The only time I faced real trauma was when i had to spend the night in the hospital because of alcohol poisoning. Could this be a bad topic because I was underage drinking? But now I’m going into nursing, and the alcohol poisoning was also during a difficult relationship with food, so i could say how it opened my eyes and made me not take my health for granted
If an essay shows why you’d be a good asset to a school, sure. We all make mistakes. But it shouldn’t be a therapy session.
By me a Yale admit write about the exhilaration of waiting for pizza delivery. Another about the fascination of fuzz on a tennis ball. Mine wrote about connecting with others by drinking tea.
They read lots of essays. How can you stand out ?
If you have an area of personal growth than great. But frame it to show why you can ultimately be someone they want on campus.
Do you have other potential topics? Does the application require you to write about trauma? Is that actually the prompt? While not impossible to write about these topics, you would need to be VERY careful to avoid raising any possible red flags about your candidacy. If that’s the case, I would probably devote very little space to the trauma itself (maybe a sentence or two) and then focus the rest on how you overcame it. You must be VERY convincing that you have fully overcome these issues, otherwise it could raise questions. Personally, I would probably look for a different topic, if possible.
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I would say a hard no on mentioning either the alcohol poisoning or your eating issues. You could maybe write about the experience of your hospitalization and how that has inspired you to go into nursing. Maybe just say you had a health crisis and focus on what you learned from it without disclosing the reason. Another topic might be better. You don’t have to write about trauma. A personal statement is meant to convince a school to accept you. It’s not a therapy session.
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Colleges admission isn’t a prize to the kid who suffered most of or who struggled most. They are looking for the students who will succeed.
Having suffered trauma is not a qualification for admissions, not is having struggled. The essay is a way for them to figure out how well you can express yourself in writing, and to learn something about your personality. The “how I struggled and persevered” theme was used because it gave a good way for students to write about themselves. Because these experiences were also personal, it made it easier for students to “show, not tell”. At least that seems to have been the reason. There are many other themes that are just as good.
Admissions isn’t a competition for who had the worst life. In fact, as a rule, the kids attending the most popular colleges had much much easier lives than the average high school graduate.
Your essay is a way to showcase your best traits and your best writing, not a way to showcase the worst day of your life.
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