<p>Actually, to add on to what I said, I am top 17.5%, but I believe in my counselor recommendation she wrote about how I was very sick throughout my sophomore year and some of my junior year. I don't know exactly how she phrased it; I was sick while I had my old counselor (I met this one after I came back from having mono during my junior year). </p>
<p>When I say sick, I mean I was REALLY sick. I had all of these viruses, one after the other. My sophomore GPA was significantly lower than my other years (I think my freshman GPA was ~3.75 and my sophomore one was like ~3.3). I don't know how Vandy will look at this, but apparently it didn't have much of an effect on my BC / Lehigh / Duke / UVA / Cornell decisions. </p>
<p>It's very aggravating because I know that if I hadn't missed so much school (I almost had to go to credit completion because of the sheer amount of school that I missed) I would have had a much better shot of being in top 15%, maybe top 10% even, but that's probably a long shot. </p>
<p>I'm just really upset that there were no Vandy-specific essays. Creative writing is my favorite!</p>
<p>ANYWAY:</p>
<p>The point of this comment...</p>
<p>Were there any specific circumstances that hindered your GPA? If so, that could possibly help you a little, depending on the situation, of course.</p>