I spoke with my French teacher today and she told me about a way to get into college. My GPA drastically decreased in sophomore and junior year when I stayed home most of the time to take care of my 7 brothers and sisters while my mom was sick. She said there are some colleges where personal stories help a ton with admissions? they admit you based on “Personal qualities” is this true? What kind of colleges are like this? She believed that Swarthmore participated on this type of admissions? Is it called a Holistic approach? Or is she mistaken? Im not very familiar with it.
A holistic approach to admissions generally means that a school does not line up applicants in order of GPA and standardized test score and take the highest ones. Other things (such as recommendations, ECs, essays, and potentially personal obstacles can come into play. However, even with holistic admissions the academic record is generally viewed as the most important criteria – colleges only want to accept students who they feel confident will be able to handle the school’s program. So in my experience if you are not close to the academic profile of a college then a personal quality will not get you in. It is fine to have a couple of reach schools but focus most of your effort on colleges that are academic matches.
Are you back in school as a senior, attending regularly, and pulling good grades now? Yes, many universities love a good story and will consider extenuating circumstances, but it’s also important to demonstrate a rising grade trend/rebound. Schools need to know you can handle the course load, and bad grades during the crucial sophomore/junior years may preclude you from being admitted to a lot of schools, regardless of story/reason. If you still need to take care of your siblings for the foreseeable future, you may need to consider the community college to 4-year route, which is still a fine route!
But if you’re now a senior and are no longer staying home most of the time to care for siblings, you may be able to present a compelling case in college admissions, but I would say your counselor rec, teacher recs and test scores will become rather crucial.