<p>I did bad freshman year and middle school (where i had HS credit classes) b/c 3 deaths in the family, parents divorce, and one family member went crazy and hospitalized =[ it's killing my gpa and class rank</p>
<p>Yes, admissions officers are human, and they do consider family tragedies. Do bear in mind that in the most selective schools, there are many kids who do well DESPITE the tragedies and that is considered a boost to their app, but if your grades were terribly affected, it isn’t going to be a consideration to you.</p>
<p>If there is a blip in your record where you did not do well because of a horrible, horrible year, and then you super recovered with great grades, it could be overlooked at most schools. Many schools will give consideration for freshman grades anyways, and you don’t have to send your middle school records even with HS credit courses. That you are in the more advanced courses and doing well speaks for itself without having that transcript there.</p>
<p>is this even if it isn’t immediate family? Such as uncles/aunts and cousins?</p>
<p>Where are you located/targeting? If you’re targeting UC’s they consider only the 10th and 11th grades in the UC GPA.</p>
<p>I looked at your chance thread - I think you would be making a mistake to devote your essay to making excuses for your grades - especially middle school grades. Your 10 - 11th grades are very good, your test scores are great. Write a great essay about something you are passionate about. If the application has a short essay or “other information” space, briefly address freshman year grades there. Good luck!</p>
<p>My initial instinct to your OP would be no. </p>
<p>In this day and age, it is just too easy to lie about this kind of stuff, and too many stellar applicants in the applicant pool. As stated above, college admission officers are only human, and they have a h*ll of a lot of applications to process. I doubt that they will easily give you a free pass.</p>
<p>I doubt they will even consider it. Parent’s divorced? Welcome to the 21st century. Family members passed away? It happens to everyone at some point. It feels terrible, but no one is impressed when you let yourself slip up while passively being the victim. You did what anyone else would typically do, so that makes you average.</p>
<p>Don’t make it your main essay. Make it a small paragraph under “Is there anything else you want us to know?” and don’t sound whiny.</p>
<p>the best way to bring this up is to have a counselor mention it in their letter. While adcoms do make allowances for family circumstances, I’d say the majority of HS kids are unable to write an essay (or supplemental letter) explaining their circumstances without it sounding like “I’m not responsible” instead of “I’ve done the best I can in difficult circumstances”. Hence its probably better to have a counselor who knows you and the situation explain it.</p>
<p>^Agree. 10 char</p>
<p>I think colleges won’t usually hold it against you if you had a bad freshman year, if the next two years went well.</p>
<p>Why the concern about middle school grades? Colleges don’t count them. Would your hs send them? My kids took hs math in middle school, but it didn’t show up on their transcript for college.</p>
<p>Where will you be applying? what are your reaches, matches, safeties, financial safety? Some don’t count 9th year grades, some do. Some schools will let you include all grades…including PE and electives - that might boost your GPA for some schools.</p>
<p>What is your GPA…weighted and unweighted. </p>
<p>I don’t think any college is going to overlook bad grades due to a death of an aunt, uncle, or cousin…unless these people were raising you. Everyone loses extended family members while in middle school and high school (grandparents, etc.).</p>
<p>wow, i’m sorry 
that sounds awful</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/787086-do-i-have-chance-listed-colleges.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/787086-do-i-have-chance-listed-colleges.html</a>
those are my stats and listed colleges are reaches</p>
<p>Does your HS send middle school grades? My kids’ school does not - even with HS-level math on them.</p>
<p>Even if those grades are sent, would colleges even use them in GPA computations?</p>
<p>Your 9th year grades are not BAD…they just aren’t as good as your later years.</p>
<p>Colleges are usually forgiving about freshman year grades if they see an “up” trend. </p>
<p>Ivies are a Super Reach for even those with perfect stats…so chance for Columbia is about 1 in 12 or worse…</p>
<p>The rest are all reaches or matches which you have a decent chance…nothing is 100% these days at top schools.</p>
<p>What are your “lower matches” or your safeties?</p>
<p>Also, have your parents told you that they can afford $220k+ for your undergrad education? IF not, how will you pay for these schools?</p>
<p>safety is USC honors (south carolina) b/c its my state school.
$ my parents said they can contribute a decent amount and praying for scholarships.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Ok, so you need scholarships.</p>
<p>Do you realize that top schools are filled with top students, therefore they don’t usually give scholarships? (after all, who would they give them to if all their students are top??)</p>
<p>Good merit scholarships are awarded by schools with rankings in the mid range or lower. </p>
<p>BTW…what is a “decent amount”? Is that $10k per year? $20k per year?? What??? How much can your parents pay each year? And, what will their EFC be (use an EFC calculator if you don’t know [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml) )</p>
<p>You don’t want to be spinning your wheels dreaming about colleges that are unaffordable. You have a financial safety, and that’s good as long as you’d be happy to go there. IF not, then you need some other financial safeties, and there are some with your stats.</p>