More thinking out loud, if you all don’t mind: so, is the answer something like “My season for Spring Sport X was cancelled,” or does the answer go on, into the negatives that flow from that? I am leaning toward the former, as the latter would be depressing with no upside.
I’m with @evergreen5 , I think this is unnecessary and kind of a trap. Not sure what you can put that helps you, but I can think of lots of things that hurt you.
I think for a small minority of students, they were disproportionately affected and that could be addressed in the regular additional info session. But for probably well north of 90% of students, it will read like the following. Pick your top 3/4 you want to address:
- Online classes sucked and my teachers didn't transition to it very well.
- My grades would have been all A+ this semester, but I got cheated out of that.
- I was poised to get a 36/1600, but that got messed up.
- My EC's got totally wrecked. I would have been a team captain and state champion in ______, but the contest got canceled.
- I would have gotten a job/cured cancer this summer, but I couldn't because of COVID.
- There was a lot of stress in my family because at least one member didn't handle it very well and that made my life tougher.
- I had to pick up the slack caring for young/old/disabled/emotionally struggling family member because my parents weren't able to, either physically or emotionally.
And I will say it all in a way that doesn’t sound bitter or like I am making excuses . . .
I think only students who have had beyond the normal hardships should answer this question. I would not recommend students write something about missing out on ECs…because every single on of them has.
I think the Covid CA question is there to keep everyone from writing about the pandemic in their personal statement. I saw a webinar with three AOs the other day and they all said they hope kids don’t write about the pandemic in their personal statement because “student had a life before the pandemic” and the essays they planned to write before the pandemic want to be read. So, with this new essay, kids can get their “pandemic essay” out of the way if they intend to write one and that frees up space for their personal statement to show more about who they are.
The question is worded so that you really don’t have to answer it. It’s a max of 250 words and that’s pretty short. Here it is—
Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces.
Do you wish to share anything on this topic? Y/N
Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.
My less snarky response is that I wonder if they are putting this there to avoid 30% of students writing their main essay about how they were affected by COVID.
At a couple of info sessions (I can’t tell you which because they are blending together) they said “Please don’t write your essay about how you were affected by COVID.” I think they are dreading reading 100 identical essays every day about how this summer got wrecked.
LOL @homerdog looks like we were typing at the same time.
so if our entire household had Covid, could that be a good thing to include since we have the antibodies and therefore pose less of a problem to li old Clemson?
But we don’t really know what having antibodies gets one wrt immunity right now. Many science peeps (including Dr. Fauci) think there would be some level of immunity conferred, but no one has any idea how long it would last, if it does exist.
I respectfully disagree. A brief factual statement such as “I was accepted to so-and-so prestigious summer camp but did not actually attend due to COVID-19” etc. Something to let them know of the honor of being accepted and then the obvious reason why the kid didn’t actually attend.
Or, “I planned to finish this goal by May 2020, but due to SAH restrictions my finish was delayed until September 2020.” Or whatever. Simple factual statements so the admissions office can understand what the plan was and what the acceptances were, even though the kid could not actually go/participate as planned.
Every student will write about something. But for this particular question, I am guessing that is exactly what admissions officers want to know. D21s cannot now all say they did this or that thing during summer 2020. But they can say what they had intended to do or what they were accepted into (and then couldn’t do or attend because of COVID).
My take on it is impact above and beyond the norm - everyone had online school, EC’s canceled, summer plans disrupted. Writing about that, to me, is just as bad as making your essay about it. If a household member got COVID, someone died, your parents both lost their jobs and incomes, etc… That to me is what they are wanting to know.
Seems by me in NJ, everyone is just about over social distancing. Mother’s Day was a free for all! Neighbors behind me had a small gathering on their deck; last night the neighbor down the street with a rising senior at Virginia Tech let him have friends over to hot tub (same neighbor I caught going to another neighbor’s house for dinner last week! LOL she stuttered and stammered and swore it was the first time they had gotten together with anyone!). He’s moving back to his off campus apartment in a few days. Will be interesting to see how long it takes for the numbers to spike.
OR (regarding that COVID-19 question) - what the summer plan WAS before COVID19 and then what the student decided to do instead (within the limits of COVID/SAH ordinances).
Seems reasonable.
Of course, I will continue to think about these issues, and ask AOs what they think, but for now, I would tell my students to not answer that question unless they have some higher level of hardship than missed ECs.
A less-is-more perspective on this question makes sense to me. And it’s a whole lot easier if I can tell my kids to just skip it. I’m not a fan of negative, woe-is-me in the app in general, partly because I don’t want to bring down the AO’s mood and partly because intuitively it feels wrong to highlight potential spots of weakness (unless there’s a very good reason to do so for truly exceptional circumstances). Plus I wouldn’t want to add more words for the AO to read unless those words add value.
What about a situation where there might be a positive, such as “I had a lot more hours at my Essential Worker job,” and possibly some additional positive resulting from that. Maybe the activity description is the more appropriate place?
My opinion may change according to the advice of AOs. Your perspective is wise. My first reaction is what I wrote - I would be interested to hear if AOs or counselors advise differently.
This would be a good question for any students doing virtual admissions sessions to ask!
I have one webinar today and will try to ask this question as well.
Please report back as to what you hear!
I will have D21 ask this question of her admissions counselors. She is already sending an email to each of them in about a month, asking about whether or not admission chances are significantly different for her cohort because of potential 2020 gap year kids. I’ll tell her to include a question about this as well.
I’m glad they’re asking the additional question so the kids will write about something else for the main essay. I have a feeling mine will write something short about being chosen for one of the few leadership positions for her summer program that she’s done for 3 years, and how they’re changing course to do some virtual programs instead.
So…during yesterday’s Freshman session with Texas A&M, the Regional AO specifically said DO NOT write your Essay on Covid-19 and how it’s affected you! She said they are already aware of how it has impacted EVERYONE…others topics she said to steer clear from: mission trips and sports injuries (unless these are only alluded to in reference to something else).
I don’t think Apply Texas has any Covid related prompts.
Last day of school for the year is next Friday (next week is finals week), so my daughter made her request for letters of recommendation today. Both teachers said yes and she’s happy to be one small step closer to college.
@3kids2dogs That’s terrific! I suggested that our D do the same, and she told me that all of her graduating friends asked during the fall of senior year. I asked if she might want to get ahead of the game, because who knows what fall will look like? Answer was a swift “um, no thanks.”