<p>Kind of a long story but bear with me. When I was a freshman in high school I was diagnosed with ADD. I had been having trouble with school starting in the third grade and high school was when I was officially diagnosed. When I went off to college I lived by myself in an off campus apartment (the school ran out of dorms) and I became horribly depressed. I ended up dropping all of my classes. The next semester I finished with a 3.0. I moved back home and remained depressed for the next few years, registering for classes and dropping them. When I was four years old my mother was married to someone who beat her almost daily. My mother divorced him after ten months of marriage but I have been told that during that time I developed OCD and had bad anxiety. My point of this story is that when I was depressed and having a hard time in school I sought out the help of a therapist and discovered that I do have slight ADD but I have PTSD and when I went away for college my freshman year that separation brought out the PTSD and triggered heavy flashbacks. With the help of therapists I have been able to work with my issues and have been able to raise my GPA to a 3.17 because I have 2 Fs on my transcript from CC. I plan on applying to the college of liberal arts spring 2012, what do you think are my chances if I write a special circumstances essay regarding what I posted? (I was able to get the W's on my transcript removed with a medical appeal)</p>
<p>I think colleges pick students based on a number of factors and have a few goals in mind.
In addition to grades and scores and essays, and all the other things, they also have to think about the ‘genetic makeup’ of the class, or the ‘voice of’ the student body. They have to consider applications v acceptances v attendees v graduation rates, and want the maximum applicants, the lowest acceptance, the highest attendance, and the highest graduation. I think if you write this essay you neeed to keep this in mind.</p>
<p>So if you had an exact duplicate twin, and you both experienced the same thing, and you both applied to the same school and both wrote the same essay, it is possible it wll come down to how the essay is crafted.</p>
<p>The essay that says “look at all this crap that happened to me in my life, and look at all the mistakes I made, and look at my medical history, my academic history, etc”, will most likely not be viewed favorably.</p>
<p>The essay that says “here was my journey, all the things that made me who I am today, a survivor, with a goal, a dream and a vision. Here are the tools I have and the life I want to build” will be viewed much more favorably. </p>
<p>The right essay can make the reader fall in love with you, want to meet you, want to shake your hand, and want to HELP YOU get into school.</p>
<p>The wrong essay can make the reader say “this person is a bad bet”.</p>
<p>Just my opinion. I am not a college admissions officer, just a dad that read a lot about the process.</p>
<p>I just want to say that I think this is very excellent response and outstanding advice to a very personal question. +1.</p>
<p>jt</p>