Caltech ethics and challenge prompt

Prompt: Members of the Caltech community live, learn, and work within an Honor System with one simple guideline; 'No member shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.' While seemingly simple, questions of ethics, honesty and integrity are sometimes puzzling. Share a difficult situation that has challenged you. What was your response, and how did you arrive at a solution? (200 word max)

My mother's had arthritis since I was around three. Until high school I had been able to help my mother without worrying about getting my schoolwork done. However, I have had more difficulty balancing this with my increasing workload the past few years.

Some days I come home late after extracurricular meetings, and I offer to help my mother with the dishes. "I'll be okay. I know you have tests tomorrow," she says. I know her words are genuine, but I regret the times when I choose my work over hers. On days where I help her, I can see the relief she feels knowing she will be able to rest sooner.

I'm sad to see my mother's disability at her young age. I help her whenever I can, and having to make choices such as these allowed me to see that she means more to me than my schoolwork. These experiences have also helped me realize that I will always have conflicting responsibilities, and that I'll have to sacrifice some things for the people I love.

I know writing about an illness in the family is cliche or discouraged so I tried to steer it towards my experiences with this.
I feel like the conclusion is trivial and can be developed more

Thanks!

its a good essay and you answer the prompt well
the only advise i would give you is to expand how helping your mother affected ur school work because if u ealsy choose ur mother over it it wasn't that much of a contemplating choice

Jaime, actually, the essay is unable to properly answer the prompt because the situation that you are being asked to consider is one where your ethical beliefs are challenged and how you responded to it. There was no ethical challenge in the care of your mother, only personal considerations, which do not pose the same sort of challenge as an ethical one. An ethical challenge asks you to consider between right and wrong, good vs. bad. Something along the lines of having an opportunity to pass an exam because you have a copy of the test answers or studying and maybe failing to pass the test. That is an ethical challenge that requires a response from you. You need to prove your integrity of character within the essay answer. The situation you presented does not fall within the prompt requirements at all so you need to reconsider your answer and write a totally new essay that is more in tune with the requirements of the prompt :-)

I'll add in your suggestions, Mismak.

Louisa,
I'd thought about that when I started writing, and I figured that I'd approach/interpret the prompt more broadly.

Thanks for the feedback!