Writing My College Essay On Trauma?

[Renee123]

I'm not sure if I should include it somehow. I originally planned to never include it anywhere on the applications. But now that I look at the prompts (specifically: "Discuss an event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood." Or "Some students have a background that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.")

I don't want to make it sad. I don't want them to think I am using it for sympathy. And honestly, I'm not sure how you start a paper about it.

But the more I think about it, the more I feel like it's a big part of me and my application kinda seems like a lie without it.

I was thinking about writing about how after the attack at my school, I started a UNICEF club to help kids and to also help kids in my school feel like they were doing good. And also it deepened my religious beliefs (but I think religion is risky to bring up in a college essay???). I could tie this into how the event pulled the whole community together and strengthened our school. It made us grow up but also we realized the importance of standing by each other.

I've been caught up on this idea for awhile. I've written like 10 other essays but they don't seem sincere. I really want to have a good essay though, so maybe I shouldn't include my trauma at all. I don't want it to sound like sympathy... but it's a part of me so...

Any thoughts would be welcomed. :)

 

[Panda Bear]

I just wrote an admissions essay for school this week!

It included a snapshot of my trauma and the healing process it brought into my life. Thus far, it's received great feedback from friends as being a great balance. Not too much, not to little and not to scary. The best feedback was that I didn't get caught up in the victum part of what happened and that I stuck to the healing process.

 

[Mim28]

I'm not sure if I should include it somehow. I originally planned to never include it anywhere on the...

Renee, I think you have to go with your gut here. You said it would feel like a lie to not include it. I think what you've described is huge! In my opinion, I think you should go for it. Best of luck!!

 

[Renee123]

I just wrote an admissions essay for school this week!

It included a snapshot of my trauma and the...

Thanks a ton. I agree, not playing victim and more healing would be good. I'm really struggling with how to state what happened and integrate and build the paper from there.

I'm glad yours went well and I wish you the best with admissions!!! :)

 

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

I didn't really know about my trauma when I wrote my college essay, but I did take a small event and portray it as an analogy to the bigger struggles in life. I wrote about when I was running in a cross-country race and had kept running up a really steep hill (basically a small mountain) and no matter how many people I saw walking, I just kept running. I had to since it was a running race. But as I ran down the other side, the people who were walking before flew by me, some even knocking into me because they were going so fast and the trail was narrower. And though I wanted to follow them, I couldn't because I had spent so much energy running up the hill. I was angry and felt like the world was treating me unfairly. But in the end, I took my teammates out on our cool down run later after and knew in my heart that it was okay if I hadn't won any prizes, I knew what I had been through and the strength I had shown.

Here's why I share this. If I were to write an essay for college with all that I know now about my past, I think I might use the same kind of thing. Maybe I would mention how this extends to other areas of my life as well and that it's this strength that kept me going and will continue to keep me going. Something like that. I would never tell my whole story in a college essay, but it is a part of who I am.

Pick whatever you need to write about in order to share who you are. From what I know you are persistent, have an inner strength, and that UNICEF club story shows great compassion and leadership. Maybe the UNICEF story is the correct one, but you will know. When you find the best topic, it will flow and it will feel like the one that's meant to go forth to colleges.

 

[scout86]

I like your idea. And I don't see anything wrong with TELLING them you aren't looking for sympathy. Tell them what you ARE looking for. You sound to me like you have some good ideas and have done some things that speak to who you are as a person and what you have to offer as a student.

 

[Suzetig]

I would include it if it's relevant to the area I'm planning to study - so engineering or science, maybe not but a people related discipline like nursing, social work or therapy I'd possibly be more likely to say I had experienced personal trauma and talked about how I worked through it. For me it would also depend on the admissions process for uni.

I'm a pretty private person and get anxious about people having information about me that I've not chosen to give to them directly. So, if I knew who'd be reading it and how it would be held, that might be ok, depending on my knowledge of that person. I'd hate for random lecturers and teaching/admin staff to potentially identify me as the student who had X happen to them. If I choose to tell later on, once people know me for me that's my choice. If I tell them in an application that whoever might read, i can't take it back and they can't unknow what they know about me or change how it influences their view of me.

I've really learned that being authentic and sincere doesn't mean sharing everything with everyone, I can be both and still hold some things private. I appreciate I'm going against the flow on this one but I'd struggle to share in that format.