Mentioning Marriage in Personal Adversity Prompt

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genghis99

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Currently tackling Case Western's adversity prompt which asks for 3500 characters of "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"

So, to preface, I'm a current college graduate who got married at 21. In my culture, romantic relationships outside of marriage generally result in social ostracization, and I wanted to keep both my relationships to my parents and the woman I loved. We decided against eloping and wanted to stick it out and do the whole thing in a way that kept everyone together. The whole process, starting with getting shaken down by her father, waiting for a year to get married, dealing with the slight cultural differences across our backgrounds (Indian/Pakistani), and especially negotiating the difference in values between what my father had for his marriage (think masculine, male-centered, etc) and the values I'm trying to carry into mine all were personally defining to me. I think it's a great story that shows a lot of who I am and is probably the only struggle I have that I can discuss at length for 3500 characters in a meaningful way.

That being said, I'm speaking as a member of my culture, where young marriages are uncommon, but not entirely unheard of. The closest analogue I can think of to my culture in wider American society is Mormonism and I'm not sure how positively their practices are viewed. I don't want my story to become overshadowed by negative reactions to my decision to get married at 21, so I'm on the fence whether to use this narrative or not.

Your perspective is much appreciated, thanks SDN!

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Currently tackling Case Western's adversity prompt which asks for 3500 characters of "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"

So, to preface, I'm a current college graduate who got married at 21. In my culture, romantic relationships outside of marriage generally result in social ostracization, and I wanted to keep both my relationships to my parents and the woman I loved. We decided against eloping and wanted to stick it out and do the whole thing in a way that kept everyone together. The whole process, starting with getting shaken down by her father, waiting for a year to get married, dealing with the slight cultural differences across our backgrounds (Indian/Pakistani), and especially negotiating the difference in values between what my father had for his marriage (think masculine, male-centered, etc) and the values I'm trying to carry into mine all were personally defining to me. I think it's a great story that shows a lot of who I am and is probably the only struggle I have that I can discuss at length for 3500 characters in a meaningful way.

That being said, I'm speaking as a member of my culture, where young marriages are uncommon, but not entirely unheard of. The closest analogue I can think of to my culture in wider American society is Mormonism and I'm not sure how positively their practices are viewed. I don't want my story to become overshadowed by negative reactions to my decision to get married at 21, so I'm on the fence whether to use this narrative or not.

Your perspective is much appreciated, thanks SDN!
Perfect subject for the prompt
 
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"Please include
  1. how you got through the experience,
  2. how you handled the uncertainty or stress, and
  3. what you learned about yourself as a result"
That's the key to the prompt. What did you do to get through this, how did you handle stress, and what did you learn about yourself. The school expects you to face challenges as a student and as a physician and how you've managed in the past and what you've learned that you'll use going forward is important to that school.
 
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