Hi CC-ers,
I posted a similar question on the Penn LPS thread. The reason I am a non-traditional student is that I’ve had pretty severe depression and had to withdraw from school/be part time. Is it okay to disclose that in my essay, or should I just say “health issues?”
If you can tie your condition to something meaningful - like it taught you how to persevere or drove you to want to help people who also struggle with mental illness - then I think it could help you. While you shouldn’t be afraid or embarrassed to disclose your history, to say it just to say it without purposeful context would make it sound like a sob story. Universities get thousands of sad stories from applicants but they accept those who show they have the ability to overcome their struggles. Best of luck to you!
I don’t see the need people have to “confess” their mental health conditions to irrelevant people, like colleges.
1 in 4 college students are depressed at some point, it’s not rare. And it’s really not their business.
Few people write essays about their diabetes, autism, CF, heart failure, kidney transplants, etc.-- why do people with depression and anxiety feel the need too? We all have health problems of some variety or similar difficulties with health and finances making us take time off of school.
Unless you started a mental health charity, a mental illness stigma movement, or have a compelling essay that’s beyond unique, skip your health and personal issues in your essays and focus on why you choose to re-enroll now-- not why you dropped out.
Everyone has their own struggles and burdens, and too often talking about them in college essays comes off as a martyr, not a triumph. If you plan to work in the psychology field, then maybe you could tie your personal issues into the essay, otherwise it’s best left out.
Focus the essay on your strengths, not your weaknesses.
Unlike the typical college application, the application for many non-traditional admissions programs specifically asks students to provide an autobiographical history of their education in their essay. Penn LPS is one of those. If depression is the reason the OP withdrew from school previously, then it is a part of that autobiography. OP has more reason to be asking this question just a “need to ‘confess’”
“Focus the essay on your strengths, not your weaknesses.” is generally good advice, but if weakness is glaringly obvious in the transcript, then there needs to be some discussion of how that weakness happened, and how strength will take its place in the future. That doesn’t necessarily need to go into the finer details of the specific condition, but if there’s a medical withdrawal on the transcript it should at least be acknowledged.
If the OP needs to confess “health issues” that’s sufficient in my opinion, then pivot to the positive strengths that OP has to offer. “I left school because of health issues” and no one really has any business asking beyond that. There’s medical confidentiality for a reason.
“I left school because of health issues. Fortunately I recovered and am looking forward to earning my degree in X, contributing to the Penn community in ABC ways.” In other words: I’m recovered and energized and ready to go.