Adverse Life Experience

mcneill18d

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Nov 22, 2016
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I'm currently trying to fill out my application and I came across a question asking if I have experienced any exceptional adversity in my lifetime. What does this apply to? I don't want to put something that they may not feel is adverse or might be in the wrong area of what they are looking for.
 
This could range from being an orphan, to overcoming abject poverty, to a multitude of other things.

Just don't make it something crazy trivial in order to fill in the blank.
 
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For this one my BGO told me that it doesn't have to be some very tragic event. Again, tragedy/adversity is not something we can control. Happens to some people and not to others, and so you can't force yourself to have an adversity. More so, if you are lacking something in your application use the question as a way to explain it. For me, I have no sports and and a large lack of physical engagement. I have reasons for that though, which aren't the most grievous or serious, but reasons none the less. I used that part of the application to explain why my physical engagement and sports was lacking and more so, what I learned and how I was planning on fixing it. Like said before, if you really have NOTHING don't put in something trivial like "my internet cut out two times while opening the application" but really use it as a way to discuss why some parts of the application are missing (if any). Also great if you have lower academic scores, so you can explain why.
 
On the NROTC application, there is a similar essay question and they site examples of having a single parent, transferring to multiple highschools, moving around a lot in life, etc.
 
On the NROTC application, there is a similar essay question and they site examples of having a single parent, transferring to multiple highschools, moving around a lot in life, etc.

Are you sure moving around a lot in life would suffice for the "exceptional adversity" portion? My father was active duty Air Force for years and I grew up moving a lot. We moved on average, every two years up until the middle of my freshman year of high school. This is my third time applying and I have always left this part blank.

Thanks to anyone who can clarify this for me!
 
Are you sure moving around a lot in life would suffice for the "exceptional adversity" portion? My father was active duty Air Force for years and I grew up moving a lot. We moved on average, every two years up until the middle of my freshman year of high school. This is my third time applying and I have always left this part blank.

Thanks to anyone who can clarify this for me!

Good question. It's really how you, the individual, saw the event or time period, and how you responded. Some people experience a lot of anxiety or even grief at the loss of "moving a lot and saying goodbye to friends." Their grades may suffer, and they might experience adjustment issues. Other people might perceive frequent moving as an adventure. I've known both types of people, and they just represent the variety of ways people can respond. If YOU experienced anxiety or sadness or grief, if you didn't know whether or how you could handle the situation, if you found your behavior or your thinking affected - it might be adversity.
 
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