<p>I got that disability one. Broadly, this is what I said, without other minor questions being answered too.</p>
<p>In my application, I made it aware that during my first two years in high school, I was dealing with depression. The severity of my depression was at an all time high, as I was considering taking my own life. When in this state of depression, it was hard to have any will to try and do anything positive in my life, as everything that I did try, seemed to always fail. Which in turn led me deeper in the pit of depression I was in. Depression forces a person, in my experience, to not feel for themselves. That was the worst, for I didn’t even care about myself, I was an empty body without a soul. I didn’t care what happened to me, I was completely empty inside and I credit my care for other as to what got myself out of my terrible period of depression. Helping other people and seeing the joy and happiness I can bring to them helped me bring joy and happiness to myself. My depression still acts up, I still get really down over little things that other people may view as silly or petty, although I never let it get that bad, because I just turn to my passions to help me cope now, writing and helping people. In addition to my depression, another mental disability that I have, but did not include in my application is my Tourette Syndrome. I have had to deal with my onslaught of tics since I was as little as I can really remember, second grade. The physical tics have changed throughout the years, from persistent head nodding to having to walk on every line or crack on the sidewalk to making a low humming noise to a particular beat in my head. They have always been prevalent in my life but tend to really take control over me when I am in a state of extreme emotion, whether the emotion is good or bad. When I was younger, the tics were very obvious as I never learned how to control them, as much as they can be “controlled”, but as I have grown older I have learned to hide by not suppressing them, but changing them. If you try and suppress tics, they will build up in your brain and it will impossible to resist and you will just become more frustrated, but if you alter the tics in such a way that they may seem like more normal actions, like attempting to crack your neck by leaning your head to both shoulders, I am able to live a fairly normal life with them without many people realizing my disability. That only works for motor tics though, as vocal tics are almost impossible to hide and you just have to deal with them. The tics do make it hard for me to concentrate on any one thing for an extended period of time as too much time on my hands delegated to one task, especially ones that I am not physically active, always the tics to flourish. To compensate for this, I always try to find ways to be busy and productive in an active way, whether that theatre,sports, work or other miscellaneous things.</p>
<p>about my academic performance.</p>
<p>My academic performance suffered mostly because of my depression, as I didn’t really have care to strive for better grades. My entire life my parents have told me to do better, while they might seem like encouragement, the problem is that I never received any positive affirmation. Even when I would get As, they would tell me things like I could still get an A plus or that I was simply my responsibility to get better grades. I don’t want to put the blame all on my parents though, as I know they love me and only had the best intentions, but they never realize the effect that never living up to their expectations had on my mental makeup. I gave up really, after what was then my entire life until that point never having fulfilled what my parents wanted me to, I thought that I would never accomplish it. It was the same feeling in lots of areas in my life at that same time, not ever being good enough for expectations, that I thought that not trying would be the best options. Now I see that you cannot settle for that, you HAVE to strive for greatness if that is what you want. If you you want good grades, you should do it for yourself, not for anyone else. So that is what I did in my turn around, I started to control my dreams, expectations and most importantly, it changed the results.</p>
<p>I received one of those supplements from UC Davis, and I’ve yet to get one from UCLA or Cal (hopefully I’ll get one). Take that thing as seriously as possible. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>Thanks! I heard that everyone with a disability gets one, but I don’t think that’s true because in my app the only “disability” I mentioned was being depressed and depression I never even mentioned my tourettes. And the stat is that around 6 percent of applicants get the supplemental questions, which is split between three different types. Assuming there all roughly even in ratio, then that means only 2 perfect of all of bereklys applicants have some sort of disability also included depression which I’m sure more than 2% of the applicant has mentioned in their essay</p>
<p>If you havent done so yet, talk about Tourettes in your supplement. :)</p>
<p>I did! Thanks 
do you like I have a good chance now that I got a sup. Essay?</p>
<p>Adversity alone doesn’t entitle you to get into good schools. You have to show achievement in the face of adversity. Your stats are less than stellar and for that reason I think your chances are low (but definitely not impossible)–but you seem ambitious to me and I don’t think your undergraduate college will greatly inhibit your success later in life. As long as you have motivation I think you will find a place for yourself. Good luck with college apps and beyond.</p>
<p>Well I mean there wasn’t much I could’ve done to raise my GPA more than I did.</p>
<p>Bump I would more chance mes</p>
<p>Have you submitted the supplement yet? If not, I have to warn you- although schools like to pay lip service to (pretend that they like) honesty in supplements, I’ve heard from counselors, books, and other sources that they’re very wary of admitting “high risk factor” students. Although your depression is a very personal story, and explains your lower 1st and 2nd year grades, it will likely hurt your chances rather than help them, I’m sorry to say. Is there any other way you could frame it? Perhaps you could talk more about your motivation to succeed and improve?</p>
<p>Well I put in my supplements that my depression doesn’t effect me as much as it did, but it gives me motivation and drives me to do all the things for my campus and stuff. I try to use it as a positive. Same with my tourettes</p>