Do colleges like "sob stories"?

Dunboyne
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 18:59:18 +0000

It could work for Common App prompt #4. Focus on MS as the problem you’d like to solve/engage. Leave the alcoholism out. The problem is definitely of “personal importance” to you. It might be more powerful if you discuss your father, briefly, at the end of the essay. That way, the reader will be focused on you, and the ending will have more poignancy. You can explain the significance of MS to you, initially, without mentioning your father. Talk about MS objectively, but keep your interest and passion apparent. Connect the disease with your goals in neuroscience. (Talk about psychology, too, if you like, but I gathered from your info that the psych was more directed toward alcoholism.) Steps that could be taken to identify a solution: a few points re latest research into combating MS. In the penultimate paragraph, discuss your father and how MS has affected you, surprising the reader with the precise (emotional) significance of MS in your life. Edit that paragraph for simplicity and emotional impact. Keep it about you.

Write it early and often to see if you have anything worth keeping because, like @juillet suggested, this could be a hot sobbing mess if you get overly focused on your father, or too emotional in the bulk of the essay.

Try it with your father at the end. If that isn’t working, go with the starting point idea in posts #9-10. Don’t be too attached to it. Move on if necessary.