<p>During the first semester of my junior year, a close family member of mine passed away. I suffered from an unmedicated depression during the majority of those few months which caused my grades to drop dramatically. How do you recommend I go about explaining this to the various schools I'm applying to? I'm going to put it in the additional information section of Common App, but I'm unsure of how to word it.</p>
<p>Note: My GPA did improve dramatically as I saw a psychiatrist (increasingly back up to a 4.0) and my SAT scores further prove my academic ability, but I'm applying to ivies and my cumulative GPA is still poor. Are my chances completely shot?</p>
<p>Any school will be hesitant in accepting a student who has had any sort of mental lapses: depression, suicidal, anorexia/bulimia, etc. It’s a red-flag. DEFINITELY mention the decline in grades in the additional comments, you can write about the death of your family member and maybe how that caused major changes in your household that you weren’t prepared to deal while still maintaining grades, but don’t say that it was due to being depressed.</p>
<p>I’m sorry for your loss. Colleges will understand as long as you show that your grades have recovered. ABSOLUTELY make sure you explain this and explain this well in your “Additional Info” section, because colleges will already be biased against you if they see a bad GPA.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insight. I won’t include that aspect in the additional information section. At this point, I’m only worried about sounding like I’m making excuses.</p>
<p>My academic and college counselors already sent information into my schools, and we’re off for winter break until the 17th. The only people that really know are my parents and myself, to be honest. And since I’m not mentioning depression, I’m not including any sort of doctor’s note. Eh, I think I’ll just write and hope for the best.</p>
<p>how about: “In [month, year] my wonderful [father, brother, mother, sister, uncle, grandparent with whom I was very close] passed away [suddenly/after a grueling illness]. My grief impacted my academic performance in the first semester of my junior year.”</p>
<p>There’s no need to mention psychiatrists, medication, etc.; instead emphasize the closeness of your relationship to your deceased relative.</p>
<p>Admissions committees realize that applicants have crises and traumas in their lives. They look at the transcript, not just the GPA. A sudden drop in grades is pretty common under those circumstances and isn’t a big problem provided you recover quickly.</p>
<p>OP – Sorry about your loss, and glad you’re back on track.</p>
<p>I’m afraid you’re not respecting what adcoms do if you don’t explain unusual drops in performance in some way. Adcoms want the whole picture, so they can help match you to their University… it works both ways. They want to make sure you’re right for them, and that they’re right for you. If they don’t know about your trauma and how it affected your grades, then they can’t do their job properly, for their sake, or for your sake.</p>