irugga

I didn't see the link, but I did get the official reviews. E/E E/E E/E . I can confirm that the reviewers approve of the 'learning from struggles' and taking action to help others based on this. Every reviewer spent most of the broader impacts reivew talking about this. Overall my approach was "This was a problem, but isn't anymore. Dealing with these health issues made me more aware/sensitive to students who have various struggles. Here is how I have worked with XY and Z to increase accessibility .Here is what I currently have in the works, and I plan to do this other thing." One other thing I should mention is that I asked my undergraduate research advisor to include in his statement how I did have these health difficulties, but how we were able to work around them. I also asked my current advisor to include something about how it isn't interfering with my graduate work. I don't know if these things were important to do or not.

I wouldn't feel discouraged about applying for next year. I didn't even make it to the third round of reviews my first two times, and got the award this year. If you got HM you're very close. It's true you can't redo your undergrad, but if that really sunk you, you wouldn't even have HM. If you're getting good grades in your graduate program, that will help. If there is a reason you struggled in undergrad, you can make that a focus of your personal statement and actually spin it into a positive. For example if you had an (undiagnosed?) learning disability, you can talk about how that makes you more aware and sensitive to the struggles of students with disabilities. Make sure you take actual, positive action based on this - follow the rule of show, don't tell. In this example, you could work with your services for students with disabilities office to identify accessibility barriers, and make changes that allow a student with a disability to conduct undergraduate research. This is the big change I made between my prior, unsuccessful applications. Instead of trying to downplay weaknesses in my undergrad, I cast them in a positive light and took action based on this. I don’t have my review sheets back, so I can’t say whether this is what made the difference or not, though.

Thanks for the advice! My strongest "narrative" could be about teaching and learning, which could integrate this. I'd appreciate it if I could get your, or anyone else's advice on whether my idea would be a good theme. I'm not sure on the forum etiquette for potentially long and personally specific posts. Do I correctly assume it would be more appropriate to PM someone who is willing to help?

I'm a student with a disability which is often misunderstood and stigmatized. It is serious but treatable once identified, and the identification took years. It manifested for me during my undergraduate work, and as a consequence I have a large gap in my transcripts (total disability) followed by taking courses part time (recovery) and a change in both school and major. I am more healthy now and the disability is not getting in the way of my graduate work. When I applied last year, I didn't include any reference to this because of fear of discrimination. However, I'm worried that by not bringing it up I might be leaving the reviewers wondering if I'm someone who is unfocused and can't follow through on things. Does anyone have advice on how I should handle this?