Greatest challenge essays

[givesumacceptpls]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi I have a question about the greatest challenge essays, is age relevant???
I ask because my greatest challenge occurred when I was 14-15 years of age. Will adcoms view this in a negative light, do they prefer challenges that occurred from university age (18+) to the present?

 

[907914]

Hi I have a question about the greatest challenge essays, is age relevant???
I ask because my greatest challenge occurred when I was 14-15 years of age. Will adcoms view this in a negative light, do they prefer challenges that occurred from university age (18+) to the present?

Was the challenge something on the order of losing a family member?

Or was it your parents forcing you to shadow grandpa in dentistry when you knew medicine was your passion?

For younger ages, the challenge should be a life course type thing. Otherwise, you should stick to challenges on the path to medicine since you became a premed.

 

[ciestar]

My challenge essay was about my entire childhood living in poverty with parents in jail and alcoholics.

It doesn’t matter. If you overcame something big, use it. If you can write a powerful essay from it, even better. Tell your life story as you see fit, and everything we experience shapes us to who we are today. Resiliency is a huge deal.

 

[965978]

My challenge essay was about my entire childhood living in poverty with parents in jail and alcoholics.

It doesn’t matter. If you overcame something big, use it. If you can write a powerful essay from it, even better. Tell your life story as you see fit, and everything we experience shapes us to who we are today. Resiliency is a huge deal.

It also matters how you write it. I grew up getting severely bullied at school and then having to come home to an abusive dad. But I was too scared to write about it because I was still so angry about my childhood so I picked a milder example.

 

[catnip12]

I have no authority except as a fellow applicant but I think that you can absolutely write about a significant hardship from back then. You could talk about some of the effects that it had on you immediately, and what you’ve learnt about yourself in the years that you’ve pondered that hardship / childhood trauma.

For my application I talked about an issue that spanned my entire childhood and one I didn’t even realize had affected me so viscerally until I found myself bursting into tears while answering one of those secondary application prompts. Ha I even took a break to do some serious soul searching and later even confronted the people involved in my childhood trauma. But anyway, I later found a way of shaping that experience into the narrative of my app, which is I guess the point I’m trying to make here.

The hardship is what it is, and like @ClamShell said above, the important part is to find a way of talking about it that only adds to the central theme of the entire application of you choose to share it. You’ll be fine IMO.

 

[ciestar]

It also matters how you write it. I grew up getting severely bullied at school and then having to come home to an abusive dad. But I was too scared to write about it because I was still so angry about my childhood so I picked a milder example.

I think my story is what got me 10 II in the first place. Now, I won’t lie. Seeing someone in DTs brings me back to that place I don’t want to be. I’ve learned to cope with it all for the most part, but I’ve also accepted that the “scars” will never fade completely. We all deal with things in our own way.

 

[Rachapkis]

You will be fine if you use a challenge from your childhood, as long as you can relate the example to who you are today. Does it exemplify your resiliency? Does it demonstrate your enduring optimism in the face of adversity? Does it show that you can lead in difficult situations? Write the essay, see if it resonates with you, and then share it with your kitchen cabinet for their reaction.

 

[givesumacceptpls]

Thank you guys, all of your answers help immensely😍