<p>My grades dipped sophemore year but not too much I got a C+ for my final grade in chemistry (my school only shows the final grades in the transcript)......I had the flu around the time of midterms during my sophemore year and my scores were bad and Midterms are 10% of the overall grade....im going to mention it in my essay...I was just wondering that even though it is not something like cancer or anything.....If i mention it would it do any good?</p>
<p>....Also my overall GPA unweighted is a 3.7 with 3.8's freshman and junior year....currently I have all A's my senior year...</p>
<p>uh.. i HIGHLY recommend you don't write that, haha. it's just going to seem like another excuse because there's lots of students who were sick but might've gotten a better grade. yeah, it sucks - i know how you feel since in 9th grade i had the flu around our first finals. but yeah, don't write it because it'll just come off as if you're trying to find an excuse for your grade. what happened happened & you can't change that, so there's no point in trying to cover for it, right? :D</p>
<p>Write an essay that shows a unique side of yourself, rather than an academic side--it is predictable, and adcoms have seen many of those.</p>
<p>Have your teacher/counselor rec deal with it, if you must. Unless you were more than just ill during finals, I'd try to stay away from blaming the poor performance on the flu. If you're grades, subsequent to the C+ are better, then the adcoms will be okay with the grade. If, however, your grades in science and/or other courses are near the C+ grade, then it will begin to reflect badly on you.</p>
<p>I wouldn't sweat it, if it's a one time deal. There are more important things to do to make yourself a better candidate for a selective college.</p>
<p>I would suggest not doing it, if your subsequent grades are good. If you average GPA for that term is a C+, then it would be good to deal with it in your application--not the case judging by your OP. As it is only the Chemistry class, I would not sweat it, especially if your unweighted overall gpa is a 3.7 for 9th through 11th--I assume a 3.5-3.6 for your sophomore year?!</p>
<p>3.4 sophemore year actually....the only reason im mentioning it is because when the lady from UNC came 2 my school she said that if you dont mention it, it looks bad and they just assume that you slacked off</p>
<p>.....its a 3.9 weighted tho for that year......4.2 weighted cummaltive</p>
<p>Hard call. Speak with your HS counselor, so that he or she can metion you being ill during midterms in your school report. Having the counselor tell them makes it "more" official.</p>
<p>I would still steer away from talking about it on your application, unless you feel you must, or if you can write something that does not sound like "I did not get a good grade because..." essay, and from a perspective that is unique.</p>
<p>Were your midterm grades lower than your second term grades?</p>
<p>Rely on your HS counselor to write it in the school report.</p>
<p>And, use the "additional info" space to briefly touch on it, or, better yet, send in a seperate letter about how your final grades did not fully reflect the situation.</p>