<p>I began undergrad in 2001, and finished in 2008. In my first 2 years of school, I had excellent grades, extracurricular activities, I was in the honors program, etc. During my junior year, I began experiencing severe problems with depression and eventually went to treatment for alcoholism. Because I was trying to hide the problem from my parents, I had been signing up for classes and then withdrawing or changing my grades to pass/no pass (which doesn't affect GPA). When I returned in 2007, in a much healthier frame of mind, I excelled in my final two semesters of school, and had several professors ask me if I planned on pursuing graduate work. I assume that the semesters in which I withdrew from classes or didn't pass need to be explained to those reviewing my application, but have received mixed instructions on how to handle these explanations. I have wanted to go to graduate school since I began undergrad, and I feel that proper treatment of this situation could be what makes or breaks my chances at admission. I have no problem telling the complete truth, if that will help, nor would it insult me to hear that admissions committees would look down on certain aspects of my situation. I simply feel that I am an excellent candidate for graduate work, and I want to do what is best to make that happen. Should I explain this in my personal statement, or write a letter of explanation to attach to my transcripts? Is it going to hurt my chances if I tell the entire truth?</p>
<p>Oh, I am applying to Ph.D. programs in English - interested in Rhetoric/Women's Studies. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Here's my two cents. Maybe someone else will weigh in as well.</p>
<p>You should address the situation briefly, but not as part of your personal statement: attach a short addendum to the application. Mention it once and only once. Your primary goal should be to make the committee simply forget about it. </p>
<p>I'd keep your explanation as circumstantial and extrinsic as possible. I definitely wouldn't use either of the words "alcoholism" or "depression" because I think they might, unfairly, cast your application in a bad light. Both of those words have concrete negative associations that could make your application memorable in all the wrong ways. </p>
<p>Since you are looking at a pattern of withdrawals rather than a series of bad grades, I think you can get away with relatively little explanation. I'd consider attaching a short note to your application saying something like this: "In 2006-2007 [or whatever], I had health problems that made it necessary for me to withdraw from several courses and finish some classes under the pass/no pass grading option." Then say something equally brief about any steps you took to rectify the gaps left in your academic program: retaking a class in your major from which you withdrew, for example. Medical histories are often rightly confidential, after all, so I don't think any Ph.D. program has a right to expect that you hand over your hospital records. :) If you took the pass/no pass option in any particularly important classes within the English department, you might say something brief about what you are planning to do in graduate school to address the gap.</p>
<p>Four years of excellent grades with a weird year of withdrawals and pass/no pass grades seem like the kind of anomaly that programs would be willing to overlook if you provided a plausible explanation. I would think that a note detailing a history of mental health trouble would be more of a red flag that the withdrawals (I realize that it shouldn't be this way; it's unfair, but at some programs anyway, that's how it may go). </p>
<p>Finally, whatever option you choose, I definitely wouldn't spend any more space on it than a <em>short</em> paragraph: say, four sentences, tops. Any longer, and it risks overwhelming the rest of your app.</p>
<p>"In 2006-2007 [or whatever], I had health problems that made it necessary for me to withdraw from several courses and finish some classes under the pass/no pass grading option." </p>
<p>Your next sentence should begin with this:
"When I returned..." </p>
<p>As to this:
"attach a short addendum to the application..."</p>
<p>No. No. There are no "addenda" in an application. Submit what is asked for, and nothing else. The sentence about your health problems belongs in your SoP.</p>
<p>Maybe I can ask a follow-up question here about how to present my own circumstances because I also have some explaining to do. I have a year of horrible grades as a college senior (like, a D and an F, some C range grades). What happened: In the middle of my senior year, my father lost his business, our home was foreclosed on (and immediately demolished), and my parents divorced unexpectedly, all within one six-month period (this was right after 9/11). At the time, I was supporting myself fully while also a full-time student. I rapidly found that I couldn't do both and deal with all of the changes that my family was undergoing. I should have taken a year off, but didn't.</p>
<p>I haven't talked to my own faculty advisors about this in any detail because it's an uncomfortably personal conversation. I'm just not sure what the short version of the story is, but, like the OP, I feel like I need to include at least a sentence about it, given that it's a total departure from the rest of the transcript.</p>
<p>It's always harder to write the fifteen-word version of your own annus horribilis, isn't it?</p>
<p>Anybody have any ideas?</p>
<p>Also, if addenda are a bad idea, do I have to try to insert this sentence into the rest of my SOP in a way that sounds natural, or can I treat it as an aside?</p>
<p>It would be best if one of the professor's could include a statement like the following in an LOR:
" he had to take a couple of years away from study due to health/personal problems, but when he came back, he was as determined as ever ". It shows that you can bounce back, which many students require during their PhD</p>
<p>And as mentioned before, also include an additional note (not in your SOP) stating the same.</p>
<p>"My 2001 grades unfortunately reflect a period of upheaval during which my family was undergoing severe difficulties. In retrospect, I should have taken the semester off. HOWEVER, during this time I also... (took class crucial in developing my focus, wrote unbelievable research paper, whatever)."</p>
<p>As my comments on this thread reflect, the key to dealing with difficulties in the SOP is in the quick TRANSITION from alluding to said difficulties and then subsequently moving on to accomplishments in the wake of those difficulties.</p>
<p>Professor X, I was actually hoping you would respond, I have seen your comments on other forum postings and they are very helpful. I want to be very clear about my situation, though; I didn't want to write a book on here at first, but it appears that my attempt to be brief may have led to a misleading impression of the situation. I have not sat down with anyone to show them my transcripts, and I am extremely nervous about them. </p>
<p>I never actually took time off from school. In fall of 2003, I received less than adequate grades: a D-, an F, a C+, and a B- (if memory serves me correctly - I am not at home right now). The following semester, I received all A- to A+ grades. For the following three years I continued to enroll in classes. I withdrew from all classes once, failed all classes once, and received "no pass" the other four semesters. I retook every class in which I was unsatisfied with my grade, withdrew, or received a "no pass," sometimes multiple times (most semesters, I was just signing up for the same classes as the last). I ended up with excellent grades in all of them. The C+ is the lowest grade that "counts" toward my GPA, which ended up being a 3.41 cumulative and a 3.69 in English (my major, and the area related to intended field of study). I understand the general point - to explain it briefly and follow with the positive, probably the fact that I received excellent grades in the final two semesters. I just want to know if this information changes the advice at all. </p>