My grades right now are 5 Bs (all in AP classes: Gov, Calc AB, Physics 1, Literature, Art)
They slipped quite suddenly because, well I’m not sure, I just got really unmotivated and sad. All my first quarter grades were As, and they slipped second quarter.
Before this year I had around a 3.9uw (B in freshman geometry (lol) and semester Bs in AP Stats and Chem) and I have 5s on 6 AP Tests and a 4 on another and a 2360 SAT.
Is there anything I can do to ameliorate the effect? Will this doom me, considering my strong academics before now? Is there a way to explain something dumb like mental health? Or perhaps find a way to show my first-quarter grades?
My top school right now is UChicago.
I hate the idea that one bad month destroyed all my hard work to this point.
Did you apply EA to UChicago? How many more weeks are left in the semester? B’s are not so bad that you can’t recover at least some to A’s by the end of the semester. And if you applied EA (and get into) Chicago, I believe you don’t need to send your grades again until the end of the year. So that gives you some time to recover and show next semester is better.
Mental health is a legitimate excuse, if it’s real. Talk to your guidance counselor about steps you can take to reduce stress and help alleviate what sounds like a minor case of depression.
@BabylonBabylon I actually applied SCEA to Harvard and was deferred (not what caused my grades, I only got the news last week). Super regretting it because it was really, really a reach, and I could have gotten into some very nice schools that I might get rejected from now. I only have one day of exams left and I need like 98s and 110s to get my grades back, so that’s not likely either.
I personally feel like mental health is a legitimate excuse, but I was wondering if it was one that admissions officers would accept, haha.
Generally mental health is a touchy subject for college, as far as I know. Schools don’t want students with mental health issues (or any health issues, really) to be a liability, and it’s typically not a good idea to write extensively about mental health in any form when applying to school. However, having your guidance counselor mention something quickly in your school report about it may not hurt, but make sure that you continue to do well for the next semester.