<p>I think your essays should be about whatever topic you want to write on that best reveals who you are as a person. It could be that topic is associated with financial hardship. For most applicants, my purely unscientific hunch is that is it not. You enter information about your family’s income and resources as part of the application. Financial hardships might be something that comes up in your biographical essay or one of the other essays, but I wouldn’t feel like you must specifically address them. Use your essays to best show who you are.</p>