So, due to a lot of unforeseen problems (getting pneumonia, mostly) I had over 10 absences this past semester of school, and a couple of tardies, which resulted in my school dropping the grades in some of my classes by at least 10-20 points. This resulted in failing of two of my classes, AP English 11 and Honors precalculus, which means I have to take summer school to get the credits. Will this look really bad on college applications? It will significantly help my GPA to pass the summer school classes, but will it drastically effect my chances at college? My top school is Syracuse University and I have multiple ECs and I’m projected to do incredibly well on SATs and ACTs in the fall, but I don’t know how badly summer school will go against me.
It depends on norm in your school but even top students in our district take summer school and eSchool classes to knock down prerequisites and electives.
There should be a space provided in your college app to write any notes; you should explain your grades/summer school there. If you have a fairly nice app that appeals to the college, this abnormality shouldn’t hinder your chances. Overall, you should not sweat over this :). Just make note of it in your app.
I think it does the opposite! It shows that you took the initiative to achieve higher despite your circumstances