I wrote an additional essay about my sister having a chronic illness/mental health issues and the responsibilities I had to take on at home with my younger brother and parents in order to explain my lack of ECs
However, I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be writing about it bc it’s a very personal thing and not my story to tell. Still, I was advised to write it by my parents, friends, guidance counselor, and someone who used to work in admissions, and caved in last minute and wrote a less than stellar essay. I didn’t go into detail about my sister’s illness or my responsibilities at home and wrote about how I don’t really see it as adversity or feel that I’ve had to sacrifice all that much since I’m not the one who’s sick and still feel that I’ve lived an incredibly privileged life, but still felt that it was an important aspect of my life since my sister is so important to me.
Still, I feel that in my essay I came off as uncomfortable and dismissive since it is such a personal thing and couldn’t really go into detail without feeling gross/dishonest like I was complaining or using my sister as a sob story in order to sound more compelling.
Would a poorly written additional essay be held against me? Or do you think they’d be more understanding since it is such a difficult thing to talk about? I think my GC’s rec also mentioned it (I never asked so idk), so maybe she explained my situation better than I could. Then again, I don’t think I came across particularly well in my additional essay as I did in my personal statement so idk…