<p>I was reading about a guy on the HS Life forum that asked if his legal blindness was a hook so it inspired me to write a bit about my disease. Please read it all before commenting. :)</p>
<p>To start off, I have an eye disease with the name of Keratoconus. It occurs in about 1 out of 2,000 people which is not a gargantuan number but not a small number of people at all. The condition is where my cornea progressively and strangely forms into a cone and bulges out (feel free to look it up for yourself). As of now, the condition has no cure but various methods are hypothetically being tested in order to see if the process can be slowed. I was diagnosed with it as a 13 year old in its relatively early stages and was very lucky that I urged my parents to take me to me the eye doctor. The disease significantly changed my vision in just the course of one year as I went from 20/20 in both eyes to 20/30 in my left and 20/80 in my right (I have it in both eyes).</p>
<p>Every day I wear special hybrid lenses to stop the cone from forming, and this is a real pain in the butt since I literally go through 30 minutes of tears to get out something that is stuck between my lense and my eye. I also get extremely red eyes if I stare at something for like 10 seconds. These are also a huge financial burden since each goes for $400 (insurance covers half the cost even though we have really good insurance) and I have to wear them to stop myself from being legally blind in a few years since the disease progresses so quickly. Eventually though ( by age 30 with lenses) I will have to get a corneal transplant unless a real cure absolves my struggle. </p>
<p>So… I just wanted to learn if perhaps this can work to my advantage (excuse me if that sounds cynical)? I really want to pursue a medical career and find a cure to this pain in the butt. The ultimate would be getting a research opportunity to try to solve my own disease. Though who knows what lies ahead?</p>
<p>I think it would be a great essay topic, particularly the part where it has motivated you to pursue a medical career.</p>
<p>I think it’s absolutely pathetic if you use a disability as an advantage to getting into a good college, but I do agree on it being a good essay topic.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know it’s a pathetic thing to do @ThatOne and @kyp, I’m a good student with straight A’s, it’s not an advantage. It’s not going to improve my Ivy chances, I was just wondering within my context if that could advantage me in some way when I’m doing apps. I’m only a freshman and was curious about the subject.</p>
<p>@Cult, that’s what I was thinking, the past year has been a huge pain in the butt for me regarding my eyes, my eyes are always red and it’s just been getting worse and worse. I TRULY wish to find a cure for my issue and head down the road of becoming a doctor.</p>
<p>It’s not pathetic to talk about this kind of thing in college applications, assuming it’s true…this is one of the reasons why the Additional Information section of the Common App exists. Obviously it’s not going to make or break any of your applications, but colleges with holistic admissions often take stuff like this into account because they want to judge applicants in the context of their circumstances. </p>
<p>It’s not really a hook, though. Colleges don’t have any institutional need for people with eye diseases.</p>
<p>Well, it’s definitely a great essay topic. My friend who didn’t have a perfect 4.0 GPA, but rather a mix of As, Bs, and Cs, who has abysmal vision/will be legally blind fairly soon, wrote about her eye problems and got into UC Berkeley, which at least claims to have holistic admissions.</p>
<p>not pathetic at all, I don’t think people realize how much of a pain your disease is and the fact that you have succeeded regardless of it is phenomenal. a meaningful essay that conveys your determination to find a cure for your disease sounds like am excellent idea, do some google searches and ask around to see if there’s any research opportunities available for your disease. best of luck</p>
<p>Thanks guys for the positive comments, @themoonchild, @quiddichcat, and @halcyonheather. It won’t change too much in my uniqueness on my app, but that’s quite the anomaly for your friend who got accepted at UC B, the quote yet again rang true as a “blessing in disguise”. The struggle is definitely present, people keep asking me why my eyes are red as hell (no pun intended), everyone thinks I’m high or stay up until 3am every night even though I’m a great student. They have contradictory feelings like is this kid really good, or does he just smoke weed all day? The horrible part is that there is no way to defend myself from the problem that will never cease or desist. </p>
<p>That being said, my school is near a Mayo Clinic (top treatment center) and it provides excellent research/volunteering opportunities for interested students at my school. It’s great to see how fortunate I am to find all of these issues in going to the doctor and having a top treatment center not even a mile from where I go to school. Although this has been greatly detrimental to myself and my family, it has opened up hundreds of new doors for me to walk through and take a new experience in life. :)</p>
<p>If I google images of your condition, will the results be graphic?</p>
<p>I just saved you the trouble @preamble1776 and did it myself. Some of the pictures are scary, but those are the most extreme cases, though I have a feeling you already did it haha</p>
<p>i don’t think it’s pathetic at all; you’re simply writing about something that has impacted you and its influence on you. just make sure to stay away from self-pity and extensive detail of challenges without writing how you overcame them if that’s the route you’re going. i have a physical disability so i feel for you.</p>
<p>Eye problems run in my family so I can see where you’re coming from.</p>
<p>I think you definitely should mention it in your application. But since you are just a freshman, maybe you will find a better essay topic in the future. (the eye disease is already great!)</p>
<p>@ironchariot, haha considering I have 3 years to write it word for word, I think I can craft it perfectly :), I’m usually not much of a guy who says I was vomiting for three days and much stomach hurt and all of that, I just get through the pain without complaining. I felt the need to convey my daily struggles because it’s a fairly rare disease :), thanks for feelin for me bro or sis, it’s overall tough going from day to day life but I’d bet it’s more a of a struggle for you since I had 13 years without a problem :)</p>
<p>you’re welcome, dude, stay strong and keep kicking butt</p>
<p>@ironchariot, you have no idea how much I appreciate your support, I’ll hang in there man, you do too, best of luck in the future, I can’t imagine anything but a successful future for you (judging by your plethora of posts I just went through) 
haha</p>
<p>And yes @sparkle and @shirley, I’d love to write about it as much as possible, the weird thing is that my parents have great vision and so does my brother. There is so little known about the disease and no way 100% known to mitigate it’s effect to be futile, there’s nothing going on that can perhaps get rid of it. A doctor in California though has treated it many times but charges $20,000 for treatment, it’s just going to get worse over time.</p>