COMMENTS

  1. Why You Don't Have to Write about Trauma in Your College Essay to Stand

    Here's another great example essay that illustrates an approach you can take on your college essay. Personal Statement Example #2: The "Superpower/Skill" Approach For this essay, the author chose something that he was good at (music—in particular, beatboxing) and used it to describe a range of skills, qualities, values, and interests.

  2. Writing About Trauma in College Essays

    Here are some examples of extenuating or remarkable circumstances which students can describe in this section. This is not an exhaustive list, but serves to show the kinds of situations students have discussed before: ... There is sadly no easy way to resolve the problem of trauma essays in college admissions. While students should not feel the ...

  3. Dumping Your Heart Out: "Trauma Dumping" in College Application Essays

    This essay-writing approach has been popularized by viral social media stories, where trauma essays are portrayed as the "make-or-break" factor in college applications; a well-known example is Abigail Mack, who went viral on TikTok after sharing her "letter-S" essay about the loss of a parent. Mack was accepted to Harvard University.

  4. 13 Reasons Why It's OK to Write About Trauma in your College

    (Ashley Lipscomb & Ethan Sawyer, "Addressing Trauma in the College Essay," NACAC 2021) Ask questions that guide your writing toward growth: Great college essays reflect growth and thoughtfulness. It can be helpful in any essay, but especially in one that deals with challenging subjects, to keep a few questions in mind to guide your writing.

  5. When I Applied to College, I Didn't Want to 'Sell My Pain'

    They're told the sky's the limit. As I started to be recognized as a promising student, around eighth grade, I was told, "You're smart and you're from the hood, you're from the ...

  6. College Essays and the Trauma Sweetspot

    Their trauma mustn't appear too severe: No college, certainly not Harvard, wants to admit people who could trigger legal liabilities after a bad mental health episode. That is the essay's ...

  7. The rise of the "trauma essay" in college applications

    As if college applications aren't stressful enough, disadvantaged youth are often encouraged to write about their darkest traumas in their admissions essays, creating a marketable story of resilience that turns "pain into progress," says politics student Tina Yong. She brings this harrowing norm to light, exploring its harms and offering a more equitable process for colleges everywhere.

  8. How to Approach Tragedy and Loss in Your College Essay

    Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 800-273-8255 or a trusted adult. For more advice on college essays, check out our Application Essay Clinic, or if you're in need of mental health advice, check out the tag "mental health.".

  9. There's more than one way to write a college essay

    First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others thinking and writing about public education. "You're smart, you're Asian, you're queer ...

  10. The 'T' Word: Resisting Expectations To Share Trauma In College Essays

    The preliminary findings from my doctoral research reveal that there's more to the story. The growing discourse about college admission essays suggests that most Black students write about ...

  11. The Impact of Trauma on a Human Being

    Trauma plays a significant role in altering the psychological and physiological functioning of the human brain. Studies show that traumatic experiences can cause brain structural, functional, biochemical, and cognitive changes. Symptoms of trauma-related brain damage include difficulty with memory, anxiety, depression, insomnia, fatigue, fear ...

  12. Trauma Dumping for College Acceptance

    The Viral Trauma Essay. In 2021, an admitted Harvard student's personal statement went viral on TikTok. Accumulating over 25.1 million views, the essay focused on hating the letter 's' because it reminded Mack of losing her mother to cancer. Despite her loss, she writes that she "stopped running away from a single 'S,' and began ...

  13. No pain, no gain: The trauma essay in college applications

    Yet, the pressure of the essay extends beyond just those with trauma. For students without such experiences, the personal essay can romanticize the idea of suffering. Moments like the loss of a family member, a mental health breakdown or homelessness are reduced to "something good for your college essay."

  14. College Essays and Trauma: Students Are Being Pushed to Write About

    At its best, the college application is an opportunity for a student to go from being a set of data points to a human being. The essay can demonstrate a student's writing ability, style, and flair.

  15. 94 Psychological Trauma Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

    Psychological Trauma: Treatment Planning. Their mother, Tanya is the sole breadwinner in the family who works in one of the Information Technologies firm while their father is a local driver with one of the truck companies in the city. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts. 192 writers online.

  16. 406: Why You Don't Have to Write about Trauma in Your College Essay to

    In this episode I sat down with TED speaker Tina Yong to talk about why students don't have to write about trauma in a college essay to stand out—and what they can do instead. Services. ... 22:35 - Ethan & Tina read of a sample personal statement that discusses race . 26:35 - Tina's analysis. 29:04 - Ethan's analysis ...

  17. 13 Reasons Why It's OK to Write About Trauma in your College ...

    Remember this kind of essay is NOT a reflection of you. It is only part of your story.(Ashley Lipscomb & Ethan Sawyer, "Addressing Trauma in the College Essay," NACAC 2021) Ask questions that guide your writing toward growth: Great college essays reflect growth and thoughtfulness. It can be helpful in any essay, but especially in one that ...

  18. The Rise of the "Trauma Essay" in College Applications

    And a lot of the hate for the trauma essay here is misplaced. Negative experiences are in fact very impactful, and for a lot of people it is an important part of their journey that should be open for writing. As the ted talker briefly touched on, it's about how you write it and whether it's at a time when you are ready that matters.

  19. A Few Notes on Trauma Essays From Someone Who Wrote One

    Second, trauma essays are tricky to write because "pity points" alone don't get you in the door. Third, a lot of college admissions experts caution against writing trauma essays because the content can be too triggering for an AO to read properly, it can lead to mandated reporting things, etc.

  20. trauma = good essays : r/ApplyingToCollege

    trauma = good essays. junior here. i think the more involved and engrossed i get with the college admissions process, the worse of a person i become. the other day, i spoke to one of my seniors about their college application experience and they told me about how they had to watch both their parent die due to covid. the first thing that came to ...

  21. Trauma College Essay Examples That Really Inspire

    Free Regeneration Of Nerve Fibers Essay Sample. The Central Nervous System is the control system of the human body; it is the core of the human nervous system. The Central Nervous system is made up of the spinal cord and the brain. The brain uses the electrical signal, which is generated by the Central Nervous System.

  22. How to Write the Smith College Supplemental Essay 2024-2025

    Smith is also part of both the Five College Consortium, which allows students to take courses and participate in extracurriculars at Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Hampshire College, and UMass Amherst. Smith is pretty selective, so writing a strong essay can definitely help increase your chances of acceptance.

  23. TRAUMA ESSAYS and how to go about it help me pls

    write the essay longer than necessary and cut down. this is kinda going off the last point and i'd recommend this for any essay, however i found this helps with the word limit and making sure you get all your thoughts down. with enough editing, you'll be able to cut it down and utilize the scarce word limit.

  24. Trauma Essay Examples? : r/ApplyingToCollege

    Trauma Essay Examples? Personal Essay I was originally gonna write my essay on culture, but something happened a few days ago that shifted my perspective, and I want to write my essay on that instead. ... from college essays and scholarships to college list help and application advice, career guidance, and more. Members Online. school counselor ...