Should i tell my father is in jail and i'm schizophrenenic ?

College Essays
1

Hi ! (I KNOW IT’S LONG BUT I NEED ADVICES PLEASE)

I get fired from my school, i was a trouble student getting in school for fun an without a pen. I get accept in an other school to have a vocational diploma goteen at 18 so i can work directly after this degree. I worked in nursery for almost a year. Then i did various jobs some was black-work for 3 year.
This year i’m working by self taugh on the Sat, to have the best results i can on it.

Since i have trouble with money, i can’t afford college and i need to apply on ivy league because of the great financial aid.
In my case it’s almost impossibke to get admitted into ivy league college, even with a perfect score.
I would like to be honest in my essay to tell about what i’m gone through in a positive way.
My father get in jail this year, we have a lack of money, i live in ghetto, i have been depressed, self harm (cutting with knives), facination with blood (painting with my own blood), sucidal mother, little symptomes of schizophrenia (hallucinations, parnoia, muteness), sick brother with a rare genetic disease, and attention deficit disorder.
I know it sound crazy, but it’s life, problems happen, and my comportement is just a consequence of my childhood trauma.

I didn’t get to see a psychiatrist, except to see if i suffer from a attention deficit disoder, i did some tests, and the psychiatrist told me i probably suffer from adhd but i need to do more tests. I stop seeing him, i found this useless. During my test day i had an iq test, and i obtained an high iq. So i think i will join Mensa (high iq society), maybe it will made a good impression on my application.
I would like to tell the positive point in sum it will be :

Brother close to death and almost tetraplegic at my age = make me realise we can die any moment and i don’t want to die without purpose and a useless life. Tetraplegic= we should enjoy are body while it is functional. That’s why i start krav maga and boxing, running each morning (i hope i will start boxing amateur soon i can add in my essay, ring= competitiv spirit but also i learned to respect)

Father in jail = Each mistake has a consequence and i learned a lot from my dad

Self harm = I used to be weak and follow my needs, so i used to cut my body, until i decide to have purpose and use my weakness as an asset. So i have the idea to do bodybuilding when the need to cut my self is here)

Hallucination= i hear a voice 1 or 2 time by day, telling me to no do or do things otherwise bad thing will happen oto me. I used to obey, until i decide I AM the one who have control on own body and my own act, so i don’t listen to the voice anymore and she begins to disappear. Hallucinations visual are very rare and i ignore them. = Ignore this = Strong mind

Defficit disorder = little teachers told me i have good results, i can be one of the best of my class but i was too lazy, year after year i turnd to be one of the worst with a very bad gpa = i can blame a little my deficit attention disorder

Ghetto= None of students in my class, and most of the studenst in my high school don’t get in college, teacher consider us as a failure and don’t expect nothing for us, and sometimes tell us that we are a lost cause, or stupid (no killing) = destruct the confidence, goals ect…

lack of money = I can’t afford a teacher at home, so i work only with some books = independence, motivation and faculties.

So, i want to know what you thinck about all of this, i know the majority will tell me forget about ivy league. I’m not diagnostic with schizophrenia because i never talk with a psy, and i don’t need it (i stop self harm, hallus, paranoia… are less present that it used to be ect…) but if i wrote in my essay i will go see a psy so i can have a proof that i’m propably suffer with this. I will not tell at all for the blood they will freak out !
Which problems should i tell on my essay ? Or maybe should i tell nothing. I can say that my parent had trouble money (wich is true) and my mother was depressed (true) but she suffer compulsive buying disorder (lol) so i can tell that i had no option to left school and get help my parent, and today at 22 our situation are better my mother is health so i can study and stop working ??

What i want too bring for the college = The spirit is the strongest thing we have whatever pain, hallucination ect… And i want to be a an exemple of hope for the kid in school in ghetto, or the one who drop out, we can always bounce back from whatever life throws at you. And convince teachers in ghetto that students are not less intelligent than others, they are not a lost cause. On the contrary, seing the majority end up in jail, depress, peoples hate their job, the insecurity ect… can make you work harder than prosperous students in private school ect…

2

In my opinion, there is almost nothing here that I personally would want to mention on a college admissions essay. It says very little about your academic ability and why they should consider you for admission. The “fighting through adversity” theme can be a good one when carried out properly, but it has to show that you fought through a, and have now achieved b, c, and d.

If I was on an admissions committee, reading this: “Hallucination= i hear a voice 1 or 2 time by day, telling me to no do or do things otherwise bad thing will happen oto me. I used to obey, until i decide I AM the one who have control on own body and my own act, so i don’t listen to the voice anymore and she begins to disappear. Hallucinations visual are very rare and i ignore them. = Ignore this = Strong mind”

That would send up all kinds of red flags to me.

3

Listen up. You sound like you have a serious psychiatric condition that needs to be evaluated and treated. The longer you wait and progress in your illness, the more damage that will occur to your brain (this is irreversible).

Proof: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.12050674

Get mental state fixed first, then worry about college later. Having hallucinations, delusions and mutism is definitely not normal. Even if you have ADHD, having some type of psychotic disorder on top will only make college more difficult.

From the eyes of an admissions officer, they will see you as a big risk unless you are in treatment. Go back to the psychiatrist. I wish you the best.

4

@comfortablycurt Yes that’s what i thought mental illness is a bad idea :frowning:

They’re something like 30 000 applicants in those colleges. A lot with high gpa in high school and high scores on SAT. What should i write on my essay to demarcate myself in my case ?

mental illness, i will not talk about it, even the ADHD, they might though i will get bored in class or whatever…

You said they are almost nothing here to mention on a college admissions, but since the majority of students who apply in those college was raised in a “normal” way, not dealing with “going in and out” the police in their home, go see daddy in jail, and listen sucidal talk of mommy, living in ghetto without high school and teachers 5 times by week, no one succeed around ect…

You don’t think that someone who bring a high score in sat in those conditions are more credits because he or she work harder than someone who had teachers around 5 days per week, a good environement and at the end bring the same scores of this person ??

Even if i succeed on sat, have good extracuricular acitivies (clubs, boxing, humanitarian work in africa ect…) my chances are low. I need a very good story.
Acutelly this, is the only good and non comon story i can bring.

5

@sgopal2 i’m getting better day after day and whithout medication. I’m very (maby too) introspective and the fact i know that i have hallucinations and not reality it’s a good sign. Also i “diagnostic” myself by reading a little of psychology. None around me can have a clue about those problems i have, i’m not a danger for myself and either for others.
If it get worse, sure i will see a psy. Thank you for your reply

6

Is painting in your own blood “getting better”??? That’s grounds for, like, hospitalization. You need to get help before you even worry about taking on more responsibility.

7

Seek help immediately!!! Even if you were admitted, there is no way you would fare under college pressures in your current mental state. Get help, come back and reevaluate. Take things one step at a time. Get well first and then you can start thinking about what’s next in terms of college and careers.

8

Your writing honestly is not up to snuff for an Ivy, either. You need to see a mental health professional and focus on academic opportunities you can afford. Are you in the US? Can’t tell for sure from your post. Have you looked into local community colleges as a starting place?

9

@bodangles "Is painting in your own blood "

It’s called art :smiley: (i’m kidding)

10

Ok, for now i’m seriously sick and i need help.

But if i were healthy and ready for college, what advice would you give to me for my essay ?

11

If you want to go to college, why not get the professional help now, so you can show these schools that you are smart, can recognize issues and work in the right ways to fix them. That’s maturity. When you pull your life together, you can develop the sorts of activities and impact they like, tackle the essays with a perspective of success. Then you are a contender.

No, SATs alone won’t do it. If you are serious, why not look at he colleges’ own web pages, see what they say about what they look for?

12

Get help first