<p>Hi. I'm a long time lurker but first time poster, and I'm not quite sure where to post this.</p>
<p>I have two main questions that I haven't been able to find addressed anywhere else:</p>
<p>1) How should I approach telling colleges of my family history? Should I at all?
2) Can having an interesting or trying life help in admissions?</p>
<p>Some background:
I come from a Fundamentalist Mormon family. My ancestors supposedly trace back to Brigham Young (though there is absolutely no chance I'm applying to BYU!). If you know anything about Fundamentalists (or do a quick google search), you basically can guess what this entails. My family lived in a very rural part of Arizona in an exclusively Fundamentalist community. Though some parts of it were ok, a lot of pretty horrible stuff went on.</p>
<p>When I was eight, my mom escaped from this community with my four younger sisters and me. We're no longer Mormon of any sort, but my experience as a child has definitely influenced my life thus far. If my mother never left, I'd surely be married and a mother by now, so it's pretty major to me and my family that I'm even looking at college.</p>
<p>I'm not posting all this to try to get attention or anything, I'm just really at a loss as far as how to include this in my applications. I feel it's almost too touchy of an issue to write about. I've heard you're supposed to avoid addressing religion, especially when you've had such a bad experience with it and it involves a lot of stuff that most people don't talk about, and that sob stories normally don't help. Should I write my essay about this, anyway? Do I include it separately? Talk about it in my interviews? Do I tell them at all?</p>
<p>If you think I should include this, do you think it could help my admissions chances, since there's very few people in the world, much less students applying to colleges, who've been part of such a community and escaped?</p>
<p>I'm assuming then that you'll be the first person in your family to go to college? That's considered a factor in admission. You could approach it from that direction in essays.</p>
<p>My father attended some random Mormon trade school, but no woman in my family has ever attended college, and nobody has gone to any sort of mainstream school. Am I still first-generation?</p>
<p>I think it could be a powerful essay topic, so long as it wasn't a "pity me" or "sob story." It must have influenced your life to a level I (and most others) can't possibly relate to.</p>
<p>When I read ex-fundamentalist Mormon from Arizona I take that to mean Colorado City. As in LeBarons, Allreds, etc., forced underage marriages to blood relatives, and refugee Lost Boys working construction and doing meth. An escapee from this world has a unique and compelling story to tell. To not include your story in your applications would be hiding the truly diverse perspective you offer. Don't hold back. And thank your mother every day for getting you out of there.</p>
<p>Wow, Lachelle. That is incredible, and what a courageous and amazing mother you have.</p>
<p>I think how you treat your history in college apps could really depend on the college. What does your high school guidance counselor say? </p>
<p>I think, just in general, every part of the app, including essays, should focus on things that YOU have done, your accomplishments, etc. If there is an essay prompt that asks you to talk about a person who influenced you or had an impact on your life, that might be the spot to discuss your mother, and how she took you and your sisters from that life, her reasons, and how it made you a great person, able to achieve anything in life, etc.</p>
<p>But mainly remember to focus on your own activities and plans.</p>
<p>(Piece of advice? Get an agent and write that book! It would be a sensation, guaranteed college admission practically anywhere, and a spot on Oprah.
For homework, read "Not Without My Daughter" and see the movie, starring Sally Field.)</p>
<p>I agree with AnudduhMom. I would surely like to meet your mother and shake her hand. She must be an extraordinary woman to get herself and her children out of there. I can't even imagine the courage, planning, and fortitude that took.</p>
<p>Your community, if it is Colorado City, is now famous because of a book by Krakauer called "Under the Banner of Heaven." A lot of us are a lot more aware of what goes on in such communities because of that book.</p>
<p>So, how do you include this and should you? The answer to the second question is "yes," you should. It's the kind of experience most college students don't have, and most admissions departments would be rooting for you to have the credentials to matriculate.</p>
<p>Now, how to do it. Some advice you got above is good advice, I think. Talk about your background in a matter-of-fact way that explains how your childhood influenced your life. Were you your mother's helper in the escape, since you were the oldest child? What was it like helping to take care of four younger sisters? How did your experience affect your ability to trust? How do you think you might have been different if brought up in a mainstream, wealthy suburb? Dig deeply, and something good is bound to come out.</p>
<p>Good luck to you. You and your family deserve all the good luck there is to have.</p>
<p>In addition to others' advice, highlight in your essay how has your experience influenced what you want to accomplish what your life, including what you want to do and have been doing to be of service to others.</p>