To preface, I know that most people recommend staying away from talking about eating disorders for challenge essays (which I have) but now I have one secondary prompt that is asking for our "greatest challenge" - it reads:
"The Admissions Committee is interested in gaining more insight into you as a person. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience, how you handled the uncertainty or stress, and what you learned about yourself as a result."
This prompt feels like it is asking for something deeper than the smaller challenges I've used for past essays (navigating the U.S. education system on my own bc of foreign parents, interpersonal/workplace challenges, etc) and if I'm being honest, my eating disorder IS one of the biggest things that "helped shape me as a person". It was mainly at the beginning of high school so I would present it as a long time ago and I would also present it just as an unhealthy relationship with food. I developed a passion for fitness/health/nutrition since then and it's been a huge part of why I've done the things I've done, like working at gyms, becoming a ski patroller, getting into hiking/backpacking, etc. This healthy relationship I have with food and exercise now is largely what I used to handle stress in college and is my biggest outlet now. If I paint it as something from a long time ago and talk about all of these positives, do you think it would be okay?
"The Admissions Committee is interested in gaining more insight into you as a person. Please describe a significant personal challenge you have faced, one which you feel has helped to shape you as a person. Examples may include a moral or ethical dilemma, a situation of personal adversity, or a hurdle in your life that you worked hard to overcome. Please include how you got through the experience, how you handled the uncertainty or stress, and what you learned about yourself as a result."
This prompt feels like it is asking for something deeper than the smaller challenges I've used for past essays (navigating the U.S. education system on my own bc of foreign parents, interpersonal/workplace challenges, etc) and if I'm being honest, my eating disorder IS one of the biggest things that "helped shape me as a person". It was mainly at the beginning of high school so I would present it as a long time ago and I would also present it just as an unhealthy relationship with food. I developed a passion for fitness/health/nutrition since then and it's been a huge part of why I've done the things I've done, like working at gyms, becoming a ski patroller, getting into hiking/backpacking, etc. This healthy relationship I have with food and exercise now is largely what I used to handle stress in college and is my biggest outlet now. If I paint it as something from a long time ago and talk about all of these positives, do you think it would be okay?
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