yet another challenge (secondary) thread

[Oranges2]

Hi All - Prior to writing my secondary challenge essay, I perused the forum and found that the general advice given is that, it's not so much the challenge that matters, but how you handled it and subsequently how it made you grow. but after reading many recent threads, it seems that my peers (who have similar challenge ideas) are being told that their challenge is too trivial...... in any case, now I'm unsure of my topic and wanted to get feedback.

I recently started working full time and met someone on my team who was difficult to work with, to the point that it seemed that he did not respect me. Nevertheless we were required to work together. In my essays I try not to focus so much on his negative aspects, rather I discuss how I try to get him to respect me. And then I discuss what I learned about working with others in a professional environment.

Now looking at actual essay prompts, some of them are worded such that this essay would be appropriate i.e. describe a challenging situation working with others. Other prompts, "describe a difficult obstacle in your life and how you coped," it may be seem more appropriate to write about a more *significant* problem?

alternatively, I can write about how I immigrated to the US at a young age and discuss how difficult it was to assimilate to the culture, etc., but given that this happened so long ago (like nearly 2 decades), I feel that adcoms would question how this impacted me...

Thoughts?

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[Affiche]

I ran into a similar problem and I ended up deciding to write two diversity statements and two obstacle essays. Unfortunately, a few of my secondaries are worded in such a way that I can't recycle the same essay for both schools. It sounds like you're running into a similar problem.

For an obstacle overcome, I think it would be excellent to talk about how you've learned to work with someone who may have been difficult to work with. After all, physicians work as part of a team. On the other hand, this doesn't necessary qualify as a "difficult obstacle in your life", but assimilating to a new culture does.

I think sometimes we focus too much on writing one essay that can be recycled instead of viewing each secondary independently. It's hard to do with so many applications, but if you're pre-writing then I think you should strive to view these questions independently and make sure you're answering them fully. Recycling the same essay over and over may not answer the exact question you're being asked, and I would personally rather write two excellent, well-crafted essays than submit the same vague and mediocre one to multiple schools.

 

[nwts]

I'd say it's mostly true that the most important thing is your response, not the obstacle. In your case, that means that you have to be extremely careful not to write negatively about your coworker. No matter how much of a jerk he is, talking negatively about others is never a good idea in your application. I would try to phrase it as something along the lines of "we have personality differences" rather than "he's extremely rude to me, despite my efforts to be polite and respectful to him." No matter how true the latter is, it just doesn't come off well to say it.

Earlier, I said that it's mostly true that your response is the important thing, not the obstacle. Well, to a certain extent the obstacle does matter. You don't want it to be so trivial that it seems like you live the most privileged life anyone has every lived (i.e. don't say: "One time someone cut me in line at the grocery store.") Barring anything obnoxiously trivial like that, I feel like it's important to indicate that you understand the relative severity of your obstacle. I could be wrong, but I feel like it's always good to indicate that you realize that dealing with a difficult coworker is tough, but it does not make you one of the most heavily burdened people in the world. You don't have to make a huge, noticeable statement about how this obstacle isn't near as bad as others' obstacles, but you can subtly indicate that you know it isn't the end of the world. I feel like acknowledging that many others have much more difficult obstacles shows that you aren't one of those "woe is me" types who thinks that nobody could possibly understand how terribly difficult your life is. Once you've subtly done that, then yes, it's all about your response.

 

[nRomaleos]

As I advise most students, it isnt the event/situation itself that matters. It is how it affected you, how it challenged you, and how you worked from a rational logical basis to resolve it and the internal issues you overcame in doing so. It can be as trivial as you like but then you need to make sure the reader understands why it was such a challenge to you.

What are your thoughts about "most significant achievement outside the classroom"?
Excluding the obvious, are there situations where the accomplishment can become too trivial?

 

[nwts]

What are your thoughts about "most significant achievement outside the classroom"?
Excluding the obvious, are there situations where the accomplishment can become too trivial?

I'm not an adcom, but I thought I'd chime in. It seems like the most important thing is that you show how it was important to you. As gonnif said, organizing a family barbeque could be an appropriate answer to this question. However, that does not mean that anyone who has ever organized a family barbeque could use this as an appropriate answer to the question. If you could explain why it was a significant accomplishment for you to organize the barbeque, then it is a good answer. If it sounds like you opened up a scrapbook and wrote about the first picture you saw, then it is a poor answer. It's not so much the achievement (except, as gonnif said, that it has to actually be a good thing), but it's more about being able to articulate why it was important to you.

 

[Oranges2]

As I advise most students, it isnt the event/situation itself that matters. It is how it affected you, how it challenged you, and how you worked from a rational logical basis to resolve it and the internal issues you overcame in doing so. It can be as trivial as you like but then you need to make sure the reader understands why it was such a challenge to you.

I feel that my situation with colleague was definitely one of the more tangible and real challenges I have had to deal with - do you think this would still be appropriate for questions that ask "describe a difficult challenge/obstacle you have had in your life and how you overcame it?" vs. "describe a time when working with someone has been difficult." Sorry if this is redundant...

@nwts - thanks. solid advice, i'm definitely making sure my language isn't aggressive

@rachiie01 - yaa, I actually have 2 diversity essays as well ! I could talk about culture assimilation for some of the challenge prompts, but it may come off bs-y, idk like i'm trying to make a whole lot outta nothing you know? I want to use my first option as much as possible