Bad Situation Senior Year-How will it Affect My Chances at the Following. Please Help

<p>Basically, my parents, who barely speak English almost got sued by a bank and I spent a lot of my time trying to prevent it. As a result, I didn't focus on school as much as I should have and my grades dropped a LOT.</p>

<p>I'm usually a B plus/A minus student, but this quarter I went to being a C plus/B minus student. I have 3 C pluses right now and 3 B minuses. If I write a letter of explanation, have my guidance counselor mention it, and get kickass grades next quarter, how much will it negate these bad grades? </p>

<p>Also, would it mean anything if I'm taking an completely honors/AP course load right now? Here's my other data.</p>

<p>Intended Major-Business</p>

<p>3.73 weighted GPA
School doesn't unweight</p>

<p>AP
Language and Composition-5
US History-4
Statistics-3
Environmental Science-4</p>

<p>SAT
CR-740
M-610
W-750</p>

<p>ACT-31</p>

<p>Extras;
Business manager of yearbook
Part-time editor of newspaper
Started after school tutoring at Chinese school
Self employed math tutor
Tutor autistic people at Benhaven
Started and run the Badminton Club
Key Club</p>

<p>Recs; decent
Essay; has been rated well so far</p>

<p>SCHOOLS
Northeastern
Fordham
William and Mary-Long shot, I know
Villanova
Wake Forest-REALLY long shot I know
Bentley
BU
UCONN
Rutgers
SUNY Binghamton
Lehigh</p>

<p>Also, here’s the letter of explanation to go with-What do you think?</p>

<p>I mentioned this to my guidance counselor, but I feel that I should elaborate somewhat so that whoever is looking at my application will hopefully come to understand my situation. Please understand, I’d rather not divulge specific details because I really don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but if you would like, I can mail a signed statement from my parents verifying the validity of the following information.</p>

<p>About a year ago, my mother had entered into an agreement with a large corporation, and followed the terms of that agreement completely. However, around mid-August of this year, the entity that she entered the agreement with accused her of not meeting the terms and threatened to bring a lawsuit against her. Because neither she nor my father, (nor anyone in our family really), is good with English, (all of the adults are first generation Chinese) and quite frankly a lawyer is much too expensive and a last resort, I was responsible for trying to straighten out the issue. </p>

<p>This responsibility entailed a massive amount of work, including many days of digging through all my mothers’ papers for any form of proof as well as fully understanding and explaining the situation to both my parents. I also spoke with multiple representatives from each agency hired by this entity (There have been three agencies so far) often for hours at a time. In the meantime, I had to learn about the policies of the entity, the particulars of this case, locate and contact others involved in this issue to try and get them to look for documentation and verify certain information and I had to do all of this within a certain amount of time in order to avoid the having the entity press an actual lawsuit. </p>

<p>In the middle of all this, I was also trying to do the tasks of a daily senior student: finishing assignments, studying for tests, tending to the obligations of my after school activities/job, taking standardized tests, and applying to college. Unfortunately, I was not able to do my best, and I ended up struggling to catch up. However, I hope you will understand that I am not a lazy student, and my grades did not slide because I wasn’t trying. Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not asking you to disregard my first quarter senior grades completely. If anything, they do show that I’m not yet completely capable of being a full time student and a part time adult yet. All I am asking is that you look at them with the knowledge that I was not capable of working at my full potential at the time and to have awareness of my other grades/test scores/soon to be second quarter grades in mind. (Actually, if you’d like further proof of the truthfulness of my words, notice the fact that my best grade this quarter was in my AP Government class.) They are much more representative of what I’m capable of as a full time student, and also of what knowledge and skills I actually have. </p>

<p>Eventually, I was able to find something invaluable-a person who could remember and confirm that the message given to the entity about my mother not meeting the terms of her agreement was made in error. She confirmed this with a representative of the entity that I was on the phone with at the time, and as of now, this entity, nor any of its agencies, have called back. </p>

<p>Since then, I have been able to go back to focusing completely on my schoolwork, and already there has been a huge difference. When you receive my second quarter grades, I am sure that they will prove to you that I am qualified and capable of succeeding at your university.</p>

<p>My guess would be that most colleges would be understanding so long as your next quarter grades were stellar.</p>

<p>If I were you, though, I’d consider selling myself with a different prospective major, especially with a 3 in AP Stats and a 610 in SAT Math. If all else fails, say you’re undecided.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input wittywonka. I thought about applying as an undecided major as well, but I heard that it’s hard to transfer into the business school if I did so. Does anyone know if that’s true?</p>

<p>Wow, I hate doing this but…bump.
I’ll try to chance back if it helps</p>

<p>Honestly
Some help would be appreciated.
Pretty Pleasseee</p>

<p>You should be in at bentley and fordham for sure <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/815067-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/815067-chances.html&lt;/a&gt;. Northeastern definite possibility and in at rutgers</p>

<p>Thank you for the input willketchup =)
Chancing you back</p>