Advice for "Overcoming Challenges" Essay Options (Please help)

[Kirby Smart]

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Hi guys!

So I must preface that I am a white male from a middle class family, and though I know these types of essays don't have to pertain to some sort of struggle as a result of race, gender, or socioeconomic status, I'm lucky and grateful to have lived a life free from what I would consider many difficult challenges. Here are a couple ideas I have for such an essay and I was wondering if a few of you could tell me how ****ty they are lol.

1.) Losing my grandmother to cancer as a highschooler: This really was one of the hardest and most stressful parts of my life as my whole family lives in the same town and is very close, however losing grandparents is certainly not an uncommon challenge to overcome an I don't want to come off as cliche or trying to milk it or anything. I have since been interested in hematology/oncology and spent a lot of time volunteering at a cancer clinic (200+ hours) and shadowing oncologists so maybe that would fit nicely with this story? Though I'm not sure how much you "overcome" losing a loved one haha.

2.) Being denied to my top undergraduate school (large state school), then gaining a 3.9+ in 3 semesters and transferring to that school and getting accepted into their honors program: I know this one has white privilege written all over it, but as far as truly overcoming something, I feel like it answers the question well. I was truly driven after being denied there and dedicated myself to crushing my undergrad classes and transferring. The honors program of school I got accepted to likes to tout that it's competitiveness is comparable to yale undergrad (I know, probably BS.) but it's certainly competitive none the less.

3.) A combination of one of these stories + a paragraph explaining how I understand that I have lived a privileged life in many ways and have volunteered for those less fortunate as a result: I feel this one most of you will either like or hate, but I've had grad student mentors in the past say that adcoms are impressed when you can acknowledge your privilege. Dumb idea?

Sorry for writing a novel here, but please give me some feedback if you have any! Thanks!

 

[deleted987519]

Hi guys!

So I must preface that I am a white male from a middle class family, and though I know these types of essays don't have to pertain to some sort of struggle as a result of race, gender, or socioeconomic status, I'm lucky and grateful to have lived a life free from what I would consider many difficult challenges. Here are a couple ideas I have for such an essay and I was wondering if a few of you could tell me how ****ty they are lol.

1.) Losing my grandmother to cancer as a highschooler: This really was one of the hardest and most stressful parts of my life as my whole family lives in the same town and is very close, however losing grandparents is certainly not an uncommon challenge to overcome an I don't want to come off as cliche or trying to milk it or anything. I have since been interested in hematology/oncology and spent a lot of time volunteering at a cancer clinic (200+ hours) and shadowing oncologists so maybe that would fit nicely with this story? Though I'm not sure how much you "overcome" losing a loved one haha.

2.) Being denied to my top undergraduate school (large state school), then gaining a 3.9+ in 3 semesters and transferring to that school and getting accepted into their honors program: I know this one has white privilege written all over it, but as far as truly overcoming something, I feel like it answers the question well. I was truly driven after being denied there and dedicated myself to crushing my undergrad classes and transferring. The honors program of school I got accepted to likes to tout that it's competitiveness is comparable to yale undergrad (I know, probably BS.) but it's certainly competitive none the less.

3.) A combination of one of these stories + a paragraph explaining how I understand that I have lived a privileged life in many ways and have volunteered for those less fortunate as a result: I feel this one most of you will either like or hate, but I've had grad student mentors in the past say that adcoms are impressed when you can acknowledge your privilege. Dumb idea?

Sorry for writing a novel here, but please give me some feedback if you have any! Thanks!

I think it is better to leave out the academic challenge

 

[deleted972488]

#1 is a much better topic.

Though I'm not sure how much you "overcome" losing a loved one

You've overcome the grief and your experiences have motivated you to pursue a career in oncology, where you can help other people going through similar situations.

 

[907914]

Number 2 is lame. Cool and good job, but being a previously failed applicant turn good applicant is not really an introspective life challenge.

I would shoot for #1

 

[ciestar]

Do not use 2

 

[Kirby Smart]

Hahaha alright thanks so much everyone for your feedback! I'll wipe that second option from my brain Men in Black style.

Did anyone else focus on the loss of a loved one on their "challenges" essay? As I mentioned, my only concern is coming off insincere or anything like I'm trying to milk the situation for my benefit haha, but I guess it's probably a common topic used.

 

[deleted972488]

my only concern is coming off insincere or anything like I'm trying to milk the situation for my benefit

Just be honest about how the situation affected you and how this motivated you going forward.

I have had cancer and I know the people around me were affected, too, and I wouldn't say that they were milking the situation if they chose to write about it in an essay.

 

[Kirby Smart]

@Goro or @LizzyM do either of you have an opinion on including something about recognizing privilege in this type of essay? Is it irrelevant/dumb or potentially insightful for adcoms? I genuinely believe I've lived a privileged life in many ways and this is one of the reasons I want to give back to my community/be a doctor but would it just automatically sound like pandering?

 

[Kirby Smart]

Just be honest about how the situation affected you and how this motivated you going forward.

I have had cancer and I know the people around me were affected, too, and I wouldn't say that they were milking the situation if they chose to write about it in an essay.

Got it, thanks so much!

 

[Goro]

@Goro or @LizzyM do either of you have an opinion on including something about recognizing privilege in this type of essay? Is it irrelevant/dumb or potentially insightful for adcoms? I genuinely believe I've lived a privileged life in many ways and this is one of the reasons I want to give back to my community/be a doctor but would it just automatically sound like pandering?

Please read the bottom of my sig lines

 

[Cornfed101]

@Goro or @LizzyM do either of you have an opinion on including something about recognizing privilege in this type of essay? Is it irrelevant/dumb or potentially insightful for adcoms? I genuinely believe I've lived a privileged life in many ways and this is one of the reasons I want to give back to my community/be a doctor but would it just automatically sound like pandering?

Don’t say you’ve lived a privileged life. How would that benefit you? While losing a grandparent is not terribly unique, your specific relationship and how it affected your family is 100% unique. How did it affect you? What did you learn? The answers to these questions are much more valuable than wasting space telling people you’ve been privileged and, in essence, apologizing for your biggest challenge in life. Own it and reflect on it.

 

[Kirby Smart]

Don’t say you’ve lived a privileged life. How would that benefit you?

Haha to be honest, I don't know. I've just had grad students tell me they think it would be impressive to "acknowledge my privilege", however they mentioned adding that to my personal statement. I didn't because I thought it wasn't relevant enough so I was wondering if it was really something to consider adding here, but thanks for pointing out that it isn't necessary or helpful.

Thanks a lot for the other advice as well!

 

[LizzyM]

I need to see the specific prompt. I don't believe in writing a single essay that serves a number of different prompts about adversity, diversity, challenge.

 

[907914]

I don't believe in writing a single essay that serves a number of different prompts about adversity, diversity, challenge.

On this note (not specifically for OP but for anyone reading having similar issues) I would recommend starting out your secondaries by writing one big honking life story that covers your background, your identitities, your challenges etc.

This will do 2 things:
1) You have a rough draft for the Vandy autobio and like 3/4 of the Duke essay prompts if you are applying there
2) It allways you the opportunity to be introspective in a 'whole applicant' kind of way. This will allow your essays to be more fluid and present a narrative between them, as this one long autobio - while not containing exactly copypasta adversity, diversity, challenge essays - can act as a solid rough draft that allows you to tailor your specific narrative.

 

[Kirby Smart]

I need to see the specific prompt. I don't believe in writing a single essay that serves a number of different prompts about adversity, diversity, challenge.

The one I am currently working on is "Describe a non-academic challenge you have faced and explain how you overcame it."

Edit: I'm not necessarily planning to copy and paste this for different prompts, but I'll likely use the same topic for anything asking about overcoming a "difficult situation" or "challenge" or "adversity". There's another I am working on that asks about a time I failed, so I may use the academic one for this but I'm trying to think of other options.

 

[LizzyM]

It says "non-academic" so #2 is not a good choice. How did you "overcome" your grandmother's cancer? You are right to see that that is not a good topic as it was not a challenge that you faced and overcame.

Now, you mentioned that your grandmother lived closed by and that she died. I would imagine that you missed her very much. How did you overcome the challenge brought on by loneliness that you felt after she was gone? You might say that you got involved in other activities that brought meaning to your life and than volunteering in a cancer clinic has brought you close to people who are going through what your grandmother went through and helping them has helped you to cope with your loss. Does that sound about right?

 

[Kirby Smart]

Now, you mentioned that your grandmother lived closed by and that she died. I would imagine that you missed her very much. How did you overcome the challenge brought on by loneliness that you felt after she was gone? You might say that you got involved in other activities that brought meaning to your life and than volunteering in a cancer clinic has brought you close to people who are going through what your grandmother went through and helping them has helped you to cope with your loss. Does that sound about right?

Thanks for that advice! I'm about halfway through writing something very similar to what you described where I detail how I overcame the grief and feelings of helplessness that came with the loss. For anonymity's sake I won't go into too much more detail but thanks again for your help!

 

[stressedandpremed]

On this note (not specifically for OP but for anyone reading having similar issues) I would recommend starting out your secondaries by writing one big honking life story that covers your background, your identitities, your challenges etc.

This will do 2 things:
1) You have a rough draft for the Vandy autobio and like 3/4 of the Duke essay prompts if you are applying there
2) It allways you the opportunity to be introspective in a 'whole applicant' kind of way. This will allow your essays to be more fluid and present a narrative between them, as this one long autobio - while not containing exactly copypasta adversity, diversity, challenge essays - can act as a solid rough draft that allows you to tailor your specific narrative.

@MemeLord, this may single-handedly be the best advice I've received to date so far re: approaching secondaries. THANK YOU my friend.