Freshman grades suck: should I say I had family problems?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>To be honest, my parents fight a lot. Can I say this emotional stress is what led to my less-than-stellar grades during this time to make colleges more understanding? It was really the first two trimesters that have lots of Bs and even two Cs.</p>

2

<p>You can say that but colleges see that excuse more than enough. There are schools that don’t take into account freshman year; might want to check those out.</p>

3

<p>Do you think I’d be better off saying it, though, than not? Ya know, like addressing it wasn’t pure negligence/laziness on my part? And what schools don’t take it into consideration?</p>

4

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/940335-list-colleges-dont-look-freshman-year.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/940335-list-colleges-dont-look-freshman-year.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>There’s more links there.
I don’t know if you should say it, but I would. I would either say it in the “other information” of my application or implicitly mention it in my essay.</p>

5

<p>Think about it: If you were an adcom who saw someone trying to explain away their grades because of a family feud, would you be sympathetic, or would it sound like an excuse?</p>

6

<p>If there were family problems, I’d be sympathetic</p>

7

<p>Don’t say family problems. Think of a better excuse like your grandma died and she was the only one who cared about you in your family, lol.</p>

8

<p>Hahaha, but they might ask for actual proof of that</p>

9

<p>Depends. I had poor freshman and sophomore grades and I said that my aunt, who was the only person that cared for me, died. I got accepted to UCI and UCD so yeah…</p>

<p>They never asked me for proof of her death, but even if they did, I would be able to point it out. They wouldn’t though.</p>

10

<p>Did she actually?</p>

11

<p>It’s better to offer no excuse, in my opinion.</p>

12

<p>Reasoning?</p>

13

<p>loolz someone actually took my advice haha. I was just kidding… Why did you have bad grades though?</p>

14

<p>I didn’t have my priorities straight. All through middle school, I’d be given the all-As award at the end of each schoolyear, but I think I was overwhelmed with high school and didn’t think it was cool or necessary to study/care about grades. I realized I was wrong late in freshman year, got my grades up as high as I could for that term, and really turned things around starting that summer. And starting sophomore year, I got my grades back on track.</p>