So, you want to know how to write your college essay about Depression. Perhaps you don’t know if writing your college essay about Depression would even be allowed, or if it would disqualify you. To not waste your time, we’re going to provide our professional opinion on this.

Long story short: yes, you may write about Depression in your college admissions. However, there are certain limits that must be drawn.

There are also instances when writing about your Depression may actually increase your chances of acceptance. Though, you need to write your essays correctly for this to work.

We’ll cover these in detail below.

How to Write Your College Essay About Depression

Table of Contents

1. When is it Okay to Write About Mental Illness in College Essays?
2. When Can I Write About Mental Illness or Abuse in my College Essays? Is it Too Much?
3. Don’t Just Write About Depression. Write About The Effects.
4. Does My Depression Justify My Low Grades In the College Admissions Process?
5. Write About How Depression and Your Overcoming/Coping Makes You a Suitable Candidate.
6. Example College Essay About Depression

When is it Okay to Write About Mental Illness in College Essays?

Let’s not waste any time and get right to the point again!

It is okay to write about mental illness and Depression in your college essay as long as it proves that you’re a suitable student. Thus, you should be asking yourself, “how does my experience with mental illness or Depression make me a strong candidate?”

First, let’s look at what makes a great candidate to begin with. To do this, you’ll need to turn off your student brain and turn on the business brain. Although colleges are not businesses –some for-profit ones are, though– they definitely function like one. You can think of the admissions process at a university as a calculator for ROI (Return of Investment). That means the admissions office determines which students to pick based on the applicants they believe to have the most potential for success in their school.

Let’s take this example:

Take a look at the stats both Joshua Liu and Amy Alvarado have. If you were an admissions officer looking into this, which person seems to be more impressive?

Well, it’s not quite easy to differentiate between the two since these are only surface-level stats. However, at first glance, we can see that Amy Alvarado seems rather impressive. Despite her being diagnosed with Depression, Amy Alvarado defies both gender and cultural expectations and aims for computer science. In addition, she also manages to earn a 3.7 GPA whilst coping with her Depression.

As an admissions officer, you would be wise to invest your time and money on educating Amy Alvarado at your institution. She has potential considering her disadvantages. In other words, you can write your college essay about depression if you have strong attributes to your application which demonstrate a significant disadvantage. Maybe you have a decent GPA, or you performed well as a musician in your school’s orchestra despite your depression. Now, this is not the only reason you may write about depression in your college essay.

Let’s deconstruct another example:

Notice the difference between June and Amy. June does not have any strong attributes such as extracurriculars, or strong academics, just low-mid range grades and Depression. However, just because she does not have strong academics does not mean she should avoid writing about Depression in her college essay entirely. If she is capable of convincing the admissions officers that she can perform well despite her Depression, then it may serve to show she is more capable than her grades show.

So, in general, you can write your college essay about Depression. If you have strong grades or extracurriculars, your Depression may serve to show you have untapped potential. If you do not have that, and only have lower grades and Depression, then you will need to describe how you are a strong candidate despite your Depression in your application essays.

Remember: with the rise of mental instability amongst students, mental stability is becoming a more critical factor in the admissions process than ever before. This brings us to the next point!

When Can I Write About Mental Illness or Abuse in my College Essays? Is it Too Much?

Just how much is too much? Can I write about how I cut myself in my college essays? Can I write about my eating disorder in my college essays, or traumas such as sexual abuse?

For obvious reasons, there are instances when situations are just “too much” to share. There are moments when writing about your traumatic experiences or Depression CAN be too much personal information. The keyword is this: “can”. Though, how do you know when it’s too much?

You know you should not write about your mental illness or Depression if it poses too strong a possibility that you are unable to perform well in your academic career. So, for instance, you may have experienced long-term traumas that haunt you even today. They may pose a great danger to your academic performance and even your overall college experience.

It is important to only talk about Depression or mental illnesses if and only if you are capable of proving that you can both cope with it now and in the future.

Please also note that these are not hard and fast rules. It is entirely possible for students to be accepted despite having admitted instability. You just want to make sure that, when writing your college essay about Depression, you write it to your advantage and not your disadvantage. Now, how does one do that? We’ll get to that in the next 3 points below.

Don’t Just Write About Depression. Write About The Effects.

If you want to write your college essay about Depression without turning the admissions officers away, you need to write about the effects Depression had on you. This can encompass both the negative effects (obstacles it presented to you) as well as the positive (ways in which you’ve grown).

When writing about the effects Depression had on you in your essay, make sure always to turn back to the positives. There are two reasons for this: one, we don’t want to end on a negative note and leave a sour impression on the admissions officers; two, we want to demonstrate to admissions officers of our growth over time.

Here’s an example of a good way you can write about the effects of Depression in your college essay.

Negative effects of Depression (obstacles presented):

1. Made it difficult to feel motivated.
2. Lowered your grades in school.
3. Couldn’t stay focused due to negative emotion.
4. Brought upon turmoil in family life.

Positive effects of Depression (ways in which you’ve grown):

1. Originally had crippling shyness, but overcame it.
2. Started off with no real goals, but led yourself self-discovery.
3. Couldn’t find meaning in your life, but became more connected with spiritual self over time.
4. Learned to overcome hardships such that future ones will not be too hard.

The key takeaway here is that these effects are typically all negative, and that makes sense. Depression typically doesn’t have positive effects. However, we want to turn our negative into a positive by demonstrating how the effects of Depression underscore our positive attributes. Sometimes it highlights our ability to overcome unbearable emotional strain, or it helps us mature faster than we could have otherwise.

With all this positivity, let’s tackle one of the big questions? Does Depression justify low grades? Or, will the college admissions officers judge my grades similarly to others without Depression?

Does My Depression Justify My Low Grades In the College Admissions Process?

Here it is; the question we’ve all been waiting for: does depression justify low grades in the college admissions process? Like most things in this world other than physics and the IRS, it depends.

If you are formally diagnosed with Depression, the admissions officers will certainly take extra consideration into your application. They may be more lenient on your grades, especially if you explain how Depression affected the lower grades in your classes. However, you need to be specific. If your Depression negatively impacted your performance in your AP Chemistry class, write about that in your college essays!

It is important, however, that you do not use Depression as a scapegoat for your insufficiencies. This would include using it to pick straws at reasons you underperformed instead of providing a valid reason.

If you were not diagnosed with Depression but have suffered extreme hardship to the degree that you’ve had symptoms similar to Depression, you will need to write that in your essay. However, note that you won’t have a formal diagnosis backing you up in your college apps. As such, you will need to approach your essays with extra caution.

We highly recommend getting hyper specific about the details of your Depression. If you can articulate the details behind your Depression as well as what may have started it, you may help the admissions officers see a clearer image of why your grades suffered. We’ve seen many times when our clients did not seem to have a good explanation for their lower grades. However, their explanation after 2-3 calls justified their grades much more.

Write About How Overcoming/Coping With Depression Makes You a Suitable Candidate.

So, Depression itself does not automatically make you a suitable candidate for university. It may help admissions officers understand more about you, and even have more sympathy for shortcomings in your academic performance. However, we don’t just want to settle with a good college application. We want something great; it needs to stand out amongst the rest.

To do this, you’ll need to talk about your experience overcoming and coping with Depression. By writing your college essay about Depression and your journey overcoming it, you will share valuable character traits with the admissions officers. Your path to overcoming Depression serves as a reminder that you are working at a disadvantage compared to other students. It also shows that you are capable of withstanding great pressure and bearing with it.

Roughly speaking, you need to find a narrative that weaves in your strong traits that come as a result of your depression. Let’s take a look at a few examples below.

Examples of how writing your college essay about Depression and overcoming it can be strong:

1. After having lost many friends transitioning into a new school, I sunk into a deep Depression. I’ve learned, however, how to make friends in a new and scary situation. Overcoming my Depression gave me the strength of character to become brave; this bravery helped me make new friends, and I hope to do the same at Vanderbilt University.
2. The struggles of living in a strictly conservative household made self expression as a woman impossible. I sunk into a deep Depression, and had to learn how to discover my own version of femininity outside the bounds of their conventional ideals. This meant having to stand up for myself despite great fear. Despite my Depression making me quiet and obedient, I found that my overcoming it made me strong enough to both become more independent and discover my own version of femininity. My journey is far from over, though. I would like to continue this path to self development at the University of California.
3. I used to think of myself as a person guided by logic alone, someone who worshipped the logos. “I don’t get emotional, it’s pointless.” and “There’s no point in being sad.” were common philosophies. It wasn’t until I started to listen to the works of Dr. Alok Kanojia that I discovered my “logical mind” was really a coping mechanism for feeling emotion. Ever since being traumatized by my negative relationship with my narcissistic step-mother, I shut off all emotion in an attempt to immunize myself from the pain. This coupled with her irrationality made me gravitate toward logic and reason as a safe space from her abuse. When I discovered this in my mental substructure, my psyche was split in two: I had my logical and emotional brain. In my journey overcoming Depression, I also rekindled my relationship with my emotional self. This helped me become less robotic, and even helped me perform better in my academics overtime –hence the upward trend from sophomore through junior year. Should I be accepted into the University of Southern California, I will certainly translate my newfound knowledge into my academics here.

In all of these examples, we’ve used Depression to underscore the positive attributes in an applicant. The act of overcoming Depression, or at least coping with it, can highlight many strong characteristics. Just remember to emphasize that you are an emotionally stable and functioning adult when writing your college essay about Depression, as that will be a major factor that can make or break your application.

Example College Essay About Depression

“Rain. Rain.

Go away; or, so I’d normally think. Except, there was nothing more comforting than the sound of rain.

It was August. It was a strange time for heavy rain, but blessed during such a dry time nonetheless. California could use it.

I am the only son of both a lawyer and a nurse. I was conditioned for what they considered success since I could remember. I never had to worry about what clothes to wear nor what food to eat. I had everything in life.

Yet, in some outrageous act of irrational ingratitude, I still find myself struggling with depression. I wasn’t surprised by the diagnosis; yet, I was. My mother and father were caring and understanding with the utmost empathy.

I had everything. My family didn’t even give me the quintessential ‘just get over your depression’ that so constitutes commonplace family psychology. They were right. They handled everything as they normally should. I had nothing to blame.

I only had my privilege and my depression.

So, why was I like this?

I was depressed because rain falls.

It was the rain during that hot, humid, rain in California. My family and I were on a roadtrip that took us to a small town with cute shops, overpriced hemp goods, and boba shops. My family stopped by a coffee shop, and I took the time to get distracted by a tiny bookstore. I opened a copy of a piece titled ‘The Portrait of a Lady’. I thought maybe if I stared off into space for effect, maybe it would qualify my depressiveness and perhaps validate my sadness. It didn’t. I thought perhaps my book could distract me. It didn’t.

The rain grew louder. It was beginning to pour.

I stared out the window. Asymmetrical droplets left traces of water in inconsistent patterns across a see-through canvas, leaving transparent streaks. Why did it even matter? Why did I care? Why would I not?

Then, in that instance of moment of critical introspection, it did not dawn on me. Nope. I didn’t become enlightened by rain like what happens in a haiku. Nothing happened. The rain didn’t even have any sort of magical effect. It just… rained. It rained because that’s all rain can do and was made to do. And, it shouldn’t have to be anything. It just is. Just like my depression, there is neither why nor could nor ought to be. I just happen to be depressed as rain just happens to fall.

And, like rain, so too will my depression pass and let forth sunlight once again.”

Example College Essay About Depression

Writing your college essay about depression is not easy. It’s a contentious topic, which is why we highly recommend speaking with a college admissions essay expert. Contact us for a free consultation, and our admissions essay experts will get back to you within 24 hours.