My daughter is a rising senior and will be having a major surgery this summer. She will be recuperating all summer so will not be able to work, travel or do any other physical activities. She normally works and plays sports during the summers. She will be able to return to school in August with some modifications.
She does not want the surgery to be the topic of her essay as she does not want that to define her. But she will need to address it somehow so it won’t look as if she did nothing this summer. She is normally a very busy girl!
Ideally, her guidance counselor would work this into her recommendation–"___ is such an active member of her community and school that it was a shame that her surgery last summer kept her away from the activities she loves and excels at for so many months."
I will talk to her counselor about that. However, when I met with the counselor about the surgery I asked about her recommendation. She doesn’t know my daughter at all. She told me that she doesn’t write recommendations but instead sends a school profile and checks that due to numbers, she doesn’t know all the kids personally.
That sucks, it’s good it can be scheduled so she doesn’t miss school, but what a shame to be recuperating all summer.
Assuming she won’t have to be on so many pain meds that she can’t read, what about spending her time reading everything she has not had time during the school year, or taking up a sedentary hobby?
( knitting? Painting? online classes?)
I’d argue that having major surgery and having to spend all summer recovering are very much activities. If D follows up with emeraldkity’s advice above, I’d say D spent summer multitasking and somehow incorporate into a PS. Good luck
there are 2 places where you should include the surgery on the common app.
There is an “anything else we need to know” section, just after the personal essay. I would leave it very short and factual, just like you posted it here.
Or you can put it in the EC section: use 1 EC section to explain it
But #1 is set up to explain exactly what you are talking about.
Good luck, Calimom23. I hope all goes well for your daughter. And perhaps this means some special bonding time before she flies out of the nest next year.
If your daughter will be able to do stuff on the computer, she could take an online class. Or learn a computer program (In Design, for example, a valuable skill she could parlay into a job). If she’s into reading, she could do a self-directed Great Books course and write about that. Or do a Classic Film course, using AFI’s lists of greatest movies. Of course, that’s assuming she’ll not be in pain and able to concentrate for several hours a day. Wishing you both the best for what could be a tough summer.