I plan to apply for Grad. School for the fall 2008 year. Most of the essays ask the same thing, why do you want to be in this filed, why did you select speech? etc etc. A friend of mine recently told me, that admissions dont like to read essays about a family member who has had speech problems because they keep getting the same type of papers over and over again, “they dont care about your family, they want to know about you” is what he said. But my basis for the essay was going to be about how I helped raise my Autistic younger sister and how if affected me, my life, and my interest in the field and how i want to help others with my experience. Now I dont know what to do. Should I briefly mention it? Focus the essay more on me and my volunteer efforts and good grades etc or should I stick to my guns? Thanks for any help, I am so stressed out.