The Rise of the 'Trauma Essay' in College Applications | Tina Yong | TED

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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.

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“Your story has to be sad enough to gain sympathy but not so sad that it makes you seem beyond help. Just critical enough to inspire change, but not so much that it actually criticizes systemic structures. Just honest enough to seem real, but not so unfiltered that it creates discomfort.”

It’s another instance of having to sacrifice authenticity for marketability, which facilitates a kind of schizophrenic break between who we are and who the world wants us to be. Some folks end up completely sacrificing themselves in this way; others resist and get shunned. Artists walk this line, but art is far from a guaranteed living. Great talk!

drewajv
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I refused to write about my trauma and wrote a regular essay and applied to EA to a few schools, got rejected. Rewrote my essay about a particular trauma and reapplied to different schools.. got accepted into all of them. Also, my counselor kept encouraging me to write about "traumatic" things that hadn't impacted me at all. For example, I was encouraged to write about my dad's cancer. But my dad is okay? Overall, college applications was one of the weirdest experiences of my life.

alaskaseid
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Another thing I want to point out that Tina Yong brought to mind: these types of essays seem to force the implication that by the age of 17, 18, 19, you've A) Been through something tragic or challenging, and B) Have found a resolution to it....by the end of high school. Some things we go through in life take decades and sometimes our entire lives, to "get over". This application process (for those schools that use this screening method) puts you on the clock by saying, "OK, in the four years you have in high school, you need to fix the problems in your life and then write down how you did it, so that we can critique YOU and decide if you are worthy."

beachlife
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I’m from the U.K. This is truly amongst the most bizarre things I have ever heard of. I find it ethically inappropriate and traumatising in and of itself, especially the fact that this is expected of an adolescent. It took me 45 years to even realise and understand what I went through as a child.

tracik
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What’s most important for future engineers, mathematicians, scientists, and doctors is how much they can trauma dump in their college admissions essays.

reynoldskynaston
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“Sometimes a sucky thing just really sucks. And asking students to prove how they turn their pain into progress ignores this truth and falls prey to the toxic positivity narrative that everything happens for a reason, ignoring the very valid resentment and anger that many victims still feel.”

jackshaoxixu
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We are selling our worst memories to colleges who could reject us because they’ve heard the “overused” immigrant story. These are real people who’ve over come tremendous obstacles, and we are made to feel like we are only the trauma story we’ve shared.

andreasantiago
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There was a news article 5 years ago where someone trauma-dumped about his mother's death and got into Penn. But later when the school called the house about something, it was the mom who answered the phone; they investigated it and found he had just fabricated his entire essay, and so revoked his admission. I remember hearing about that and realizing how the admissions process cheapens trauma, that someone who didn't experience the event could write just as convincingly as someone who did.

johnchessant
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Only certain “traumas” are okay to talk about too. I could’ve never talked about my anxiety attack that got me hospitalized or my sexual assault. I could never mention my actual deep trauma because it’s way too personal and complex for a 600 word essay. If I mentioned my mental health battle in raw honesty I’d be rejected even if it had a “happy ending”. I’d be seen as instable despite my long records of excelling in school and professional work.

audreyeverett
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My niece was doing her college applications a few years ago, and struggling with the essays for just this reason. She is the daughter of educated, successful parents, had experienced no money problems, no health problems, hardly any problems at all, really, and had been born and raised in a fairly idyllic, almost all-white, small town in New England, with no bad parts. My sister told me that at one point my niece looked up from the gripping application essay she was trying to craft at the kitchen table in their delightful home, and wailed: "Mom, WHY didn't ANYTHING ever happen to

anthonypearsall
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"Quantify your traumatic, potentially unresolved experiences in 500 words."

As a current student, I thought this was very good. Thank you.

upscaleavenue
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Never thought about it in that way but in high school we were encouraged to speak about our deepest adversities and how it shaped us. I can see how for people who had very normal or healthy upbringings, maybe it did look to them like the oppression Olympics, all these kids trying to portray who had it the hardest.

MiVidaBellisima
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Curious how university intellectuals want to hear about your trauma - yet do nothing about it for the individual

atenas
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There it is! My child refused to write about his traumas (and he had them) because he said that it wasn't what defined him. He spoke of his aspirations, love of learning, and desire to be a force for good in the world. Despite having gotten 1580 on his SAT, having above-average grades at a rigorous charter school, excellent extracurricular and community involvement, and very strong letters of recommendation, he did not get into any of the top schools he applied to. Did not make sense, IMO, aside from his essays in which he refused to focus on his trauma. He is a super decent kid, very compassionate and giving, and always scored in the top 1% of every standardized test he took. WHY don't top universities want a person like him, I can't understand.

juliannathomas
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At Caltech's student orientation, they had a presentation where they read excerpts of our application essays aloud in front of the whole class. It started off with some pretty cool ones, like people who wrote about their niche hobbies and such, but after a while it became trauma essays one after another. Probably two thirds of the essays they read were of this variety, and they primarily included the parts that talked about the hardship and not the author overcoming it. This made the whole presentation feel pretty awkward and nobody really liked it. The essays were read anonymously but with how small our student population is, it wouldn't have been hard to figure out who was behind each one.

I understand it's important to recognize traumatic things happen to those around us, but I agree with Tina that people shouldn't feel forced to talk about it in college admissions essays. The fact that so many of my classmates chose to wrote about these experiences and Caltech's choice to highlight them clearly shows that this is being actively encouraged by universities.

coltonjohnston
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I’m currently a junior in high school and I am fighting brain cancer so it’s basically been predetermined what my essays are going to be about but I just keep wondering what would have I have written about otherwise if I hadn’t been diagnosed with cancer. It’s so stressful and I wish the college admissions process made the process easier by not forcing their applicants into a corner.

Oliver-ldei
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Imo Tina Yong has hit on something so profound that I’d be surprised if she even realizes how many people this will impact. I hope we see/hear more of this subject. Imo our culture is currently addicted to trauma telling and it should stop.

Callmeoldfashionedshop
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It’s not even about the fact that universities expect 14-17 yr olds to have gone through some life changing event but that they expect them to have overcome it just in time so that their mid-year report or grade 11 marks are up. It’s as if they want the trauma to happen in a timely manner which in retrospect is an oxymoron. Also highly selective colleges even expect students to have maintained an A grade even when suffering which isn’t possible. For instance (I speak with experience) if someone had anorexia or similar tendencies, their focus clearly won’t be on academics. It’s not that the child doesn’t want to excel but their mind is literally pre-occupied with other thoughts related to food or body.

asanskritiibajaj
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As a first gen, closeted-gay person from a 3rd world country, I had a myriad of reasons to make my personal essay a "trauma essay" but I chose not to. I not only got rejected from every college I applied to, I let it define my self-worth. I had straight A grades, genuine extra curriculars, and a passion to study. I would never forgive college admissions for letting me experience something like that

baddiexfilms
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no one should have to "beg" to get an education. period.

timallison