Extenuating Circumstances/Bad First Semester of Senior Year

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone could give me suggestions based on my current situation. I was doing great during the beginning of senior year in regards to grades, but then a couple events towards the end of my year really messed up my grades.

Important information to mention is that my schedule/grades looked like this:
AP Calc BC - A
AP Bio - B
AP Lit - A
AP Gov - B
Internship - B
Swim - A

What happened was that my dad was diagnosed with pulmonary embolisms in both his lungs, and I spent more time at the hospital with him than focusing on schoolwork. I helped out more with housework while my mom spent time with him and the doctors. The other thing that happened that I’m not sure whether I should mention is that I missed a week of school because I was invited to interview at Cambridge, and it was the week before finals week. Because of that I ended up missing a lot of school work and didn’t have enough time to makeup everything on time.

I realize it might be difficult to give accurate advice since the application process is holistic for the colleges I’m applying to, but I was wondering if both of these events a) are appropriate to mention and b) would be seen as satisfactory excuses for my lower grades by reach schools (H/Y/P), or whether my chances are significantly lowered because of the B’s either way.

If your circumstance was out of your control, had a significant effect on your grades, and you think you are able to convey information relevant to that circumstance that would be beneficial to your application, go for it.