How about this topic?

[seankenn]

I grew up with a medical condition which really caused me no real hardship other than taking a pill everyday.  Sometimes I felt slightly uncomfortable, but really and effects of this were minor.  But of course, if presented properly, I could play it off as a troubling experience I had to overcome.  Do you think this would be a solid topic to help a white, middle-class applicant have some sort of diversity?

[jacy85]

Anything that you have to qualify with "if presented properly, I could play it off..."

It wasn't a troubling experience, and you never had to overcome anything.  If someone on an adcom has this condition, or knows someone who does, and this person had the same experience of minor effects and 1 pill everyday, then they're going to see right through you.

People who have overcome real issues and obstacles are challenged when tryign to write about it in a mature, non-whiney way.  If you're jsut making stuff up, I can't see how you'd be able to pull it off.

And above and beyond all of this, it's just flat out dishonest.

[mukhia]

Oh my God - I'm dying to know, what is it?  Irritable bowel syndrome?

[seankenn]

Nothing like that.  It's epilepsy.  But it hasn't reared its ugly face for some time now.  That is why I feel like I am using this for sympathy which I may not deserve.

[mukhia]

Epilepsy is pretty scary - I just read an article about a woman who underwent a lobotomy as a last resort!

[seankenn]

No lobotomies for me.  I have it pretty much under control with medication.  It was only growing up that I had any real problems.

[nathanielmark]

clonazepam?

No lobotomies for me.  I have it pretty much under control with medication.  It was only growing up that I had any real problems.

[mukhia]

I think you could work it in more genuinely - probably not in a dominating manner though because as Jacy says it would be too dishonest and maybe the adcoms will see through it.

[jacy85]

If you really feel that the problems it presented growing up were a factor in your development and greatly contributed to who you are today, then you could try it out as a topic (as mukhia says, epilepsy is a scary condition!).  But depending on how long ago it was that you got your condition under control can definitely limit how much of an effect it's had on you in terms of what the admissions committee is looking for.

And any kind of topic where you're out and out looking for sympathy is the wrong way to go.  You're not tryign to get adcoms to sympathize with you or your disease.  You're trying to get them to respect you and admire your maturity and development for working through the problem and living your life/pursuing your ambitions despite the condition, and it sounds like, luckily for you and your health  , that it hasn't posed a huge obstacle for you.

Nothing like that.  It's epilepsy.  But it hasn't reared its ugly face for some time now.  That is why I feel like I am using this for sympathy which I may not deserve.

[shortbus]

<sigh> why does everyone want to do the 'woe is me' PS? Unless the disease is so rare they named it after you, nobody cares. Try happy thoughts.

I grew up with a medical condition which really caused me no real hardship other than taking a pill everyday.  Sometimes I felt slightly uncomfortable, but really and effects of this were minor.  But of course, if presented properly, I could play it off as a troubling experience I had to overcome.  Do you think this would be a solid topic to help a white, middle-class applicant have some sort of diversity?