Challenge Essay Question

[hotticket]

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Quick question about what y'all think I should write about.

1. Overcoming poverty that spans throughout my whole life. (worked from young age, odd jobs and such, until I could really work, continued through college). I worked to afford things I think many would consider normal.

2. Same as 1 but only working while going to college (not childhood or HS) and getting adjusted. I'm first gen college so I didn't really have a blueprint. Scholarly activity is not emphasized in my family. Talk about how I had to work while doing normal premed stuff + learning how to do school (poor HS performance).

3. idk I'm trying to think of more because I feel like neither of these fit!!!!

Any tips or suggestions on how I could think of a good topic are super appreciated

 

[Goro]

Both are great! You can certainly tie the two together.

 

[Catalystik]

Quick question about what y'all think I should write about.

1. Overcoming poverty that spans throughout my whole life. (worked from young age, odd jobs and such, until I could really work, continued through college). I worked to afford things I think many would consider normal.

2. Same as 1 but only working while going to college (not childhood or HS) and getting adjusted. I'm first gen college so I didn't really have a blueprint. Scholarly activity is not emphasized in my family. Talk about how I had to work while doing normal premed stuff + learning how to do school (poor HS performance).

3. idk I'm trying to think of more because I feel like neither of these fit!!!!

Any tips or suggestions on how I could think of a good topic are super appreciated

I think #2 would give you a good chance to demonstrate your more-recent time management skills and adaptability in response to a challenge.

 

[hotticket]

@Goro @Catalystik

Thank you both for the response. My only concern is I have seen people on here say "Don't talk about an academic experience for this" if I incorporated learning how to study/working as number 2 is would that be considered an academic experience?

 

[Catalystik]

@Goro @CatalystikMy only concern is I have seen people on here say "Don't talk about an academic experience for this" if I incorporated learning how to study/working as number 2 is would that be considered an academic experience?

Seems to me it is more of a life balance type issue, with you having to work, do ECs, and learn to study.

Did you have a term of bad grades before you started doing well academically?

 

[hotticket]

Seems to me it is more of a life balance type issue, with you having to work, do ECs, and learn to study.

Did you have a term of bad grades before you started doing well academically?

Not necessarily bad but worse. My first semester I think was 3.4 GPA. Which was quite surprising considering my HS GPA was like 1.9.


Yearly trend (Freshman-Junior) was roughly 3.5/3.8/3.9

 

[Catalystik]

Not necessarily bad but worse. My first semester I think was 3.4 GPA. Which was quite surprising considering my HS GPA was like 1.9.


Yearly trend (Freshman-Junior) was roughly 3.5/3.8/3.9

Well done!

 

[Goro]

Not necessarily bad but worse. My first semester I think was 3.4 GPA. Which was quite surprising considering my HS GPA was like 1.9.


Yearly trend (Freshman-Junior) was roughly 3.5/3.8/3.9

Your transcript can speak for itself.

 

[hotticket]

Your transcript can speak for itself.

What do you mean by this? Are you saying I should let my transcript speak for my study habits and talk about other things in my essay?

@Goro @Catalystik Thank you both very much for the help!

 

[Goro]

What do you mean by this? Are you saying I should let my transcript speak for my study habits and talk about other things in my essay?

@Goro @Catalystik Thank you both very much for the help!

Yes, exactly. It's obvious you fixed whatever was hindering you. The prompt is for discussing what the problem was and how you fixed it.

 

[Catalystik]

You won't be talking about the challenge of overcoming a poor GPA, but rather about the challenge of changing your study strategy to meet the demands of a college environment, along-side all the other expectations, without the advantage of family example.