<p>Let's say you're a straight A student, and then you move schools. Your grades drop. The next year, in stead of bouncing back up, your grades avalanche. Almost all of them B's, kicking you out of top 10%, even with the most rigorous courseload available. At the end of the year, it turns out that you have a form of manic depression that has been building up since your move, the seventh one of your life. You get treated, recover over the summer, your grades soar again (hopefully) in time for mid years or quarter reports. </p>
<p>You have good test scores and outstanding EC's and recs. </p>
<p>Still have a shot at top schools? Columbia being highest reach.</p>
<p>Or should you, or if you guessed, should I, look at much lower ranked schools?</p>
<p>HECK NOO. I think you still have a shot at top schools. Don’t underestimate yourself!
You should explain your situation to the colleges you apply to (i think there’s usually a space for that on the common app? like “additional information” or something.), or maybe even turn it into an essay! Colleges will definitely take that into account before making a final decision. =\ </p>
<p>What will you score on SAT or ACT? And the top schools want SAT subject tests too. If those are super high, then I’d say you have a shot. </p>
<p>By all means tell your story (without sounding negative) in an essay. Your counselor might mention it a tad in the letter he writes if you okay it. Be sure to apply to less selective colleges than Columbia too, just in case the adcoms don’t care about what you went through.</p>
<p>Expect to only get into schools where your stats are fully in range. There are a lot of kids with a lot of stories. Unfortunately colleges are not looking for unfulfilled potential when they are overwhelmed by fully qualified applicants they have no room for. I also agree that you do not want to write an essay about suffering from depresion.</p>
<p>Your best bet for a school like Columbia is to do well senior year and for a year or two at the best college you can get into and then apply as a transfer.</p>
<p>I don;t plan on writing my essay about this at all - this is so little of who I am. I don’t want them to think that I characterize myself by this disease. I was thinking of just letting my guidance counselor mention it in her stuff, or perhaps use that extra info thing to make a note of it. Nothing sappy, nothing extremely apologetic … it’s not like I brought this upon myself, bad things just happen sometimes…I just want them to have some idea of what happened that my grades took such a downturn. </p>
<p>SAT - 720 M 730 W 740 CR (retaking for 2250+ score)
SAT 2 - Bio 750 Us History 740 Math, Chem, and Lit this weekend.</p>
<p>Schools that were in consideration before this happened and some added later:
Columbia
Duke
Brown
Upenn
Dartmouth
Cornell
Tufts
UMich
UCBerkeley
UCLA
OSU (in state)
Amherst
NYU
UNC Chapel Hill</p>
<p>This is for international relations or economics, leading hopefully to law school or a JD/MBA program.</p>
<p>There is an adcom who posts here who has addressed the issue of talking about depression and mental illness in general. Bottom line, his advice is no one should mention it.</p>
<p>While depression is certainly not of your making, it is not a curable disease and colleges want to avoid dealing with it. Adcom are not doctors and can not parse who may be a danger to themselves or others. It’s an unfortunate reality, but they will avoid anything that has potential to be a problem.</p>
<p>A few years ago an MIT student committed suicide and her parents sued the school. Then there were the school shootings. The adcom also mentioned over taxed mental health services because of the number of students with a range of issues. </p>
<p>So your goal is to raise no red flags and not ask your counselor to.</p>
<p>Additionally, schools love upward trends, and since there has been recovery of grades hopefully, they will appreciate that you have overcome a setback and have come back stronger. There is no reason not to reach for top schools.</p>
<p>Hah, that sucks, hmom. I’m just afraid of what they’d think if someone suddenly got a string of B’s and then bounced back without an explanation when everything else seems perfectly in line. I don’t want to attribute anything to my grandpa dying or moving to use an excuse, but wouldn’t some elucidation help the adcoms out when they’re sitting there either bewildered or blaming it on utter laziness. </p>
<p>I guess whatever happens happens. This just sucks.</p>
<p>Also, out of curiosity… how do you sue a school for someone committing suicide? </p>
<p>I’m not suicidal. I don’t think anyone besides my family even knows that I am depressed and a couple friends- teachers just think I’m one of those lazy smart kids who don’t apply themselves. I don’t think, after medication, this will significantly affect my life at all, especially because this wasn’t an ongoing medical condition or mental state, but triggered by a series of unfortunate events.</p>
<p>I’m not looking for actual details, but just to mention -
it often seems like a different story if there’s a sort of easily identifiable, non-repeatable cause for depression. Like hmom5 says, blaming depression for a downward trend is not useful, at the very least because people who’ve had depression are likely to be depressed again, which would compromise your performance in college. However, if you characterize your grade slip not as depression per se, but as the result of some obviously upsetting non-mental event, it would not be counted against you. For example, if a close family member had died, it would be understandable if your grades slipped. Even though the death of a family member doesn’t physically affect your ability to do your homework and take tests, people would be less likely to call that grieving process a mental illness than they would be if all they knew was that you didn’t perform well because you were sad. It’s all in the presentation.</p>
<p>My grandfather is about a month from dying, so I guess that would be one aspect of it. I will somehow mention a sentence about it in my essay- I just don’t want to whine about it because honestly, I’m not an outwardly emotional person at all and the last thing I’d want them for believe that I’m some dark brooding kid in the corner.</p>
<p>I wish the adcoms would know that I’m about to get a B in 3 classes because of a two week period where I just did badly on every major test. Two weeks ruined a year (we have a messed up quarter-point system. it’s ridiculous) and all the work that went with it. </p>
<p>It’s going to make even less sense to them when I get back AP Scores and have a 5 on AP Chem, but a B in the class, a 4 and like 3/3 on English and the Econs respectively, but A’s in the class. Just like I had a 5 on Bio last year but a B in the class but a 4 on APUSH but an A in the class. </p>
<p>hi. I have a problem and it put a lot of stress on me. I’ m a junior in high school and i took the Sat in may. my score was 1430 and i have a GPA of 4.35. I really want to go to Dartmouth and apply for early decision , however i doubt that with this score they might accept me. I came in the USA 8 months ago and at the beginning it was very difficult for me with the language and the system ect. But now everythig is ok except for the SAT. It’ s not that i can’ t pass the SAT but i wasn’ t use to take tests ( each section) in this short amount of time. In my opinion, no matter how many times i take the Sat, i’ll never be able to obtain the score required by Dartmouth college. Therefore, i would like to know if you think that Dartmouth will consider that i just came in the country recently and accept me, since my grades are pretty good?
Thanks for your future answers</p>
<p>Hi chasingstarlight, Yeah i know this feeling. Just like i thought that i would get an A on a subject, it appeared that i got a D for a major test. Final will start in one week and there is no way i can make it up. so , if you’re worried about what colleges might think, just make sure that your essay soit outstanding.</p>
<p>oh, since you’re new - here’s how to start a thread of your own. go to the dartmouth thread in the ivy league section on this site. look towards the top of the forum and you’ll see a “new thread” button. click, write, and post. </p>
<p>I remember the MIT story. If I remember correctly the parents position was that MIT should have been more aware of how the stress of that kind of school can impact students and they should have had more safe guards in place to keep something like that from happening. If I also remember correctly MIT started not accepting students who were taking anti-depressants. Their position was that there is nothing wrong with anti-depressants but maybe a school like MIT isn’t the right place for someone who has a tendency towards depression.</p>
<p>ChasingStarlight’s original question was whether she should still try to get into her dream schools or if she should set her sights lower. My answer to that would be the same that I would give anyone, cast a wide net, dream schools, schools that are a little easier to get into and safety schools.</p>
<p>However, I’m concerned about ChasingStarlight’s depressive episode. I suffer from depression and the best way to manage it is to take care of myself. I’ve learned that I can’t have too much stress in my life because if I do it might trigger an episode. I’ve created a life for myself that is not as stressful as other people’s, that was something that I had no choice about, my tendency towards depression means that I have limitations.</p>
<p>The right school is out there for ChasingStarlight and the possibility that she might have trouble with her depression in the future should be a consideration in that search.</p>