Extreme Dip in GPA... please help!

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1

Hi, I was wondering how colleges will view an extreme dip in GPA that I’ve explained profusely in the additional info section of the common app?

(all unweighted)
Freshman: 4.0
Sophomore: 3.9
Junior (yikes): 3.3
Senior: 4.0

The summer between soph and junior year I moved to a private, international school in a different country from a public school in the US. I had an extremely hard time adjusting and experienced panic attacks often at school… This was also in addition to a family illness. I’ve taken AP and honors classes since freshman year and have been a full IB diploma student for grade 11/12. I eventually started seeking help from my guidance counsellor and school therapist and am doing well now and will receive straight As for senior year. I’m just really worried for how my junior year GPA will reflect… especially since I did get one C (yikes)

Thank you!

2

This is literally my exact GPA breakdown and class rigor (except I didn’t explain my junior grades unfortunately) so I’m interested.

With no actual knowledge on this subject, my thoughts are that a 3.75 UW GPA (which what I have and what I assume you have, or at least something close to it) won’t be an automatic deal-breaker for any schools if your class rigor is as high as possible with great scores and ECs; it also depends on what classes you performed poorly in.

Explaining the dip will probably also help lessen the blow of your junior year GPA significantly, so although it’s lower than the top schools would like, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue if the rest of your application is a better reflection of your aptitude as a student.

(Again, I have no firsthand knowledge about this)