<p>So it happened during the first quarter of my college career. During that quarter, I got a B+, a W, a C, and a "pass". After witnessing victims in the hospital during my counseling session, I was aspired to work in the health care industry (nursing, pre-med, etc.). However, my grades do suffer (around 3.0 transferable), and I want to tell the real reason behind my bad grades. The school couselors and my friend who transferred to UCB said I cannot write about getting raped because some admission reviewers will count that against me. My boyfriend said definitely write about it since that is my biggest life challenge. What do you people think? I think it will be unfair if the admission people count it against me, but I don't want to risk my chance of getting in just because of what happened in the past.</p>
<p>I would try to write more positive than anything else. Most college campuses feel that students are writing alot about the difficulties and other "sad" stories in their lives. This isn't a problem but it does not tell them what type of person you really are most of the time.</p>
<p>Write about it, but about the recovery, not the actual moment.</p>
<p>Actually I have to kind of disagree with AwakenZero, it really depends. If you just tell the story and state the facts and situation, then they won't learn much.</p>
<p>However, if you tell the story of what you learned from this dreaded experience, it usually makes your character shine through, our characters are tested during times of despair and adversity. Rape is a very emotional issue to be talking about, as long YOU are OK with this, I have to say it will be great essay. Even if it may be a negative topic, sad stories do have happy endings.</p>
<p>If you want to do this, I suggest you talk about the experience, and in what ways this has strengthened your character and outlook on life. We learn a new lesson and build character every time we face a horrible situation like this, that's what the admissions officers want to hear.</p>
<p>If you want to talk about how this caused your GPA to drop, that would fit well in the third prompt (where you give optional details explaining bad academic situations etc.).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>there's one part that is the writing, and there's a nother part that conveys the message. considering this is uc admissions and not some small school which read every applicatoin word for word, i would present the situation as When I was __, I was raped...Don't talk about how it made you feel or what it was like, talk about how it has changed you positively(ie to want to progress, to make a difference in other's life, etc)</p>
<p>"The school couselors and my friend who transferred to UCB said I cannot write about getting raped because some admission reviewers will count that against me."</p>
<p>Also, did they say why that would count against you? It sounds ridiculous to me, I mean to even go through something like that I cannot even imagine, thus to count this against a rape victim is borderline prejudice, I refuse to believe the reviewers would be so apathetic, to such victims. </p>
<p>Thus, I think your counselor is wrong, I've met sooo many seemingly unqualified counselors during my time in college, it isn't funny anymore.</p>
<p>ChrisEW22, I disagree. Alot of admission officials have already publicly stated that they recieve alot of personal statements about people's difficulties in life. Its not by any means a bad essay or personal statement. Admission officials want to know what type of person you are, grades are really just one aspect. For example, someone could write in their personal statement about why their grades dropped. Using things like having two jobs because of family hardships that made it hard for them to pay for college. And translating that to reason why they have lower GPA than what other people have. This is a good solid personal statement.</p>
<p>However, if you step back it doesn't really tell much about who you really are. This is what admission officals want to know. For example, your friend tells you that you are a caring and helpful person. These are two good qualities that other people want to know. Your friends will know this about you but not strangers like the admission officals. Prompt #2 .</p>
<p>You can talk about the rape issue in relation mostly to why you chose to go into the health field (nursing, pre-med and such). Prompt #1. Like what made you want to go into this field? What makes you different from everyone else trying to go into this field. Why are you interested in this field? The rape issue should be short like an introduction which sets up for the rest of the personal statement. Like start off with somehow saying that you are a victim of a certain crime. One way you could follow up with is how this changed your view of other victims. Like before you might have saw victims of a certain crime one way. Afterwards, you might have a totally different perspective after you became the victim of the crime itself. And you can lead this into how it made you really want to move into this specific field. Thats one way to do prompt #1.</p>
<p>For my own personal statements. I am majoring in Sociology so for prompt #1 I drew on the theme is that I questioned alot of different social interactions in society. I used examples of projects I did in my sociology classes dealing with social interactions and social experience. I used this to explain why I was interested in the major that allows me to study different social interactions and experiences in the real world.</p>
<p>Pretty much when I was doing my personal statements a year ago, I asked different people who were prior admission officals at different campuses and other individuals currently working with the admission department and its officals about the personal statements. Some of the things they told me are what I wrote above.</p>
<p>"a lot" is two words.</p>
<p>Pinkerfloyd I think that doesn't help answer the question and that is extremely unproductive, if you didn't have something better to say you should not have made a post. It is quite immature when I'm trying to help someone solve their problems. If you aren't willing to help and would rather pick at little things then don't post at all.</p>