<p>I'm applying ED to Brown University (I am also planning to apply to a lot of other good schools if I don't get in though, like Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, Wesleyan, etc). I have a rather strong application and test scores, good extracurricular activities and an excellent art supplement for the visual arts. However, my overall GPA is pulled down by my sophomore year. I took all honors classes and the one AP class that was available for sophomores at the time, AP Euro. </p>
<p>My parents were divorced when I was very young, and they have 50-50 shared custody of me. During my sophomore year, my father battled with alcoholism for the first time ever. I was scared, depressed, I had anxiety, and I was spending more time worrying about him and helping him than being concerned with my schoolwork. I didn't do horrendously badly; but I got a few B's and one B- as a result of this struggle. His problems started in October and ended (for the most part) in April. </p>
<p>I don't want to use this as an excuse for the slip in my academic record. Truthfully, I actually learned a lot from the experience, and it taught me how to recover from falling behind and I learned how to ask for help, which I never needed to do before. Would this be something that I could write about in an extenuating circumstances essay? It's certainly not trivial, and I feel like I need to somehow express what happened so that the admissions people don't think that I just slacked off all year or something like that.</p>
<p>I'm going to ask my counselor tomorrow, but I seriously need a second opinion. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>If your overall application is strong, I don’t think you need to explain a few bad grades. However, it sounds like that experience might be something you want to incorporate into your Common app essay.</p>
But of course you do; otherwise why would you bother mentioning it? Most HS students in similar circumstances would find their academic performance challenged, and you want to let the adcoms know that is what happened to you (and not laziness or something).</p>
<p>The positives you talk about taking away from this could be a good theme to include in a standard app essay. If you think you need a separate letter I would suggest having a third party such as your counselor write it. Adcoms don’t have the time or resources to look into things like this, so a report by someone with more direct knowledge of your life than the adcoms have will often be better than asking them to weigh your account themselves.</p>
<p>I am not taking a position on this one. Sometimes you need to consider whether it is wise from a family viewpoint to be telling strangers that your father (name will be known as part of application) was an alcoholic and the troubles that involved. In other words, is revealing that problem something you believe he will be fine with.</p>
<p>I have to weigh in and support drusba’s comment. From what you have described the episode seems pretty short, October to April. The hope is that assessment/intervention/treatment was sought and implemented. The question of whether this was a first time episode would be answered through assessment by a licensed drug/alcohol counselor. It’s all no ones business - you should preserve the fidelity of your family, first and foremost. Perhaps use your own intelligence to reframe and describe with well chosen words, this situation as a challenge, perhaps even as a learning experience that you had about yourself and your family. Perhaps you were trying to gain some perspective of it first, and it had a pervasive impact on you. You couldn’t focus on your academics, for example. Look at it as a period when a family member was dealing with some type of pain. Pain changes everyone’s perspective. Perhaps something was bothering your father for that period of time, and he was able to quantify it and deal with it - come to terms with some help. The result? That’s up to you to think about and formulate. It goes deeper than just a couple of grades. You will, if you have exacting professors in college, get an F every now and then. I still have a paper that I received an F on in college, because I had not responded to the question, as asked, and my response was too long - my kids are astonished at it because when they read it, they find it as quite an eloquent piece! I show it to them to let them know that I had received an F, and why it is important to answer what is asked. That is what scholarship is all about. I have dealt with kids and families for 25+ years. I have known of situations where similar substance abuse has lasted much longer and the user has been in huge denial. Its not uncommon in today’s society. Be thankful that people got better. If it wound up being more messy than you make it sound, you are moving in the right direction, by not having disclosed more. Think about it, talk to people that you know and trust, seek a professional counselor if needed, and use the experience to ensure your success at having a better life while avoiding similar, if not the same, pitfalls. Take care, Mr. VC</p>
<p>Why, what’s going to happen? What’s an adcom going to do with this information - go running around saying that Mr. Joe Schmoe, father of a current applicant who lives in Walla Walla, Washington, has an alcohol problem? I’m not taking a position on what the OP should or shouldn’t do … but adcoms come across many sensitive situations in the course of reviewing files.</p>
<p>PG, Drusba’s comment was about whether the father would be OK with this being shared. Not how the college would use it. In some ways it doesn’t matter how the college will use it if the father could feel betrayed.</p>