How personal is too personal? I’m applying to a handful of University of California schools, and one of the prompts refers to “the most significant challenge that you have faced.” This first thing that came up for me was gettin’ a lil personal here) was my summer-long pregnancy scare. Is this kind of topic too inappropriate to write a response with?
Considering there are many angles from which to approach the challenge of talking about such a topic without talking about it, one could use some overarching theme like risky behavior, or pit-in-bottom-of-stomach moments as jumping off points for challenging oneself, or digging deep, as the backdrop without actually touching upon the pregnancy scare.
The biggest concern I see with directly stating the pregnancy scare is the possibility of placing oneself outside of an acceptable morality framework of an admission’s committee member. You cannot actually predict or control how someone will respond to your essays, but you can walk a line (and talk a line) of tested-and-approved essay themes, avoiding those with the potential to be found controversial.
Would you be choosing this topic for the lessons imparted to you, or to be shocking and original? (I am told almost nothing written in the college applications essays will have never been seen before by the readers.)
In my head, I pictured the essay centralizing on the event’s life lessons, but I do see how the controversy behind it might affect my admission more than anything else.
You could play around with those lessons, and speak metaphorically and creatively about, say, juggling a raw egg.
Or, you know, choose another topic.
I sat here for five minutes pondering the different ways this topic could be taken by an AO. My conclusion: I think you should avoid. It’s not the topic as much, as how the AO could potentially view (read: judge) you, and some of those ways are negatively. It’s just too risky IMHO.