<p>How are these usually viewed by an admissions committee??</p>
<p>My parents struggled with severe health problems during my first two years of high school. My mom had two strokes and my dad had a heart attack and a stroke. Also, we found out that my older brother was sexually abusing two of my younger brothers. He was separated from the family for two years but then returned because my parents thought it was okay for whatever reason. </p>
<p>Obviously, all of this took a toll on me, especially in regards to my grades. Weighted, I maintained a 94 for my first two years. My school doesn't calculate unweighted but I'm sure it was horrendous. However, for my junior year I had about a 96 unweighted and my weighted is something like a 103. </p>
<p>How would I mention the difficulties I experienced during my first two years, and are they even worth mentioning or would they just seem like excuses?</p>
<p>Your grades aren’t poor enough to warrant justification for them, I’d say.</p>
<p>Usually in these kinds of situations, though, people like to include your reasons in essays, or you can talk to your counselor to see if s/he can leave a note.</p>
<p>One of my main concerns is my rank. For my first two years I was outside of the top 25% but after this year I should be around top 15% which still sucks. </p>
<p>Also, I have close to no extracurriculars for freshman and sophomore year and I figured that this could suffice as a reasonable explanation as to why.</p>
<p>I’m concerned that the combination of my rank and lack of ECs will make me look like an idiot and lead to a few rejections.</p>
<p>This is the sort of information that your guidance counselor could cover in his/her letter. Do make certain that your counselor knows your history. And if what you indicate about your brothers is true, your counselor needs to know that so that the school system can do what it can to protect your younger brothers.</p>
<p>I can understand writing about your parents’ health problems, but writing about your brother being a child molester? Personally, I wouldn’t go there. I have never worked in admissions, but if I did, the last thing I would want to know is that a potential student has lived in a dysfunctional family.</p>
<p>Because that makes that person an unsuitable candidate for admission? Because someone who has lived in a dysfunctional family won’t do well in college? Give me a break.</p>
<p>Admissions officers have seen a lot. I agree with happymomof1–this is something best covered by the GC.</p>
<p>@Bill73 I understand where you’re coming from. Do you think it would be wiser to omit the fact the my brother is a child molester and instead just state that I found out that my brothers were abused?</p>
<p>I would have your GC write something. I wouldn’t leave out any details unless you’re not comfortable with it being shared. The fact that it was your brother IMO magnifies the affect on you. Especially since he’s now living with your family.</p>
<p>Sheesh. One guy saying that he wouldn’t want students coming from dysfunctional families, another one calling the OP who potentially went through traumatizing experiences a ■■■■■. Way to deal with a traumatizing situation, guys.</p>
<p>@OP: If you feel that your situation really impacted your academic life, then I agree. Talk to your counselor. You can either share full details or you can just kinda skim through them (just say a sexually abusive family member and a severe medical problems from your parents) or you can just say that you had a bad situation - it all depends on how comfortable you are on sharing.</p>
<p>I’m not trolling…I post here fairly regularly. Anyway, as the other poster clarified, the 94 is WEIGHTED. Unweighted it’s probably like >85 Which is probably more like a C+ or B-…it’s just that the weighting system used to be unusually generous during my freshman and sophomore year. they changed it during my junior year.If they didn’t change the weighting system I’d have like a 107 or something ridiculous like that so yes, the difference between my first two years and my junior year is huge to me and something I think would be worth addressing in an essay. I’m just here to ask how…</p>
<p>And I don’t need professional advice as everything happened over a year ago. I don’t know how you missed that. I’m not asking anybody to deal with my personal problems. Rather, I’m asking how an admissions committe would view this type of ordeal and how I should include it in an essay or something…</p>
<p>Also, I never said I had a sister so I’m not sure where you’re getting that from. Anyway, unless you come back here in the morning to apologize for leaving posts here that are so not only incoherent and insensitive but idiotic, I’m going to go ahead and write you off as an imbecile and maybe even a ‘■■■■■.’</p>
<p>thanks anyway. yeah I think I’m just going to see if my guidance counselor will make a note of it. thanks for the more serious responses</p>
<p>I just went into powerschool (online thing that keeps track of our current year’s grades) and averaged my scores…it takes like 5 minutes. Sorry if that’s unclear. I have no idea what the unweighted for my first two years is because those grades aren’t available on powerschool. All I have is my weighted GPA from my first two years on naviance.</p>
<p>The 103 is also self calculated since our grades haven’t been ‘officially’ released. Our school basically tells us how to calculate it in our student handbook.</p>
<p>Most posters here are being helpful. Ignore the rest.</p>
<p>Not only can your GC cover your family trauma in his/her letter, but there is space at the end of the common application to add any information that you think an admissions committee would want to know. You can certainly mention, briefly, that your parents’ severe health issues prevented you from fully participating in ECs and that your brother’s mental health issues absorbed a great deal of for family’s resources which has had an impact. This isn’t making excuses - it’s giving the committee insight into who you are and what has shaped you. Hopefully, you can also mention what you have gained from your difficult life experiences: an early sense of responsibility, an unusual level of empathy and compassion for suffering, etc…</p>
<p>Also, an FYI, colleges don’t look too deeply into freshman grades (some don’t look at all), and to a lesser extent, at sophomore grades. If you did your best during your junior year, that’s what matters the most. I don’t think the slight dip in grades will affect you too much (an 85 is around a ~3.4, I’m pretty sure - could be better but no terrible by any means) so don’t worry too much about it, but like everybody says, if you are comfortable, you can leave a note on the common app or ask your GC too.</p>
<p>my apologies if sincere, truly. the professional help i suggest is from a college guidance counselor or even adcoms. your situation would certainly merit thoughtful consideration but i doubt anyone on cc could give anything more than guesses and conjecture --even though well-intentioned. a situation such as you describe warrants more solid information and would also probably depend on the specific school</p>