<p>Would talking about my current disease (not infectious) in my college application essay, and talking about how it ha affected me positively, not negatively, be a bad essay topic?</p>
<p>Would mentioning the fact that I have this disease right now make colleges discriminate against me?</p>
<p>I really think that I have a lot to talk about this disease, but I am concerned that this might be showing a "negative" side of me that I wouldn't necessarily have to reveal.</p>
<p>Will they see me as a "potential troublemaker" if I say I have a disease at the moment, that affects me every day?</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it, colleges love applicants who have succeeded despite serious challenges like that. Just make sure to avoid writing a “look how much better I could have done if not for this disease” essay, and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>It matters what the disease is and how you focus your essay. If the disease is a mental illness, it’s usually not a good idea to write about things like that because colleges are wary of accepting students who may have even more difficulty than most students do with the stress of going to college.</p>
<p>If it’s not a mental illness and your focus is something like how you’ve overcome the challenges it brought or how the disease has inspired you to help others, those could be good topics for your essay.</p>
<p>First of all, it is not a mental illness,
but just some physical hardships that I have to go through.</p>
<p>I was really afraid to write about it, since I feared the discrimination I might face. </p>
<p>However, after listening to both of your comments, I feel more comfortable to write about my challenges; and yes that is what I am writing about! how I used my challenge as a way to improve myself… yup!! </p>
<p>I have crohn’s diease and I had written about my hardship about that in my essay. I just said how hard it was to have it not “feel sorry for me, please accept me”. I would say have a lot of people proof read it. The university I sent it to and I got accepted to, I asked the rep who read it and he said it helped me get in, so I say write and make sure your wording of the essay sounds like “im so much stronger now” not “feel sorry for me”</p>
<p>One of my young friends – a 2009 college grad whom I met while acting in a play this year – also has either crohn’s or ulcerative colitis. She had to have surgery a couple of times during college, including during the rehearsal period of the play that we were in . Despite that, she was a leader on her college campus – particularly in advocacy groups – had good grades, and was one of the nicest, most interesting young people whom I met this year.</p>
<p>Yeah I have both, also known as IBD. It caused some problems my junior year which sucked. But Im in remission now and I know how to take care of myself now. Its hard to handle the disease and college(school), but it can be done. You can try to get help from the disable student service at the school you choose to go and sometimes they recognize the disease as a disability. They might help you out.</p>
<p>My son’s serious heart problem came out, not in his essays but in the financial aid app, and he was accepted to his top choice school ED, no problem. I also wondered if he would be considered a potential negative, but apparently not. He got a great scholarship too!</p>
<p>I love the title of your post…“current disease”. Do you have former diseases as well? </p>
<p>Just kidding! Anyway, I think you’d have a lot to say about overcoming the discrimination and other challenges. But remember: the topic is about you, not about the disease.</p>