<p>Hi.
I guess we're all familiar with that "optional" essay that invites us to explain anything we want, talk about the hardships we faced while in high school etc etc. While I genuinely had grave issues,which I won't touch upon here, I'm not sure whether it's a good idea to write about them. It's tempting to write about things like that, and the hardships I faced taught me lot and they could make a great essay, but I wonder if it's a trap, in the sense that adcoms could see me as a weak person who probably won't survive rigorous college or as a person making excuses. And certainly they've seen plenty applicants with problems just as grave as mine or often much worse.
So why would you use the optional essay if you had to? If you did, then how did you?
Is it a good idea to say stuff like "my grades dropped because of such and such..."?
Thanks.</p>
<p>I would write it, but not in that format. Just explain your hardships from a personal point of view. Explain how you learned from them. Don’t use this to explain what your transcript already says.</p>