Adversity Essay Options

[deleted952648]

Hey everyone, I'm undecided between two topics for my adversity essay. I'd appreciate any input.

1. I was absolutely horrible at math throughout life and it caused a lot of difficulty in my undergraduate career. I got some very bad grades in Trig, Chem, Physics because of my math struggles. I overcame this through perseverance and getting the right help. I then became an elementary school math teacher and tried to help children avoid my struggles by building a strong foundation in math.

I would prefer this option, as I think I can write it well and detail how I overcame a big struggle and eventually channeled that towards helping kids. I can write about how my experience gave me belief that challenges can be conquered and lead to good things, etc. I also like this topic because I can tout my teaching experience as well as my upward trend (4.0 GPA over 27 post-bac credits) and also explain my low GPA. My reservation is that I've seen advice saying talking about an academic issue for the adversity essay is weak.

2. I had two very similar car accidents within a span of a couple months. Both were scary and very financially damaging, and I had to navigate all of this while still working part-time and taking classes. Through this I learned about the unpredictable nature of life, how calamities can arise at the worst times, and the need to be prepared and poised while navigating through tough circumstances.

Please let me know which essay sounds better, or if I should think of something else entirely. Thanks!

@Goro @gonnif @LizzyM @gyngyn

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Lampy]

1. I was absolutely horrible at math throughout life and it caused a lot of difficulty in my undergraduate career. I got some very bad grades in Trig, Chem, Physics because of my math struggles. I overcame this through perseverance and getting the right help. I then became an elementary school math teacher and tried to help children avoid my struggles by building a strong foundation in math.

I would prefer this option, as I think I can write it well and detail how I overcame a big struggle and eventually channeled that towards helping kids. I can write about how my experience gave me belief that challenges can be conquered and lead to good things, etc. I also like this topic because I can tout my teaching experience as well as my upward trend (4.0 GPA over 27 post-bac credits) and also explain my low GPA. My reservation is that I've seen advice saying talking about an academic issue for the adversity essay is weak.

2. I had two very similar car accidents within a span of a couple months. Both were scary and very financially damaging, and I had to navigate all of this while still working part-time and taking classes. Through this I learned about the unpredictable nature of life, how calamities can arise at the worst times, and the need to be prepared and poised while navigating through tough circumstances.

Please let me know which essay sounds better, or if I should think of something else entirely. Thanks!

@Goro @gonnif @LizzyM @gyngyn

Just the lowly opinion of another premed here but
1 seems like you could give it a unique spin with the teacher angle but honestly that seems like a better diversity than adversity essay just because it seems like academic challenges are frowned upon
2 reallyyy depends on if you were at fault for the accidents and what happened but I really do like how you phrased what you learned in this post, it just seems more vivid than 1's explanation

If you were at fault through carelessness or something for 2 then either think of sm else of go with 1

 

[Mr.Smile12]

My opinions:
I like #1 as a strengths/weaknesses response (obviously on the weaknesses side). A lot of people are afraid of or don't do well in math, so I wouldn't call it an adversity unless you have something medically diagnosed (like a numbers version of dyslexia, which is a real thing).

 

[deleted952648]

For the accidents, no other cars/people involved and I wasn't at fault.

 

[deleted952648]

My opinions:
I like #1 as a strengths/weaknesses response (obviously on the weaknesses side). A lot of people are afraid of or don't do well in math, so I wouldn't call it an adversity unless you have something medically diagnosed (like a numbers version of dyslexia, which is a real thing).

Would it be fine for questions asking about showing resilience? Or is that basically the same as an adversity question? Thanks!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

AAMC says: Resilience and Adaptability: Demonstrates tolerance of stressful or changing environments or situations and adapts effectively to them; is persistent, even under difficult situations; recovers from setbacks.

The problem for me is that difficulty in math is not an environment or situation. It is a skill that needs developing.

 

[Goro]

The car accidents.