<p>I know a young man who has struggled with depression through most of his high school years, but now seems to be gaining the upper hand. After several long hospitalizations and forty missed days in freshman year, he is now seeing a therapist for maintenance visits once a month and is being slowly weaned off all of the meds he had been taking. He should soon be completely off all medications and will only require therapy sessions if he himself feels the need for them. The improvement in the last couple of months has been particularly dramatic. After getting C's and D's through much of his high school career, his fourth marking period grades were five A's and three B's (one in an honors level course). Lately, he has been far more social than before and has even started dating a very nice girl from a different high school. He should be getting his driver's license this month and life in general is a lot more interesting to him. He is looking to the future with positive anticipation rather than apathy or dread.</p>
<p>He will be applying to several colleges as a business major this fall with a GPA somewhere around 2.7, an SAT score of about 1750 and a class rank well into the bottom half of a large and very competitive suburban high school class. His parents have asked whether or not he should use his personal essay to mention his struggle with depression. On one hand, it may help paint a picture of a young man who is starting to live up to his potential after working his way through some serious issues. That may convince some of the schools on the higher end of his list to take a chance on him. On the other hand, schools may have a knee-jerk reaction these days to anyone who mentions any sort of mental problem, particularly those who have spent time in inpatient behavioral health programs.</p>
<p>What advice would you give them? If you prefer to maintain a degree of anonymity with your response, please feel free to PM or email me. With your permission, I will repost any advice you give with no names named.</p>
<p>My advice would be to NOT discuss the depression in the personal essay. However, there should be a long letter from the counselor (or another trusted adult mentor) discussing this and how the kid is coming out of it and progressing. It will be a red flag for many, but not all, schools. It needs to be addressed honestly and with a positive spin, but I don't think the personal essay is the right place because the view of a third party will be more accepted (the counselor etc.)</p>
<p>I agree with Mom of WC. Mainly because such an essay raises a lot of questions that may not be addressed in the essay; for example, after reading your synopsis, my question is, why would this student go off of medication after doing so well? And, is it wise for this student to leave home for freshman year? All kinds of judgemental reactions occur. This is unfortunate because it sounds as this student has gone through a lot. Could there be some way to mention the difficulty (without a lot of in depth detail) and then write about the way he triumphed over adversity? What other experiences does the student have to write about meaningfully?
Mom of WC is correct in that a counselor's letter is the proper place for this information. I agree with that completely for the reasons she stated.</p>
<p>This question has been asked a lot and if you use the search function, you can find long threads addressing it.</p>
<p>The short answer is: No, he should not mention it. Freshman year of college is a very stressful time for many students, and colleges would prefer to avoid accepting students with histories indicating that they could be at risk of severe depression in response to the stress of freshman year.</p>
<p>I asked some of the same questions as Linda. Apparently, he is being taken off his meds by the doctors because they feel he no longer needs them and should not risk side effects any longer than necessary. He has been doing very well on the lowest possible dose and will return to that dose if things start going downhill. The colleges he is considering are all within a few hours of home, and some are within commuting distance. There is a very good county college in our town where he can enroll with no questions asked if nothing better comes up, but he wants to try a four-year college.</p>
<p>I also do not see much "upside" in mentioning the illness or his journey to overcome it. Logically speaking, the illness is in the past or it isn't. If it's in the past it has no bearing on his college years. If it's NOT in the past then the college cannot escape the conclusion that there could be problems with this prospective student. If some explanation of the uptrending grades is needed, let the school guidance counselor provide it. JMHO.</p>
<p>I also agree with MOWC. His should use his essays as a way to highlight his pesonality, passions and strengths. Let the colleges see the young man's potential through his writing. His counselor could mention his past difficulties and how he has overcome them. In his case, I think his parents might want to talk with his counselor and make sure he/she is aware of his situation. </p>
<p>He might also consider sending in another reference along wth the two from his teachers if he is working with anyone that might be relevent - a boss or activities advisor- who has seen his healthy self. </p>
<p>He doesn't want to hide his illness, but he doesn't want it to be the focus of his application, either. A four-year college not too far from home seems like it would be a good choice for this young man. Good luck to him.</p>
<p>I think part of the concern is that there is no real way of knowing whether or not the illness is in the past until long after applications are due. The fear is that, given events at Virginia Tech, any whiff of a mental illness will result in an immediate rejection at a lot of schools.</p>
<p>I agree that in this case it may be best to tell the kid to write about something else and leave any mention of depression to the professionals.</p>
<p>It probably goes without saying that part of his consideration in choosing a college should be the proximity to good mental health services. Being close to his current doctors, as well as getting to know what services are offered at his prospective college, would be very important.</p>
<p>I agree that it might not be such a good idea to mention the depression.</p>
<p>Some people with long histories of depression do end up committing suicide, something colleges are probably aware of. After the situation with Cho Seung-Hui, who may have had problems in addition to depression, some schools might also be more cautious about accepting "troubled" students.</p>
<p>Interestingly my S was filling out paperwork for his orientation program and on one of the pages it asks if the student has ever been in counseling with a psyyhchiatrist, psychologist or other counselor and if the student is currently in counseling/treatment with a counselor, psychiatrist psychologist or physician and asks for permission for release of information along with a reason for counseling. I think colleges will be very cautious these days both for the safty of other students but also to keep themselves free of potential civil litigation. Granted this was orientation paperwork, but one wonders what a school would do if they received this paperwork back and it indicated that a soon to be frosh had problems. Regardless, I'm not sure the essay is the best spot to reveal such information, it might just open up many more questions, especially if the essay writer is still in therapy of some sort and newly released from therapy or therapy drugs.</p>
<p>^I'm very surprised they ask that. They seems like privileged info; I can see why they would want to know, but I would think that privacy laws would forbid those kinds of questions.</p>
<p>I am not surprised that the college wants that info, and I don't see it as a violation of privacy. As part of orientation, the college wants to make sure that students know about services that they may need. The college also is doing their best to help all students have a smooth transition to college.</p>
<p>Consequently, it is good that the college is identifying students who have been in counseling so as to assess those students to make sure the students get any assistance they need.</p>
<p>Entering college is very stressful, and many students with no previous psychiatric history do run into problems particularly freshman year. Students with prior histories of seeing therapists would be at even greater risk.</p>
<p>I would encourage anyone whose student has had therapy or been on psychotrophic drugs to have their student answer such questions honestly if the student is asked to fill out such info for their orientation.</p>
<p>NSM--I'm not saying it shouldn't have that info, or that I think it's a violation of privacy itself. I'm just wondering if it is a violation of privacy regulations.</p>
<p>I can also see why they would want to know, but as with an employer, they shouldn't leave the "right" to know. Most employers cm only ask if you have a problem that has interfered with you ability to know.I think a family 2nd providers should definitely be realistic about the risks for relapse d not try to "hide" info and risk missing out on having access to services needed. Perhaps it can be discussed after admission is offered.</p>
<p>I doubt it's a violation of privacy regulations. It's not as if the students willl be rejected based on the info that they provide: They'd just probably be given additional support.</p>
<p>Avoid any topic that sounds apologetic, or as if the student is making excuses for himself. I would definitely not discuss depression in an essay, nor do I necessarily feel colleges should be privy to private information that students do not want to share (whether or not they have been in therapy would fall under that umbrella). A mentally fragile student is one thing...a well functioning student who had a short bout with a therapist is something else.</p>
<p>"A mentally fragile student is one thing...a well functioning student who had a short bout with a therapist is something else."</p>
<p>It would be up to the college, however, to make that determination when it comes to figuring out who may need special support during orientation and freshman year. IMO it would be a bad idea for colleges to expect students to self disclose only if the students had major mental health issues. Often it's the people with the most serious problems who think that they are perfectly fine or have no risk of difficulties.</p>
<p>Colleges have health services departments. It seems perfectly understandable and appropriate that a form from the college's health service department asking about mental health issues as well as other health problems, to be mailed directly to the health service department, would be part of a registration procedure. </p>
<p>If the forms and the information go to more general departments, or are not specified as to where they will be sent - just back to the college registrar, I'd be more concerned about privacy issues.</p>