<p>I posted this on another thread, but thought it would have a better chance of getting responses if it had its own separate thread. </p>
<p>My best friend was unlucky enough to really screw up the first semester of her senior year (1 C, a couple of B's, and a few A's). Then she got deferred from Stanford (while I got rejected, grrrr!) and is now wondering whether her first semester grades will preclude her from being admitted to even the lower tier of prestigious universities (Rice, Duke, etc.). </p>
<p>This is a person who has EVERYTHING else going for her, but she had a lot of growing up to do this semester, took a heavy courseload, and her grandfather became gravely ill right around finals.</p>
<p>What do I say? In my heart, I suspect she'll have to settle for a big public university, but is the game really over for her?</p>
<p>To mitigate the impact of the marks, I would make sure that the GC includes the family emergency in the mid year update. While her marks are less than she is capable of, there were unusual circumstances that played a role in her getting those marks.</p>
<p>Ditto. I don't think it's senioritis YET... she may be appearing to be more lax but it seems to me that circumstances do play a role here. You don't really know how close she is to her grandfather- obviously close enough to screw up her finals. Heavy courseload can affect grades, especially if she has time management issues. Her GC can most certainly explain her grandfather's situation but if her GPA dropped from, say, 3.8 to 3.6, it won't hurt yet. But if it dropped from 3.5 to 3.0, then she does have some explaining to do in her midterm report. She doesn't need to say ANYTHING in her applications for RD schools to attract this kind of attention. </p>
<p>It's wonderful that you are concerned but you need to stay out of this whole college admissions process of hers. Obviously you were a little annoyed that she was only <em>deferred</em> from Stanford and would've liked her deferral instead of your rejection. Keep your eyes on your own paper and let her deal with the consequences. Give her sympathy and a shoulder to cry on but don't bring up college admissions stuff, let it be between her and the GC. You CAN get the GC to explain but just simplying telling the GC that you're concened about her life and wanted to make sure that she's okay. The GC will take a hint.</p>