bad semester

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m a high school sophomore currently in my second semester. For some background, last year as a freshman I finished the year with a straight 4.0. I was also involved with student leadership and I am involved in numerous extracurriculars and clubs, and I tend to be in the top 15 percentile for standardized testing. However, the first semester of my sophomore year was, without better words, a trainwreck - I ended up finishing the semester with a 3.29-3.3. I don’t like to make excuses but the reasoning behind this is that my parents are going through an extremely messy divorce, there has been some trauma involved in the past year, and I have been seeing a therapist regularly for about 5 months now due to mental health concerns.

Currently I have a 3.6, and the new marking period starts up next week, in which I’m shooting for a 4.0. I’m very discouraged because I wanted to go to a really competitive and top school in my state, but I feel like that one semester, that one 3.3, is going to kill me on the application, and now matter how well I do on the ACT and the SAT or if I get a straight 4.0 the next two years it won’t be enough, so to speak.

I’m not necessarily looking for reassurance, I just want to know if my chances for getting into a top school are absolutely obliterated or not.

2

No – your chances are not obliterated. You are, honestly, in an excellent position. Use your experience with difficulties to motivate yourself to do well in the years ahead, score highly on the SAT/ACT, and be involved in many extracurriculars. Spend your time doing things you enjoy, trying to make your EC’s as unique as possible. Actively do service when you can, start clubs you feel your school could benefit from, and show leadership – if you can do things to stand out from your peers, you will have many great choices for college. While your 3.3 certainly does not help for your applications, expressing how much you struggled and how you overcame these struggles would illustrate many strong things about you as a person and about your maturity. Don’t worry too much. Good luck!