Posting yet another question about OIE section of the essay.
I am wavering back and forth on whether I want to include this part in my application and would love some feedback. I am an older, non-trad career changer who only 4 years ago finally had the time/money/ability to return to school and pursue medicine. A lot of this is because of my education growing up, and not being prepared for college the first time, so majoring in something I had no clue about and did not really have career prospects.
I have written an essay, basically describing how I was pulled out of school in 2nd grade to be homeschooled. My parents were very religious at the time and the curriculum was bible based and as you can imagine excluded many standard topics. It was basically a free for all at home, I did my work alone and by middle school was also grading my own work as well. The homeschool community around me was very focused on girls becoming moms/homemakers, not pursuing higher education so I just didn't have that kind of guidance, especially not around pursuing anything science related. By the time high school came around I was extremely behind, which I knew because my friends in public school were telling me what they were learning and I had basically no clue what they were talking about. I begged to go to regular school, and finally in 11th-12th grade I was able to go to a real school. I detail how it was difficult to catch up and graduate, but I did and I earned a scholarship to my in state university. I still struggled my first year of college and didn't have career/college counseling before attending, so really had no direction about what I wanted to do with my life. Basically it wasn't until my senior year that I finally thought about what I might want to do with my life, and by then it felt too late obviously to make any changes, so I just focused on getting a job since I was graduating into a recession.
Is that something you would consider a proper impactful experience? I had access to extra curriculars, we were not on gov't assistance or anything, but this is a huge area of my life that held me back for years while I caught up to my peers. It definitely had an affect on my ability to pursue further higher education for a long time.
I just also don't want to come across as some sort of sob story, especially because I'm now 34 and....maybe it was just too long ago? I could also see just using this story as a challenge/adversity type essay in a secondary prompt.
Would love any feedback!
I am wavering back and forth on whether I want to include this part in my application and would love some feedback. I am an older, non-trad career changer who only 4 years ago finally had the time/money/ability to return to school and pursue medicine. A lot of this is because of my education growing up, and not being prepared for college the first time, so majoring in something I had no clue about and did not really have career prospects.
I have written an essay, basically describing how I was pulled out of school in 2nd grade to be homeschooled. My parents were very religious at the time and the curriculum was bible based and as you can imagine excluded many standard topics. It was basically a free for all at home, I did my work alone and by middle school was also grading my own work as well. The homeschool community around me was very focused on girls becoming moms/homemakers, not pursuing higher education so I just didn't have that kind of guidance, especially not around pursuing anything science related. By the time high school came around I was extremely behind, which I knew because my friends in public school were telling me what they were learning and I had basically no clue what they were talking about. I begged to go to regular school, and finally in 11th-12th grade I was able to go to a real school. I detail how it was difficult to catch up and graduate, but I did and I earned a scholarship to my in state university. I still struggled my first year of college and didn't have career/college counseling before attending, so really had no direction about what I wanted to do with my life. Basically it wasn't until my senior year that I finally thought about what I might want to do with my life, and by then it felt too late obviously to make any changes, so I just focused on getting a job since I was graduating into a recession.
Is that something you would consider a proper impactful experience? I had access to extra curriculars, we were not on gov't assistance or anything, but this is a huge area of my life that held me back for years while I caught up to my peers. It definitely had an affect on my ability to pursue further higher education for a long time.
I just also don't want to come across as some sort of sob story, especially because I'm now 34 and....maybe it was just too long ago? I could also see just using this story as a challenge/adversity type essay in a secondary prompt.
Would love any feedback!
