Hi, I really hope someone can help me with this since I’m really struggling with the right answer. I have an interesting story that has resulted in a lot of life and school changes, but I’m not sure if I should disclose everything in my college applications for fear of being denied because I have a chronic illness. A little background: I ran away from my emotionally abusive and manipulative mother’s house in 7th grade and have lived with my father ever since (he’s great!). I attended a public high school for freshman year and took 8 courses in a school day from 7am to 5:30pm, finishing both semesters with a 4.0 gpa as well as heavily participating in 3 different types of instrumental music ensembles at the highest level and volunteering at my local food shelter. I transferred to an elite private high school/ prep. school sophomore year of high school because I valued education more than what the public school had offered, and attended this prep school for the rest of high school with mostly A’s and B’s and a few C’s because the material was much more difficult than what I was used to (plus I was still extremely involved in music and now vocal music, photography, art, volleyball. and I also studied abroad for a month and a half of my sophomore year). Although I had a 3.5 gpa sophomore year, my grades began to slowly get lower and I ended up graduating with around a 3.2 gpa. Sometime during my sophomore year I began to notice that I had trouble concentrating and was feeling progressively more exhausted all the time and would even begin to nod off in class, but didn’t think anything of it at the time because “all students are tired, right?” I’m really upset that I didn’t get grades that I could be very proud of, but the more frustrating element to this was the struggle of not knowing why I felt this way. I applied to colleges but only got into 2 “okay” private universities (both of them were still in the top 100 U.S. universities). At the end of my senior year of high school I decided that I had to find out what was wrong with me because by then I knew that constantly sleeping all the time and living in a disoriented daze while trying to complete something “simple” like math homework wasn’t “normal.” So because of this and other life confusion I took a gap year (which was amazingly helpful and much needed) and the months of July though November were basically completely taken up by hectic doctors appointments, tests, and other diagnostic things and I was finally told that I have a chronic illness that makes me tired all the time (narcolepsy). Now, I know this comes with a HUGE stigma and it’s one of the most misunderstood illnesses, but it’s not funny to me or anyone else who has it. I’m very lucky to not have cataplexy that is sometimes associated with narcolepsy, I just feel extremely exhausted and sleepy ALL THE TIME (like if one of you normal humans stayed up for 48-72 hours straight) and can fall asleep when I don’t want to (sleep attack) but I do still have control over this and it’s NOT like what you see on tv with people just falling over sleeping. Anyways, it basically makes life and trying to focus on schoolwork hell, and that really frustrates me because I have an extreme passion for education and learning and an enormous drive for success. I know that my illness is the reason why my grades dropped in the last part of high school, and from December up till now I have been working through proper medications that work well to treat this problem. Even though I’m not completely “cured,” I feel SO MUCH BETTER than how I used to, actually feel closer to my true self than I have in years, and have taken this not with a negative attitude like ‘oh woe is me’ but as a learning experience that has helped me grow as a person and develop a very positive world view. With my medication, I can function almost normally again but do accept that I still have to take a break once in awhile to not “overheat” my energy supply and let my condition take my life over again, but I have not let any part of my illness get in the way of who I am and who I want to be. I even became bored on my gap year haha, deciding to attend a community college for the winter/spring and I am maintaining a 4.0 gpa along with extracurriculars like writing several finished works (I am very passionate about the subject).
So my question is, if I mention my illness on my college applications, will admissions officers deny me outright simply because I have narcolepsy and they might view it with massive stigma since it is often depicted as completely blown out of proportion? I want to apply to top universities including some Ivy Leagues, but I am extremely afraid that if I talk about the impact my condition has had on my life they would consider me a liability and a danger to have on campus without even reading my story and seeing how far I’ve come. I’m not going to write about it in my main essay, but rather in the personal section or as a supplemental essay. Will this negatively affect my chances of getting in to a good university and should I just not mention it? Thank you to anyone who knows how admissions committes work and who leaves a helpful reply! 