Greatest Challenge Overcome = Overcoming Perfectionism?

[Liquidiamond]

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[hoihaie]

and how has that affected your life negatively?

 

[DocConk]

Sounds an awful lot like it could quickly become a "my greatest weakness is actually a strength" type of essay. Tread lightly.

 

[Conflagration]

That sort of screams humble bragging to me, tbh.

It's sort of like "My greatest challenge was binge eating, so I decided to hell with it and now I make prize moneys gorging myself on hotdogs"

I don't know, I don't see a lesson learned in that. Maybe that's just my midnight brain talking.

 

[Gauss44]

Sounds like a fantastic idea to me: However, you will need to DIFFERENTIATE between striving for excellent work and being a ¨perfectionist.¨ Many people find that when they defeat ¨perfectionism¨ (or stop being a ¨perfectionist¨) their work performance IMPROVES, they become less critical of themselves and others, and their anxiety level decreases. Perfectionism is NOT the same as encouraging, striving for, and cultivating excellent work. It can lead to the OPPOSITE.

So make sure you define, ¨perfectionism.¨

How ¨perfectionism¨ can go wrong: http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=28505

 

[Aerus]

What was so struggling about perfectionism? Was it dehabilitating? Or are you using this as a way to brag about A+'s?


Sent from The World Tree using SDN Mobile

 

[Liquidiamond]

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[allantois]

It has affected my life negatively because I became so consumed in my work and had little time for anything else that I damaged relationships with people that I had and hurt those around me. I ignored the work-life balance. Is it perhaps a better idea to talk about how I overcame the inability to balance work and life?

Be careful not to discredit the good grades that you made

 

[Liquidiamond]

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[Conflagration]

Maybe you could try to articulate that as more of a "My greatest challenge was one of my own making; I had to fight my own unhealthy thoughts and feelings to become a better person" sort of thing.

 

[Goro]

You'll have to do better than that.

I really want to write about this for my essay, but I'm not sure if it would be viewed negatively. To give some context, over the period of time that I was a perfectionist, my transcript was literally littered with A+'s, so there is academic evidence of my transition. What does SDN think?

 

[Gauss44]

Of course I will not be mentioning the A+'s in the essay, I think the adcoms can infer that from my transcript if need be. It was struggling because I literally had no time for anything else other than work. I left no room for mistakes in my work and literally made sure I was getting everything 100% correct. Since then, I have become a happier person who accepts the fact that I am not perfect and have been able to spend time on other things such as my hobbies and forming meaningful relationships.

Perhaps, your work has also improved:

For some people, being a ¨perfectionist,¨ results in nervousness and anxiety about their own performance, and distracting irritation over other people's imperfections. Not being a ¨perfectionist,¨ sometime relieves those symptoms. Not being anxious, nervous, distracted, up tight, irritated, critical, etc. CAN IMPROVE WORK! <---Perfectionists tend toward all those things because no one's, ¨perfect.¨ A true ¨perfectionist¨ is NEVER SATISFIED due to having UNREALISTIC expectations.

 

[Aerus]

Of course I will not be mentioning the A+'s in the essay, I think the adcoms can infer that from my transcript if need be. It was struggling because I literally had no time for anything else other than work. I left no room for mistakes in my work and literally made sure I was getting everything 100% correct. Since then, I have become a happier person who accepts the fact that I am not perfect and have been able to spend time on other things such as my hobbies and forming meaningful relationships.

I would word it in the way you said in your other post about struggling to balance work with friends/family. You can even talk about the underlying reasons, like "I sought validation from myself and lacked confidence" or "I was afraid of opening up to others so I became consumed in my work" or whatever reasons you had that led to this.

Just don't use "perfectionism" since it has a humble brag sort of connotation that screams "I also have struggles and flaws! For one, I'm way too perfect at everything I do and just want to be like one of you plebs!"


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[Liquidiamond]

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[mimelim]

It has been done a lot. Just off the top of my head, two years ago, probably read 5-6 saying it. All negative parts of their applications. Not going to sink your app, but certainly not going to help. Find something better.

 

[Mad Jack]

"My greatest challenge was my obsessively constructive behavior. I've since learned to be a slacker, as evidenced by my steadily decreasing grades"

Yeah no.

 

[fellowstudent92]

lol please don't do this. Perfectionism is one of the most common interview answers that probably make most adcoms barf. I can't imagine what it would do to an adcom who had to read an ENTIRE ESSAY on it.

 

[sobored]

It has affected my life negatively because I became so consumed in my work and had little time for anything else that I damaged relationships with people that I had and hurt those around me. I ignored the work-life balance. Is it perhaps a better idea to talk about how I overcame the inability to balance work and life?

This is actually a personality disorder. If you really are like this you might want to seek some counseling. Also, don't write about it...it sounds contrived and completely uninteresting.

 

[ThisCouldBeYou]

Oh yes, yes, yes. Write this. Your perfectionism towards a zillion A+s will make my lowly grades seem so welcome!

 

[darkjedi]

I think it would definitely be more of a turn off than a boon to your application if you wrote something like that.

 

[Liquidiamond]

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[ThisCouldBeYou]

That's much better. You really don't want to "give it a name" when describing your perfectionist attributes.

 

[F.Underwood]

This is too cliche, I would look for something different. I garuntee you the adcoms have heard this many times.

 

[mimelim]

Ok thanks everyone so much! I will not be writing about it and am so glad I asked this before proceeding. Would it still be ok to write about difficulty finding a work-life balance?

Virtually every student eyeing professional schools has had to go through this, even if they don't write about it. This is about you. If this is truly the "greatest challenge" you have ever overcome, then use it. That is what the prompt is for, answer it appropriately. Just don't expect it to do much of anything for your application. (ie. plenty of people get in with stuff like this, but typically they didn't need a secondary prompt to help them out anyways)

 

[Mad Jack]

Has nothing ever truly challenged you? I mean, really, there's got to be something that you struggled through academically, emotionally, spiritually, or financially. This is a hard-hitting question, weak answers look bad.

 

[TheWeeIceMan]

I wrote my greatest challenge essay about being too good looking.

 

[Monika12]

My prof who is an interview coach told us to avoid saying : "My biggest weakness is that I work too hard". What you're saying sounds the same to me. There is nothing wrong with having A+s all the time and working hard and doing only this. ALL GOOD PRE MED STUDENTS FEEL THE SAME WAY!!!

 

[Liquidiamond]

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[meander]

Well I was part of an accelerated program in high school that exposed me to several advanced college science courses. Even though it was difficult and most people quit, I completed the program despite wanting to quit multiple times. Would this be better?

Again, virtually every med school applicant has been through something like this. Have you considered challenges you've faced that weren't academic? It's OK to talk about that stuff in your application.

 

[claduva94]

Well I was part of an accelerated program in high school that exposed me to several advanced college science courses. Even though it was difficult and most people quit, I completed the program despite wanting to quit multiple times. Would this be better?

I did happen to touch on it on my primary app though.

No. High school events should almost never be included.

 

[Conflagration]

Maybe this question helps you.

What specifically have you had to overcome to get where you are today?

Make a list, then organize that list with whichever one screwed you over the most at the top, and so on.

If perfectionism is the top of that list, among other negative thought patterns, maybe you should try and address the broader issue of poor self-image and finding worth within yourself.

 

[Aerus]

No. High school events should almost never be included.

I disagree. Many have experienced their greatest challenge during childhood throughout adolescence. You're thinking about listing activities in the "Experiences" section, which ideally should be recent stuff.

 

[claduva94]

I disagree. Many have experienced their greatest challenge during childhood throughout adolescence. You're thinking about listing activities in the "Experiences" section, which ideally should be recent stuff.

I think it depends. If it is part of your childhood, such as poverty, it is truly part of who you are and extends into your later life. However, that is not the case for a difficult program in high school. I definitely agree that their are instances where it is ok but I don't think this is one of them.

 

[Aerus]

I think it depends. If it is part of your childhood, such as poverty, it is truly part of who you are and extends into your later life. However, that is not the case for a difficult program in high school. I definitely agree that their are instances where it is ok but I don't think this is one of them.

While I agree that talking about a high school dual enrollment program isn't the best topic for such as essay, I was only qualifying your extreme response towards pre-college experiences ("High school events should almost never be included"). Struggles you went through prior to college can DEFINITELY be mentioned in essays that ask about your greatest challenge. It would be ridiculous for anyone to expect that most people's greatest challenges were experienced in a bubbled environment like college, although it definitely can happen.

 

[claduva94]

While I agree that talking about a high school dual enrollment program isn't the best topic for such as essay, I was only qualifying your extreme response towards pre-college experiences ("High school events should almost never be included"). Struggles you went through prior to college can DEFINITELY be mentioned in essays that ask about your greatest challenge. It would be ridiculous for anyone to expect that most people's greatest challenges were experienced in a bubbled environment like college, although it definitely can happen.

You are absolutely correct. But my point is those struggles are typically long term and have ramifications for college life.