Writing about an experience I had that caused a drop in my grades sophomore/junior year. I had a dramatic drop in math and physics, but a more general drop for the other subjects. (B+/A-) The reason for this that I’m stating in the “additional academic information” section is that the drop in those specific subjects was more due to their requiring learned skill/ a strong foundation. (the others didn’t really require much effort on my part).
Basically: I really did have a bad experience but I don’t want colleges to think “oh, looks like they’re just bad at math”.
Thoughts?
You trying to explain away your “bad” grades isn’t going to help. I personally would view it as a negative if I was reading your application.
I think you misinterpreted what I was trying to say-- I’m not trying to ‘explain’ away my grades, just relating a death in my family that contributed to it. I’m not trying to make excuses, but rather emphasize that I can and have done better, and that I was able to move past it.
My question more or less pertained to what colleges define as a “drop” in grades? Must it be general? Sorry if I wasn’t clear about that before, but thank you for your help!
You really don’t want to write about the 5 D’s. They are death, divorce, debt, disease and depression. They are topics better left for the GC.
If the drop in grades was significant, you should ask your guidance counselor to relay the information about the death in your family in his/her letter of recommendation to colleges. That way it will come off as an independently verified fact and there is no chance it will sound like an applicant trying to make an excuse.
I agree…talk to your GC and they can mention it.
So you are saying you had a death in your family sophomore year…which made you not get a good foundation in math that year which led to problems junior year as well.
So for you, it is important to show that you have caught up and are now ready for college level work. I would suggest that you apply Regular decision…and do very very well the first semester of Senior year so that they can see your grades for the first semester and know you are ready for college. Also make sure you have studied and done well on SAT/ACT.
Grades are what they are. Score well on your SAT, and that will offset the grades. Don’t stress, there’s a lot of great colleges out there.