Possible PS Topic. Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi guys,

I'm struggling with choosing a PS topic. I've been drawing a blank save for one idea. The topic I do have is based on a personal issue during sophomore year. Short story is my fraternity got its charter revoked for lack of funds/membership, and all of the brothers/friends transferred or dropped out either right before or right after this happened. I started drinking way more and grades suffered. Eventually got arrested for a DUI that semester, but it was dropped. I admit it is pretty dumb how much it effected me. Ever since then, however, I've been on deans list and gotten awards and done seminars and stuff.

Do you think writing about a personal struggle like that and the change in performance such as ending on the high note of 3.9 GPA or higher for the last 3 semesters would be a good idea?

any and all opinions are welcome and appreciated!

[rinkrat19]

That sounds like a really iffy PS topic. Greek life topics are often bad, since y'all seem to take your frats/sororities SO VERY SERIOUSLY and it frequently just sounds absurd to the rest of us. But at least most people are writing about something positive, like how they raised money through their sorority's charity fashion show, not how the loss of your bros made you a depressed alcoholic. (My immediate thought: if the other guys really were your best friends, you would have kept them as friends regardless of whether you all lived in a house together or even went to school together.) If you can admit that it sounds dumb how much it affected you (and hey, we all have irrational overreactions to things sometimes), I think you probably know it's not the best topic. I think it's got too much potential to portray you in a bad light, and the potential to really backfire if you get an adcom who's not a fan of the greek system.

[mmbt123]

Yeah agreed w/ above poster.

Maybe there's a way to like vaguely and briefly talk about this in a gpa addendum but I would talk to your advisor about how to approach that.