<p>Pretty much i was diagnosed with an illness last year, half of my Sophomore year and the first semester of my Junior year my grades were really bad and my attendance was really low. I managed to sort out my medication and improve my attendance. My GPA of the first semester in my junior year is a 2.4, but I managed to sort out my medication and improve my attendance. I am now probably going to receive a gpa of 3.5 for my second semester.</p>
<p>Will this be a disadvantage when I apply to colleges or will this look good considering my improvement?</p>
<p>Yes it’ll be a disadvantage. Your goal is to craft a good set of target schools. This is best done in consultation w/your guid counselor. Good luck to you and best of luck w/your illness.</p>
<p>It will certainly complicate applying to colleges. I’d suggest you coordinate your applications with a couple of people.</p>
<p>One of them is your guidance counselor. Colleges and universities do want to know about extenuating circumstances that have interfered with your achievement in high school. God knows, you’ve got those! You can–and should–address your chronic health problems in your application, but it will seem more like explanation and less like excuse-making if your guidance counselor also addresses your illness, and its effect on your high-school grades, in his or her letter. But you don’t want to repeat each other. So, I’d suggest seeing whether your counselor is willing to coordinate this part of your application with you, to determine who will write what about your illness.</p>
<p>Another of them may be your doctor. If your illness has affected your achievement in high school, many colleges will be sympathetic. But they may be hesitant to admit you unless they have some reliable indication that the issues that kept you from succeeding in high school have been identified and resolved. They don’t want you to end up constantly on probation because you can’t get the required work done. So if your medical issues are now being managed satisfactorily, and you expect your condition to be stable, you might consider having your doctor send a letter to that effect to the colleges that you apply to. It’s unconventional, but this might be a case in which an unconventional letter really does shed important light on your circumstances.</p>