Application essay about parents' paranoid ideations?

[Anonymous]

Editor who has worked on personal statements here (not college -- med school / med residency).

It could work really well, but it depends on the tone and what the facts discussed are used to convey (the "what I learned from this" or the "who I am now" or the "why this informs how I learn/study/whatever" part of the essay). Agree with PPs that this topic should probably be skipped if the student isn't a highly skilled writer; the topic could be hard to pull off.

[Anonymous]

There’s a section for this and it’s called additional information – it’s generally used to talk about obstacles MD. Or you could put it in the EC
Id keep it generic - e.g. hours spent helping care for a chronically ill family member.

[Anonymous]

No.

[Anonymous]

I’d spin it as the challenges you face dealing with the threats your parents told you about, and your efforts to navigate the confusion to stay safe while having a life, and looking for the truth behind the fears.

[Anonymous]

I would keep it strictly generic: student had to take a lot of responsibility early in life, because of a chronically ill family member

[Anonymous]

Can’t you find a topic that is less likely to cause the admissions people to think you have horrendous judgment for picking such a topic? Like maybe which side you passionately support in the Gaza conflict?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good idea? Bad idea? Inconsequential?

Bad idea. Bad judgment to even consider it.

[Anonymous]

Literally no upside to doing this. Pick another topic.

[Anonymous]

I feel bad for the student who is experiencing this, but I do not believe that it would benefit the student to write about this specifically. (In general, the student could write about health challenges of a parent, but why reveal so much specific personal information about the parent?)

[Anonymous]

The whole overcoming adversity thing seems like a trap, the kid writes about how they overcame the process but the school sees how they got into trouble in the first place.

[Anonymous]

That it's being asked on a parent forum, makes me think it's definitely a bad idea. No doubt kid has been through a lot, still this sounds like the parent-centric take.

[Anonymous]

Welllll, my friend is 32 so this was 14 years ago. She was raised by a paranoid schitzophernic. Her life story is INSANE and she never got a formal education. Her mom homeschooled her. Her mom's paranoia was around electricity and microwave waves so school was a dangerous place according to her mom. Granted my friend is brilliant, but all her college essays and all her communication with the schools she applied to revolved around her lack of education due to her mentally ill mother. She ended up getting in a ton of schools, including Harvard, through she did not attand Harvard. She is now an amazing writer. Her entire education was based around reading books and believe it our not, it paid off well, no TV, no movies, no screens in her home whatsoever-just books from the public library. The electricity was very limited and there were periods where there was no electricity for months on end.

[Anonymous]

If the kid really wants to do this, I'd be vague about the parent's specific challenges. The essay is about the kid, not the parent. The kid could simply reference a parent's severe health issues. Or a parent who created an unstable home life. The kid could even say explicitly that they'd prefer not to go into details, but explain the implications for the ki. .