My daughter, a rising Senior, had a terrible Freshman year. We moved from the west coast to the east coast and she went from a small private school to a large public school. She was completely unprepared, devastated at leaving home, and had an unweighted 3.1 the first semester. By the second semester, she was improving and then Covid hit, the school froze her grades, went to pass/fail and she was stuck at a 3.1.
We moved back west in the summer of 2020 and she is back in a small private school and had an UW 4.0 Sophomore year and an UW 3.95 Junior year with several APs and Honors classes.
Wondering how much she should address this in her applications?
@Izzy74 - Not at all, no reason to explain. Itâs nothing that 1000s of other HS kids have gone through. The most important thing is that sheâs grown and shown improvement since her Freshman year (Just as an FYI the California State Uâs donât even count 9th grade in their GPA calculations!)
Having moved the collegekids many, many times I am keenly aware of, and sympathetic to, how hard those moves are. It is gutting when your kid has a hard landing (we have weathered several of those).
That said, from the perspective of an AO, another way of seeing this particular scenario is âstudent can only handle being in a small private schoolâ. That is not a message you want to give to AdComms.
You donât. Your kids counselor usually does a report. Talk to them about what you would like to emphasis. The other two years will stand out and some schools sorta discount freshman year especially with a strong upward trend with rigor. Lots of students have an adjustment from middle school to high school. Focus on the positive not the negatives!!
She can mention it but portray it as a challenge that led to personal growth. As was mentioned above, as devastating as moving, divorce or the pandemic are to students, many others have been through similar experiences. I would focus on the challenge of the move and adapting to a new social environment rather than the pandemic freezing her grades.
If she is applying to a UC, she will choose which four of the 8 Personal Insight Questions she wants to write about.
Question #5 is Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
The description of what they are looking for is below. I bolded âwhat youâve learned from the experienceâ because it is important define the challenge and then devote the majority of the essay about how you have grown from the experience. Reflect back on the challenge, what you did to over come it and how you learned from it. How did it make you a better person in ways that wouldnât have happened if you didnât experience the challenge?
Things to consider: A challenge could be personal, or something you have faced in your community or school. Why was the challenge significant to you? This is a good opportunity to talk about any obstacles youâve faced and what youâve learned from the experience. Did you have support from someone else or did you handle it alone?
The UC application also has a space in the Academic History section to make comments. This is a place for you to share details specific to your academic history that will help give admissions officers more context. That section is optional but all UCs say âIf you donât tell us, we donât know.â Some students move with ease. Others find it challenging so I would definitely mention it there.
Thanks all, we do realize her situation isnât unique. She is not looking at UCs, we donât live in California. Sheâs mostly looking at smaller schools based on her experience freshman year. The argument that she does better in a small private school I think is a fair one , but probably not something she should point out regardless of where she applies. Appreciate everyoneâs thoughts.
Smaller schools may ask questions similar to the UC prompt. My advise is the same. Use it as an opportunity to show personal growth rather than a âwoe is meâ type of essay. Iâm not saying she would write negative essay, just that it is possible to mention a challenge she overcame with a positive spin.
There are tons of very good small schools. I do not know whether a bad freshmen year will rule out âBowdoin, Amherst, Wellesleyâ level schools, but there will still be a very long list of very good liberal arts colleges that are viable.
There are a small number of small âprimarily undergraduate universitiesâ in Canada that are very good and that will not care about freshman year at all. However, given how many good LACs there are in the USA, I do not think that there is any reason to consider the Canadian schools unless someone just wants to do it.
When looking at small private colleges in the US, your budget and the chances of financial aid are important things to consider.
So many fantastic LACs out there. Fit is important. FWIW my D went to Lafayette and had an absolutely fantastic experience and outcome. We looked at a number of LACs in that range and came away impressed.
Thanks all, sheâs come up with quite an eclectic list of schools, the only larger one is Baylor but I suspect after visiting sheâll reconsider. She would like to leave home but not the Northeast or California. Right now sheâs planning on applying to Furman, Sewanee, Southwestern University, Gonzaga (close to home), Butler University, and Drake University, her reach is Trinity University in San Antonio. Sheâs very clear on what she wants to do, she wants to be on the creative side of advertising, so looking at smaller schools where she can combine creative writing/communications with art. We have a pretty good budget (50K a year) but some schools sheâs liked are probably out, Elon for example.
Itâs funny that the previous poster mentioned Canadian schools, we are actually dual citizens but she doesnât want to go to Canada, much to the financial dismay of her parents I have hopes for our son.
Let me know or ask here on CC if you want any suggestions when the time comes.
I honestly do not know how a budget of 50k per year will go at universities and LACs in the US. In-state public universities were way under this number for us. Otherwise we were offered merit aid at quite a few that brought the cost below this level, but one question that I do not know the answer to is what impact a so so freshman year will have on merit aid. Whether you can fit this budget also might depend on whether you qualify for need based aid. Have you run NPCs?
One thing that occurred to me is that a lot of students had trouble during the pandemic. Having recovered well for her sophomore and junior years should help a lot.
I have hopes for our son.