<p>I have always been a good student, up until my sophomore year. I ended up with 3 C's and a D, destroying my cumulative gpa. However, I learned from that, made some changes and my grades improved my junior year and even better my current senior year. For the common app essay about experiencing failure, do you think it would be ok to write about my poor grades and what I did to change that? I was worried it might be throwing my short comings right in their face, but at the same time, they will see my sophomore year grades and may wonder what happened. What do you think? </p>
<p>A failure about grades is a big nono to colleges. It makes them think “wow this kid has been brought up with no adversity besides grade failure?”</p>
<p>write about something else</p>
<p>Super overdone and pretty boring, frankly. Will make them instantly see you as a sheltered child instead of a young adult who has grown from serious challenges in life.</p>
<p>They can already see your grades; don’t point more eyes at them than need be.</p>
<p>Obviously, your essay shouldn’t be a shotgun blast of varying failures (you should only stick to one), so I’d focus on something else.</p>
<p>If anything, vaguely write about them on another portion of your Common App (and explain how your sophomore grades are no reflection onto your character, intellect, and motivation).</p>
<p>But that’s just me.</p>
<p>And yeah, take that essay to show that you’re a little maverick and versatile; that you’ve got the kick of a filly.</p>
<p>Write about that one time (as a child) that you got into an argument with your friend, and how you weren’t able to win it due to extortion or something haha.</p>
<p>Best of luck on your endeavors.</p>
<p>Well, considering the fact that they already see your transcript, why not? However, I would take this opportunity to write about why you got the grades you did (perhaps it was due to a very impactful event in your life – remember, you could always make something up here) which could in fact serve to your benefit. </p>