<p>musiryn, the answer is yes, but you’d be better off posting a thread of your own. Google “Tufts financial aid” and you can find the answer to your question in about two seconds.</p>
<p>Weighing in on hebrewhammer et. al.'s side here: unless your personal difficulties are truly and totally transformative, like being forced into serving as a child soldier, or living on the streets for a couple years, keep them out of your essay. Writing an essay about a grandparent dying is literally used as a demonstrative example of a poor choice of topic for an essay. Not to sound harsh or uncaring, but the fact of the matter is that by the age of 18, having a grandparent die is not a distinctive and unique event; and eventually, everyone will have all of their grandparents die.</p>
<p>That being said, any topic can make a good essay if you feel passionately enough about it. But if you’re choosing it as a topic simply to explain poor grades, you’ve now given yourself a double black-mark of poor grades and an uninspiring essay, and even perfect test scores will not make up for that.</p>
<p>However, I also don’t like the idea of having your guidance counselor include this information. First off, you don’t even know if they actually will, second, you don’t control how it’s presented or even if they remember it correctly. The same goes for your interviewer - if you even get an interview, you have no idea how seriously your interviewer will take you or in what format they will transmit the information to admissions. It’s important to remember that the interviewer is not an admissions employee and does not have a say in the final decision, they’re just a volunteer serving primarily as a Tufts booster. If you want to get this information conveyed, you have to convey it yourself.</p>
<p>Now if it is the case that a single semester (or even a single year, but this weakens your case) showed a marked and drastic decrease in grades, it can very well be worth mentioning the extenuating circumstances. I’ve done this. Throughout my college career, I’ve gotten mostly As or A-s, with plenty of Bs and B+s thrown in for flavor. My second semester junior year, I was diagnosed with cancer during finals, yielding two Cs and an F. This luckily turned out to be a misdiagnosis (hooray for ****ty opthalmologists!) and my subsequent senior year grades returned to form. I thought this worth explaining on my grad school applications. Rather than have a recommender mention it or include it in my essays, though, I added it as an additional note. Most applications actually have a space for “additional information”, and it seems foolish not to utilize this, so I explained my case in a very informational, matter-of-fact way that explicitly drew attention to the fact that my GPA would be several tenths of a point higher if not for this single semester, which showed a clear break from my pattern. I’m happy to report that I got into two of the four choice programs to which I applied, even though my GPA was WELL below the average for all four schools, and will be heading to Cornell in the fall.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p><<<my second=“” semester=“” junior=“” year,=“” i=“” was=“” diagnosed=“” with=“” cancer=“” during=“” finals,=“” yielding=“” two=“” cs=“” and=“” an=“” f.=“” this=“” luckily=“” turned=“” out=“” to=“” be=“” a=“” misdiagnosis=“” (hooray=“” for=“” ****ty=“” opthalmologists!)=“”>>></my></p>
<p>Pseudotumor cerebri, smarf??</p>
<p>Melanocytic nevus misdiagnosed as a uveal melanoma. I have such a long history of epidermal melanoma (get one every 2 - 4 years) that the doctor felt comfortable diagnosing it before taking a biopsy. Pbth.</p>
<p>Also, do you just find it funny to mangle my screen name? I notice that you’ve successfully baited a couple people into correcting you, but the consistency with which you use the wrong name, and the fact that (to the best of my knowledge) you’ve never repeated a wrong name, indicates to me it’s entirely intentional and you’re enjoying getting a rise out of people.</p>
<p><<also, do=“” you=“” just=“” find=“” it=“” funny=“” to=“” mangle=“” my=“” screen=“” name?=“” i=“” notice=“” that=“” you’ve=“” successfully=“” baited=“” a=“” couple=“” people=“” into=“” correcting=“” you,=“” but=“” the=“” consistency=“” with=“” which=“” use=“” wrong=“” name,=“” and=“” fact=“” (to=“” best=“” of=“” knowledge)=“” never=“” repeated=“” indicates=“” me=“” it’s=“” entirely=“” intentional=“” you’re=“” enjoying=“” getting=“” rise=“” out=“” people.=“”>>></also,></p>
<p>Uh, no, the “n” (and sometimes “u”) are problematic on my keyboard.</p>
<p>Glad it wasn’t a uveal melanoma and really blundering and scary that a diagnosis was rendered pre-biopsy/path being done.</p>
<p>if i have 6 legacy’s and my parents were born in hawaii and boston, do you think they will take that into account? or, do you think it doesn’t really make a difference?</p>
<p>Why did you ask that in a ancient thread?
Start a new one,</p>
<p>Hello! I have a quick question… I just want to know my chances to get into tufts. I am a junior right now in high school, im graduating in 2014. I really want to go to tufts. Right know I have a 3.03 GPA (I being lazy) but next year im planning to take 2 AP clases for the whole year, i want to take AP English and AP Calculus. I think that my GPA is going to be around a 3.40 or 3.50. I am going to do some community service. I havent taken my SAT yet, but im sure Im going to do good. Do i have any chances? I also have some people that have contacts at tufts and they are willing to help me out.</p>
<p>I don’t do chances generally, and when I’m feeling snarky I tell people if they are smart enough to apply to XYZ college they are smart enough to do their own chances. However here you go Yamilet. </p>
<p>Your overall GPA is not that meaningful a number since schools figure these things differently. What’s probably more significant is your rank (even if your school doesn’t rank they are likely to give some sort of estimate of what your rank might be). Take a look at this: [Accepted</a> Student Profile · Tufts University Admissions Department](<a href=“http://admissions.tufts.edu/apply/accepted-student-profile/]Accepted”>Accepted Student Profile | Tufts Admissions) You can see that 90% of the Tufts class is in the top 10% of their class and about half are in the top 5%. If that’s not you, your chances are not too favorable.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that if some part of the statistical part of your application is in the bottom 25% you will have to have some compensating factor. This could be any number of things - hardship stories, stellar ECs, an interesting background, outstanding recommendations, etc. There’s going to have to be some reason for an admissions officer to take you out of the maybe pile and put you into the accept pile. What that reason is, is anybody’s guess.</p>
<p>Okay, thank you very much!! yeah i am a pretty good student, i just got lazy this year for no reasons but i realized that I was doing things wrong so i decided to do more than great next year(on my senior year). I am very very very smart, especially in math… I have an interesting background, very interesting… 
thanks for your help</p>
<p>And of course your chances are zero percent if you don’t apply. Pay attention to your essays, really think about what teachers really know you and will say interesting things about you - it might not be the teacher who gave you the A. My son actually got a recommendation from a math teacher who gave him a B+, but who couldn’t have written a nicer recommendation. (My son is good at math, but can’t remember a formula for the life of him, makes math difficult.) Good luck!</p>
<p>Yeah you’re totally right! thanks a lot for the advice :). I would have it on mind… Can a teacher I had in my sophomore year make a recommendation latter? or only teacher I had in junior and senior year?</p>
<p>Usually your best bet is a junior year teacher - they’ve had you long enough to know you well, and recently enough to remember you.</p>