Explaining bad grades (for UC). Best place to do this?

Last year (11th), my school put me in an AP course (bio) which I did not select, due to the ones I wanted being full.

I sort of had few options, because I could either stay and persist or drop it. I didn’t want to drop because doing so would make me look lazy taking fewer classes than the norm, and all the other electives are full, so I decided to persist.

However, that was a bad idea, because the immense amount of work in that course led to my screwing up a lot of classes.

I don’t have an available essay, because my third one was allotted to discussion of my interest in my major. Comments box, perhaps? =(

I am doing much better in comparison this year, but the semester hasn’t ended yet so there are no final grades. There are already a couple of classes in which I’m pretty much guaranteed an A, though I of course can’t state that. I wish I could note this somehow…

<p>Bump...</p>

<p>please</p>

<p>I have 4 hours left to submit, goddamn it. Please.</p>

<p>Don't know what to say, bro. The ideal place would have been essay, but I guess you can put it in the additional comments box, even though it isn't entirely for that kind of stuff.</p>

<p>Use the comments box, there's no other place you can put it now..</p>

<p>Well, if it were essay, which one would have been best?</p>

<p>Thanks, by the way.</p>

<p>If it were for the essay, it'd have to be #3 I'm pretty sure
1 is for academic interest , 2 for contribution and that doesn't fit the above</p>

<p>It's a bad choice to highlight a weakness in an essay. You don't have any real excuse for the grades, so forget about it and see how it goes. It's done. You made the choice not to drop, so that was the committment to managing the schedule. To blame it on outsiders will reflect poorly. Highlight was you are good at and want a chance to shine at.</p>

<p>Well, I explained why I dropped band for second semester in the extra comments box (so that I could play a sport). But that's more of a clarification thing whereas yours would be a full-fledged explanation about what happened...</p>

<p>its almost the deadline so maybe this is too late. But for essay 3 they say This question seeks to give students the opportunity to share important aspects of their schooling or their lives – such as their personal circumstances, family experiences and opportunities that were or were not available at their school or college – that may not have been sufficiently addressed elsewhere in the application.. </p>

<p>Yet GLM225 says *I don't have an available essay, because my third one was allotted to discussion of my interest in my major. *. I'm scratching my head, trying to figure out what the interest in your major has to do with essay 3. The purpose of essay 3 is to provide a backdoor around the ban on affirmative action; you use this essay to explain why you are disadvantaged. Or you can use it to highlight some special circumstance such as how your love of music led you to work with underpriviliged children who didn't have access to music classes. You could even choose to use it for a positive theme, calling attention to your continued improvement in grades as you've matured in HS and how you are always challenging yourself, that kind of stufff, although it isn't really why they put the essay on the form.</p>

<p>So I think you could have written a short essay here explaining how you've learned to better allocate your time, improved study habits, and so on in light of your experiences last year. I think essay 3 is where it should have gone ...</p>

<p>try not to focus on the bad, but the good. don't even mention it.</p>