Define "significant hardship"?

[fluffycookie1231]

I'm currently writing my CMU secondary. They asked if I have ever faced "significant hardship". This question is optional. Why do schools ask for significant hardship? What is the difference between significant hardship vs significant challenge?

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[Goro]

I'm currently writing my CMU secondary. They asked if I have ever faced "significant hardship". This question is optional. Why do schools ask for significant hardship? What is the difference between significant hardship vs significant challenge?

Your girlfriend breaking up in you in the middle of exams is a challenge. Your mom getting cancer is a hardship, and you having to drop out of school to take care of her is a hardship

 

[Goro]

They ask about these things because they want to know about your coping skills and grit, as well as things that may have impacted your academic performance

 

[Med Ed]

What is the difference between significant hardship vs significant challenge?

A challenge is something you walk out of a better person.

A hardship is something you limp out of a more broken person.

 

[Isoval]

A challenge is something you walk out of a better person.

A hardship is something you limp out of a more broken person.

I'm stealing this ty

 

[lno1999]

A challenge is something you walk out of a better person.

A hardship is something you limp out of a more broken person.

I got hit by a car while crossing the street during my sophomore year of college. It was less limping out of it and more like a "gasping for air after waking up in the ambulance because of the broken ribs and pain" type of thing 😀

 

[LindaAccepted]

I'm currently writing my CMU secondary. They asked if I have ever faced "significant hardship". This question is optional. Why do schools ask for significant hardship? What is the difference between significant hardship vs significant challenge?

A hardship is something you have no control over and probably didn't want. You can accept a challenge or not accept a challenge. Applying to medical school is a challenge, but you don't have to do it. Deciding to run a marathon is a challenge, but you don't have to do it. Being hit by a car, handling disabilities, or growing up in poverty are hardships. The challenge becomes overcoming the hardships.

 

[bodybuilder2020]

Hardship - your girlfriend left you and on your way out, she left the gate open and your dog ran outside and got lost. Sadly, while your mom was driving home, her tears from finding out that your dad was seeing another woman caused her to run over your dog and hit the utility pole, causing internet outage for a week after which you found out there was an email from a med school asking if you wanted to enroll in the school the day before classes started, and that the email was from a week ago.

Significant hardship. All of the above and then you found out the local Starbucks is out of pumpkin spice latte.

No animal was killed in this story. Spot survived and is now an attending at the Cleveland Clinic.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

A hardship is something you have no control over and probably didn't want. You can accept a challenge or not accept a challenge. Applying to medical school is a challenge, but you don't have to do it. Deciding to run a marathon is a challenge, but you don't have to do it. Being hit by a car, handling disabilities, or growing up in poverty are hardships. The challenge becomes overcoming the hardships.

Yeah. You could have climbed Mt. Everest - that’s a pretty significant challenge. You could have been mauled by a bear after returning from your trip, then had to go through reconstructive surgery and physical therapy - that’s hardship.

 

[aldol16]

It's one of those things that you know it when you see it. If you're asking and have to think hard about it, it probably doesn't apply.

 

[LunaOri]

If you lost your job during the pandemic, and returned home to live with your parents while you studied for the MCAT and prewrote your essays, that is not hardship. If your parents lost their jobs and you returned home to work to support them so they wouldn’t become homeless, that is hardship.

 

[bodybuilder2020]

If you lost your job during the pandemic, and returned home to live with your parents while you studied for the MCAT and prewrote your essays, that is not hardship. If your parents lost their jobs and you returned home to work to support them so they wouldn’t become homeless, that is hardship.

What if you go out to a strip club to celebrate getting a good score on the MCAT and see your mom pole dancing to make ends meet? Is the subsequent trauma hardship? Would it be hardship if you were actually turned on? It might not be hardship, but it's hard.

Thank you, I'll be playing here all week unless I'm banned. Try the meatloaf. My mom made it.