want successful students who contribute to the campus community. However, if your grades were lower or you overcomes adversity through your sister’s illness and the resulting events, that is something you could mention. </p>

<p>I support Northstarmom’s response completely.</p>

4

<p>I don’t think it’s a good idea to bring it up because to me it sounds like a weak excuse for poor grades. While I sympathize with you, you’d be competing against students who managed to get good grades despite their parents or siblings’ deaths or other challenging situation.</p>

<p>If your sister’s illness had led you to consider a career related to mental health or had led you to become very active in fundraising for mental health organizations or advocacy for the mentally ill, it would be a good thing to mention. However, from what you’ve posted so far, I don’t think that mentioning your sister’s illness will help you.</p>

5

<p>I agree with other posters, while it shouldn’t be something to be ashamed of it is still personal family information, that is not needed to be shared with a college. additionally simply because your sister has struggled with a mental health issue, does not mean that you will. More and more over the last few years colleges are dealing with many students who have mental health needs, so it is not an unusual occurrence.</p>

6

<p>To Northstarmom and all:
Thanks so much for your advice. It really means a lot.</p>

<p>First, do note that I did not say my grades were poor; my wording was “to provide context for my situation.” My grades this quarter have been on par with my cumulative average from previous years, despite an increase in workload. Still, I feel the event may have held me back. My parents are completely out of the admissions loop (they never attended college, nor do they see the point); over the last two years, my sister helped me understand what I needed to do to be competitive. She helped me recover from a brutal transition to high school, and was instrumental in prepping me for the demands of sophomore year. With her help, I went from a 2.x first semester freshman year GPA to my current 3.7 career GPA (I.e., I absolutely dominated sophomore year). But now I’m on my own.
I recently took the SATs, and scored very well (2330). But my grades have not been as high as I’d liked. I was hoping to use junior year to show the colleges a positive vector of growth (I.e. B/C frosh, A-/A soph, A/A+ junior), but my hopes have been dashed, and my chances at my dream schools seem to have fallen (farther) out of reach. The minor dip to the A- range might be explained, in some form, by my unique situation.</p>

<p>Second, many apologies for not saying it earlier–I (foolishly) didn’t think it was worth mentioning–I am strongly considering a career in brain and cognitive sciences. It was originally just one of a multitude of interests, but the recent experience has sort of brought it to the fore.
I have always been facinated by the mind. I took a course at MIT over the summer on developmental psychology and its applications in the field of artificial intelligence, and pretty much fell in love. The human brain has become one of the few utterly unexplained phenomena in science, and if we could just figure out how it worked, it would be paradigmatic. I could totally devote my life to advancing human knowledge about the mind: that would be a dream come true. The applications for people like my sister are a tremendous benefit that I had not even considered when I first delved into the study of the brain. No, I have not helped any mental health clinics, or published any literature on the study of the brain, but even if I’m lacking on paper, I feel I could convey a passion for the field in my essays. Perhaps then, just maybe, might it be okay to mention–in passing, if necessary–what happened to my sister last fall? It would give the colleges some more context into the reasons why I’m so interested in psychology.</p>

<p>Also, as a side note, do any of you know whether colleges require information about my family’s medical history? Judging by your responses, it seems they don’t, but some sources I’ve read online say otherwise. </p>

<p>Thanks, and sorry if this post seems a little caustic in places.</p>

7

<p>in that case, i would DEFINITELY mention it. you can make an amazing essay from that.</p>

8

<p>Colleges don’t require information about applicants’ medical history, much less their families’.</p>

<p>After having read the updated info, I think I’d mention it. If you decide to write your college essay about your passion for neuroscience, it would be well worth it to mention your sister. And there is always the off-chance that the reader will miss the fact that psychosis has a hereditary basis. The study of genetic influence on psychosis has not seen watershed events until this past decade, anyway, and there is still so much obfuscation in the field. You sound a capable person with great potential who would do well anywhere. Best of luck to you!!</p>