<p>For the past 2 years, I have been suffering from depression and just a number of things that were bringing me down. Because of this, my grades went down significantly. I still have lots of extracurriculars, and I started my own radio station at the school, but my grades are just really bad.
Would it be helpful to explain what I went through in my essay or a letter?
What would my chances be?
Has this happened to anyone?</p>
<p>All limits are self imposed (oh how I love that phrase). It is mind over matter. Depression or ADHD or any other “disorders” should not be your excuse. I mean come on, look at Kyle Maynard… I have mad respect for that guy.</p>
<p>All teens are depressed. All teens are ADHD. Honestly, with every damn kid on the planet saying “I hate my life I have depression” and “I can’t concentrate I have ADHD,” they’re making it seem as if the actual diseases aren’t anything serious. Of course, I don’t want to blatantly assume that this is the case for OP. But I suppose I’m just getting fed up with this crap.</p>
<p>@CalvinTBOD, i think you are just mean in general. look at your past posts. 95% negative</p>
<p>I’m perfectly aware of what I posted in the past, and I’m fairly certain I can judge the contents of my post better than you can. Unless you provide me with tangible evidence of my “negativity,” post actual contributory comments rather than following me around in every thread and ■■■■■■■■ me.</p>
<p>Calvin, you need to check yourself. Depression IS a serious problem and no, not every teenager is “depressed”. </p>
<p>They are correct, however, that this is no excuse. The depression did not make the grades suffer, you did. I have been struggling with GAD for my entire high school career and it’s gotten progressively worse. My grades, however, have improved. It is a matter of balancing and coping with what you have. You need to accept it as a part of yourself. If you can’t go to a certain school because of it, you cannot go. Just do what you can.</p>
<p>Sean if you read my post properly at all, you would realize that I was emphasizing that Depression is in fact a serious problem.</p>
<p>I was referring to the amount of teens being depressed. Clearly this was a big problem for the OP, and you needn’t question her credibility. Yes, I am aware that you acknowledged the possibility of her validity, but even so, this isn’t the place to rant about something like that. </p>
<p>With that being said, I’m sorry I misinterpreted your post but the OP probably doesn’t want people to be arguing on this.</p>
<p>Well, I was exaggerating when I said “every kid says they have depression.” In any case, I apologize for bringing up the rant in the first place, it wasn’t in my place to say something like that. :P</p>
<p>The arguing aside, I was in a similar situation to you. I had some Asperger-ish (not Asperger’s itself, though) problems combined with depression so crippling that I ended up not attending school for several months and attending four different high schools. I did relatively well on the SATs, but my grades were not good until junior year. You don’t say how bad your grades are, but I’m sure you can still get in somewhere. You will, however, have to face the fact that you may not be able to get into schools commensurate with your ability because you haven’t shown in grades you’re capable of handling the work. I personally did end doing okay in the admissions process in the end, but not nearly as well as I could’ve if I had been well all four years.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the cause of your depression is, but yes, write a letter or an essay. If you can spin the cause of your bad grades, do it. Depression is one of the things college admissions people do NOT like to hear about (although unfair, it’s understandable–they don’t know if they’re admitting another Cho Seung-Hui). I never once mentioned depression in my common app essay; I spun my bad grades as part of struggling with the Asperger-ish traits and immaturity that I grew out of. A situation like that is much more palatable to admissions committees. But, of course, not everybody has extenuating circumstances regarding their depression–it just happens for no reason sometimes–so you’ll have to give some thought to how you describe your depression’s effects without really naming depression.</p>
<p>Anyway, as far as grades go… do you think you can do a post-grad year somewhere? What helped me in my admissions process was the fact that I had bad grades at first and better grades later, but you have the opposite situation. If you can show good grades for a year or so, colleges will be way more likely to accept you. If your grades are still bad now and you’re applying now, colleges have every reason to assume your bad grades will continue at their college.</p>
<p>Good luck and make the best of what you have. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Just be careful. When there’s an essay explaining how depressed one was- whether or not you name it- what do you expect the adcoms’ reactions to be? Think about that.</p>
<p>Then think about what their mission is. Colleges need to know you can function there. They need to know you have the strengths to master all sorts of issues. Show them that. I think ^general did it right, making a positive statement. There’s a lot of good advice in that post.</p>