<p>"In view of your education experiences and the socio-economic enviornment in which you grew up, provide an example of a challenge you faced. How did you overcome or strive to overcome this challenge?"</p>
<p>I'm not sure how I should answer this question....</p>
<p>I'm thinking about talking about my large family and how my parents are divorced. Their relationship is great now, but it can be a challenge because they live far apart. I'm the youngest too, and besides my twin sister my brothers and sisters live all over the world. But I'm not really sure, because it doesnt relate much to my education experiences. Lastly, someone said I should say something about how my mom had cancer, but I think thats kinda low..so idk. Any help??</p>
<p>I suppose they'd like you to write something about how the year your parents divorced, they couldn't afford piano lessons for you, so you opened your own computer repair shop and now, you not only have your own baby grand, but just sold your business for $20 mil. (OK, I have that out of my system)</p>
<p>My S had a very similar question (if not the same one)... he wrote about how he worked 50 hours a week during the school to afford the fees to go to the US Nationals in fencing, and came in 7th. Talked about taking the bus 1500 miles with his gear and 2 changes of clothes, and how long he made a jar of peanut butter last. He's already accepted so they must have liked it.</p>
<p>I might not go into detail about my mother's cancer, but I might write an essay about the hardships you faced during your mother's illness (chores you weren't used to, fear for her, downturn of grades, etc). If you are a good writer, you could really make that one work for you (which is so sad!).</p>
<p>The underlying idea imo is that a college student faces many new challenges and, often, setbacks. Will he/she be able to cope? </p>
<p>So, imo, at least part of a response might show, in some detail, that the student has already dealt with and, hopefully, been able to overcome some reasonably significant challenge/setback/adversity.</p>
<p>you seem like you are just listing bad things that have happened to you.</p>
<p>There was a kid on this forum whose dad had health problems, he works, opens up a business, and paid. That is what colleges want to hear when asking the question, not problems that are still occurring and truly have not been championed. ADAD is correct, colleges know that most kids do not have huge challenges bc they read the same wishy washy responses every single year, but ask it anyways just to make sure they can get those kids who truly have championed over setback and thus are most likely to thrive early in life while making various adjustments.</p>