<p>in a short answer asking to explain the challenges you go through, i noted that i take care of my younger brother full time (who has Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Histrionic Personality Disorder)..which makes my job harder. anyway, i showed it to my mother and she said that it's not a good idea becuase the adcoms might think that it runs in families....? i do not have any and have great recs and stellar stats that prove that.. so, what would they think if a family memeber had it and you mentioned it in a short answer?</p>
<p>bump cmon.....</p>
<p>Whether it does or not, it's not a good idea because it violates your brother's privacy.</p>
<p>I highly doubt that any school would turn you down because they think that the disorders your brother has "run in families." Adcoms would not be that close-minded and it would be no grounds to dismiss an applicant. If taking care of your brother is as large a part of your life as it seems to be and if you want to show colleges that caring side of you as a person, then definitely keep it. In the end it's still up to you, so just put whatever you feel comfortable with.</p>
<p>I see Chedva's point. On the other hand, I know a family now where there's an older brother with heavy responsibilities for his autistic younger brother. I think he wrote a whole essay about it, what he's learned from doing it. Not to show his life is harder but that this is simply the way of his family and that he shares that important responsibility. Watching the family in action, I can see it is a major part of the older brother's time, so while it's not as much fun as a school EC, it also helps explain why he's a bit light on EC's. Yet he can't list it as a job, either. But the main thing was he wrote about the positive aspects and what he learned about life by helping and sometimes defending his brother because his bro' isn't pleasant, so there aren't cute stories like from regular babysitting.
Chedva knows a lot, tho, so if you aren't sure you might ask your GC what she thinks re: privacy violation.
I'm afraid your Mom has misjudged the admissions people. They will only think better of you, and they won't blame her either for having you shoulder some responsibility.
I don't like where you said "I take care of my younger brother full time" because that sounds like she does nothing. Maybe that's what's bothering her. Is it more accurate if you say "...with all my spare time"</p>
<p>Agree, this is a question for your guidance counselor, but only from the privacy stand point. It would probably make a good essay - perhaps you just need to be a little vague when it comes to listing his disorders (and how old is your brother? Would he mind if you write about him? Perhaps this is a question for him as well.).</p>
<p>I don't see any problem with mentioning how your brother's behavior affects you unless you're using it as an excuse for your poor grades. If you're putting a positive spin on it by indicating how you've developed empathy for people with mental health problems; indicating how you've decided to enter a mental health career as a result of your brother's behavior; indicating that you've maintained good grades despite having disruptions due to your brother; indicating that due to your brother, you've developed exceptional skills of getting along with all sorts of people -- all of these are examples of how you could write an impressive short answer that includes info about your brother.</p>
<p>Remember that the purpose of the answers is to give admissions insight into your character and what positive attributes you'd bring to the campus. so make sure that if you write about your brother, what's really highlighted is your character.</p>
<p>i ran into a very similar situation with my mother because i felt that it not only violated my mom's privacy, but took advantage of her problem for my benefit. i however, showed it to her and she was able to understand it, tell me what she was comfortable with, and what we could remove because it was too personal.
i dont know your brother's age so this might be difficult, but if you can discuss it with your brother and are confident in his maturity (again, i dont know his age) this might be a good thing to do.
i do agree with northstarmom though. please dont use it as an excuse. i'm sure you wont though :-)</p>
<p>I wrote about my brother being misdiagnosed with autism (when I was very young) and how it affected my perception of things as a young child. </p>
<p>I didn't have anyone read it over, because it was fairly personal. </p>
<p>Hopefully that won't screw me over.</p>
<p>About the privacy thing...</p>
<p>Unless your brother's planning on applying to the same school, I don't imagine that it would affect him in any way.</p>
<p>Plus, you don't even have to mention his name. Indeed, you could give him a fake name (and tell the college you're doing this to protect his privacy). For all the college knows, you could have several brothers, so if you write about your brother's disability, the college may never know who your brother is.</p>