Common App Covid-19 Question
I'm considering whether or not to answer the COVID-19 question on the common app. I think COVID-19 affected me in some relevant ways. My grandpa died from the virus, and I struggled more than other students to complete online school because my mom and I were constantly in hospitals and rehab centers due to my Dad becoming severely disabled from a stroke. The problem is, these things happened mostly during my 8th grade year, before I was in high school. Do you think the admissions officers would still care?
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3 answers
I would talk about it for your safety schools as it has emotional relevance. You could also connect it to current events like grades or how grief never takes a day off.
a) Because there is an emotional aspect, it very much depends on the college you are applying to. For state schools, I would 100% reccomend it. However, some school like Columbia expect you to essentially be a machine in terms of working (I.e. no emotions) and I would instead elect to speak of it more objectively, instead focusing on the impact that COVID had on the amount of time you had available.
tl;dr it depends on the school, but for 90% of them you should speak more about the emotional impact it has had on you, with some focus on the timings.
Also, Covid is extremely relevant in 8th as well, as that is the foundations for your freshman year, and its all building blocks from there. Realistically, CO25 (Juniors) and CO26 (Seniors) are the only ones that will truly be able to write abouts its impacts.
Best of luck <3
Yes, they would still care. It took time to recover from these incidents. I am so sorry about your grandfather.
lmk if you have any more questions.
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Not to be unkind, but I would avoid getting overly emotional/personal. Yes, it is emotional, but drama turns off admission officers. State the facts so they know, but don't say something like "grief never takes a day off"