<p>So my rough draft for my essay focuses on how I was hospitalized because of my anxiety and depression disorder. I have read that this is a very risky topic, but of course I feel empty without mentioning it. The way I wrote about it was how the visit to the hospital made me want to live more and try even harder in school, etc. Should I rewrite my essay and will colleges look down on this? Thanks.</p>
<p>General advice is not to do this. Colleges are looking for a reason to want you on campus. They want to know something unique and interesting about you. Your hospitalization isn’t all there is to you, there are surely other things you would want them to know. Colleges are VERY reluctant to admit students with past mental health issues because they are concerned that they will recur on campus. It may seem like a long time to you since it happened, but a year or two isn’t much in the eyes of an adult reading your application. Write about this in a journal or a blog if it makes you feel better, but I would not write about it in your college application. Don’t take the prompts so literally. This is your chance to market yourself to them – save this for more private and personal writings, or ones you just share with friends and family.</p>
<p>Here is some advice from The Daily Beast’s 2009 article “How to Write a Winning Ivy League Essay,” in which the author quotes an independent consultant:
““It’s fine to talk about your dad being a coke fiend or your stint in rehab with your favorite WB crush,” Ponnusamy says, “but unless you end up as the ‘hero’ in the essay, you will have done nothing to help you and it’s the one place you’re guaranteed to have the opportunity to speak in the first-person.””
(<a href=“How to Write a Winning Ivy League Essay”>http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/10/25/7-perfect-college-essays.html</a>)
So, if you feel your anxiety and depression played a key role in shaping who you are today, absolutely write about it. But be very, very careful and make sure that the focus is on how overcoming your disorder has “made (you) want to live more and try even harder.” Do not blame anyone for your disorder or wallow in self-pity.
As for concerns about colleges being reluctant to admit you due to past mental illness, no one can tell you how the admissions officer reading the essay will react. Writing an essay on this topic is a risk and you should keep that in mind. However, I would also bear in mind that, unless they are incredibly naive, admissions officers know that many of the students they admit have depression, anxiety, eating disorders, etc at the time they are admitted, due to the statistics on the prevalence of mental health issues in the US today. A person who has struggled and conquered one of these issues and writes a compelling essay about how it impacted their life should not turn off most admissions officers.
However, I would suggest going over your essay with a counselor or trusted adult and asking their honest opinions. Take everything you hear on College Confidential, including this advice, with a grain of salt.
Good luck!</p>
<p>You are writing the essay as: I feel empty without mentioning it. </p>
<p>The admissions officers are looking at is : Why should I admit this person?</p>
<p>You don’t want them to think “will this person be able to deal with the anxiety and depression of moving to college” but “this person sounds interesting!” </p>
<p>So write your essay the way you want to. Write a second essay about something else. Show them to your parents/GC/teacher and see what they think.</p>
<p>Heck, no. Choose another topic. Show your passions, not your weaknesses. </p>
<p>It depends somewhat on what you mean by “hospitalized.” If you were in a ward for a week when you were 15, that’s one thing. If you spent a year in an RTC and some of your high school credits are from there, that’s a whole other situation.</p>
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<p>Sure, they know that. But they often don’t admit them if they know it ahead of time.</p>