I’ve been homeless several times now and had no family income in 2016. One of my prompts was to write about a challenge and how it affected my academic achievement, so I basically wrote about how being homeless a lot and having a dysfunctional family threw me into a depression that got me to care less about school until I found strength, etc, etc. I threw in a short sentence towards the end about how I’m still homeless to emphasize that I’m capable of succeeding academically and stuff… But I remember reading (forgot where) that you should really avoid talking about anything financial because colleges shy away from that?
I’m also not super excellent with my grades. I have a 3.69 GPA since freshman year, only took 2 APs before 12th grade and a couple honors courses, but I’ve never gotten any C’s.
Just wondering if that was a bad thing to write about?
Hi!
I’m a transfer student and I’m not homeless but for that question I did write about how my family’s income got cut in half this past year, we could no longer afford our house, etc… I think you will be fine as long as you didn’t make your financial situation your main point. It sounds like focused on the homeless aspect more and for mine I tried to focus more on how I adjusted to new living standards.
Schools like to have applicants who have real life experience so I think you’ll be fine.
*I mean as long as you focused more on how being homeless affected you from an emotional or academic standpoint rather than a financial one… if I didn’t make that clear enough before…
Let me start by saying how saddened I am by your misfortune. It a really tough thing to deal with, and through no fault of your own. Given your resolve and intelligence, (as demonstrated by your on-time graduation and GPA) as control for your life shifts into your hands, I am pretty confident you won’t find yourself there again.
you posted your comment in the CSU forum -I think you’d get a stronger response in the UC forum, you might want to repost.
The essay part of the ap is there for 2 reasons - first and foremost, to see if you can write a concise essay, unsing correct grammar, punctuation, vocab. etc. Second, it is there for you to convey a little about yourself. Honestly, HOW you wrote matters a lot more than WHAT you wrote. I think your topic is fine, as long as you phrased it in a manner that addressed the assigned topic.
with a 3.89, competent essays and solid test scores, i think you’ll get into UCM, UCR and UCSC. The others … maybe.
No matter what happens during this admission cycle, please take a moment to reflect on how much you have overcome to be where you are. I for one, am inspired by your drive. Keep the momentum going at UC, CSU or CC. From here, with hard work and consistently making the right decisions, you can live the American Dream, whatever it means to you. ,