<p>Hello, so I am looking at schools like Brown, UC Berkeley, Oberlin, NYU, Notre Dame, U of C and all but 1 of these is on the common application. </p>
<p>Well, I seem to have a bone to pick with what my heart is telling me to write on these essays and what internet sources tend to tell me. My freshman through beginning of sophomore year I struggled with severe anorexia that tied with depression and some anxiety, which is something that is so central to my identity and who I am as a person today. To not include it seems like I am leaving out a huge chunk of "me."</p>
<p>Essentially I want to convey two things and that is 1. about how this awful disorder taught me so much about myself and the world around me and how my life has been changed for the better so greatly. and 2. why my grades were lower in my freshman year (of course I do not intend to use this as an excuse but feel that it needs to be included as a factor)</p>
<p>Okay so ultimately I hear that talking about "risky" topics, such as an ED, anxiety, depression will potentially hinder one's chances at admission? The rationale behind this is that it paints you out to be a warning sign and a risky person who might slip and not adjust well. The thing is that is not me! I am 100% recovered from my disease and in no way will regress into the past. </p>
<p>So in short - do I write about it in the hopes that i don't scare off an admissions officer? or do i forget about it and leave out something so important to me for the sake of compliance?</p>
<p>If you have even taken the time to read this I thank you. Any reply is helpful to me and I am open to constructive criticism always of course.</p>
<p>honestly, my issues sound quite similar to yours, and i’ve been told not to mention it. i’m also applying to oberlin, NYU, and U of C, btw.</p>
<p>i agree that it feels like a huge chunk is missing from my application, and that it should be included as a factor in my admissions, since my junior year grades suffered. but colleges are really risk adverse, and it’s usually better to use your essays for positive self promotion (that’s what everyone’s telling me). i haven’t decided if i want to ask my gc to make a vague note of my issues and say how i’ve gotten help and overcame my problems, but even that is very risky to add. if you do add it, then i would emphasize how you’re better (assuming you are), and that you know how to get help when you need it. someone also told me that she was waitlisted at all of the colleges on her list, except her safety, and she feels her essay explaining her anxiety played into that.</p>
<p>unless you have something like GLARING on your transcript to explain, i don’t think you should say anything.</p>
<p>From what I know from writing college essays, majority of colleges are interested in community service you have done or leadership skills and how these things you have done describe or shape you as a person or will help you in college if you get in. I would not recommend writing about that in your essay unless it is extremely brief and can be tied into the topic of the essay 100%.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response! You have definitely given me something to think about. I have one question for you to think about that a lot of people have raised to me, and that i also think sometimes myself - is writing about community service not a little cliche, maybe even pretentious? I am unsure if college admissions officers want to hear about how I’m “saving the world” by “building houses”? Personally, I have been involved in a lot of community service and encourage it to everyone - i just do not feel that it speaks about my identity and what kind of a person i am?</p>
<p>sorry if i went way to philosophical haha i tend to do that</p>
<p>i dont think that i want to highlight the nitty gritty details of the disorder, mainly in the rough draft i wrote i talk about how it has shaped me and who i am today…still i understand the topic is risky. my gc does not know about my disorder and im not sure im comfortable telling someone who hardly knows me about it (i suppose id be telling an admissions officer that too) overall a very contradictory problem i have</p>
<p>oh also clementines2016 - by “glaring” do you mean like a huge significant difference in grades? if so, for me I went from a 3.2 to 4.4 gpa - i think that that certainly would cause an eyebrow raise…but then again maybe not?</p>
<p>i haven’t told mine yet, and it all depends if i want him to say something. i’ll only tell him if i really think that i want him to make a note. and you’ll be gone in a year, so who cares? it’s not like your gc can tell anyone, outside of adcoms.</p>
<p>yeah, i’d say that grade trend is glaring lol. but at least it’s an upward trend… so you might be better off not trying to explain it. but if the rest of your high school years were great, grade wise, then maybe it wouldn’t be SO bad to say something about the problems you had, since it shows that you’ve gotten past them. either way, i would not waste your whole common app essay on this topic.</p>
<p>I am writing a very similar essay as well but a LOT more extreme than yours; what I did was give it a theatrical spin with a dash of humor so it doesnt seem as serious when admissions read it
Alot of people had advised me not to write about it as well but like you said I just dont feel complete without it</p>
<p>helpa1, if you don’t mind i’d be interested in reading your essay and your take on it. i wrote one mainly talking about my issue with anxiety, rather than the ED. it would be cool to make a comparison, most people from my school are writing theirs on service trips, so its hard to judge mine</p>
<p>I wrote my essay on a similar subject but for Cornell’s CALS supplemental essay prompt. But basically I wrote about how my struggle with an eating disorder influenced my decision to major in nutrition. My advice is if you’re going to write about it, explain it but you may not want to go too in depth about the horrible details. Focus more on explaining how it affected you as a person afterwards and what you did to overcome it. I’d love to read yours if you want to read mine good luck!</p>
<p>In one of those ‘Essays that Worked’ books, one Adcom said that the service trip was the most overused topic.</p>
<p>But about writing about eating disorder, I’d recommend not doing it. Although it may be the hardest thing you had to overcome, I don’t think it is the most important thing for admissions to know about you for your college admissions purposes. You are spending valuable time where you could be highlighting your desirable qualities and your current self. I wonder if they would think twice if you feel it is so central to your life that you are really recovered enough to write off the risk. Also, I think the topic is a groaner. Most importantly, I would not write about anything you don’t feel comfortable talking to your GC about. That right there is a huge red flag that a topic is inappropriate.</p>
<p>However you do at least have some amount of time passed where you at least can have some perspective and shown strength in your grades. Your take in #1 is good. One of those books did have a great essay on ED, and the student was admitted to all the selective LAC’s he applied to. Note that the essay is better written than the vast majority, there has been a great deal of time passed, he was valedictorian of his class.
[Morning</a> Edition - College Essays](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/mar/010326.clayton_kennedy.html]Morning”>Morning Edition - College Essays)</p>
<p>Note that there is a separate College Essay forum and this topic has come up many times, search for past threads.</p>
<p>I have this problem too and struggled with whether or not I should write about this. I think whatever you write about should best represent you, and if that includes your experiences with eating disorders, you need to write that. My English teacher, a Cornell graduate if that makes any difference, strongly believes in the significance of sincerity when it comes to college essays, and I have to agree with him. Also, you overcame your eating disorder… isn’t that a huge accomplishment? Why are we so apologetic about it? Maybe I’m just too radical for the college admission people, but then I’ll know I don’t belong there. </p>
I would actually be interested in reading yours! I have been struggling with deciding whether or not I want to write about my anxiety disorder as my college essay. Every website I go to online looking into it there are many people that advise not to and say that colleges may not accept you because of that, but I feel like that is so biased. For a college to be “scared off” by something so serious and something many people struggle with disgusts me and makes me want to write about it so much more. I feel like it is a risk I am willing to take. But your advice really helped me, I’m definitely going to write about it but not go into the super personal details, just say how it transformed me into the person I am today!
Hi, I am also thinking writing about my anxiety and how it has changed me into the person I am today! Are you going to use a specific example or an overview?
hey! this is an old topic but I feel like I want to add my opinion to it. I’m currently in the process of applying and am writing about how my eating disorders have strengthened me, shaped me, and challenges me, and really made me more mindful and grow as a person. This, I do not believe is something I want to hide because my experience is so central to my identity. And, its a huge accomplishment! Also, I am going to be an activist on campus and have a goal to reduce stigma (while I do understand the whole accountability thing) so hiding this part of me does seem somewhat counterintuitive. That may also seem somewhat radical but I want to go to a college where they appreciate vulnerability and are happy to have a student opening a discussion about mental illness. So to anyone who is going through this dilemma, consider what purpose does this story serve and what kind of person do you want to present to the admissions officers and the campus community.
Hi! My story sounds almost exactly alike yours! E.D., anxiety, and even the same perspective colleges! I am applying this year for my undergrad and am wondering the same question. There don’t seem to be too many tips out there about this widely-undergone topic.
I was wondering if you ended up writing about these things or not? If so, how did your college acceptances go?
good luck!</p>