"Effective college essays about hardship demonstrate a candidate’s resilience, experts say. College application essay prompts often ask students to offer an example of a challenge they’ve faced, followed by a description of what they’ve learned from that experience. However, candidates often struggle to answer these types of essay questions. Those who have suffered a trauma may have trouble writing about their past because it evokes painful memories. Meanwhile, a person who hasn’t endured serious misfortunes might be unsure that any life obstacle they have overcome is substantial enough to be worthy of a college essay.
Undergraduate admissions experts say that one common misconception among college applicants is the idea that they need to write about a tragedy in their college essay in order to become a competitive candidate for a highly selective college." …