<p>I had great grades freshman and sophmore years. Soph, had just one B/B+. Junior year I had a big upset in my social life--changed friend groups, new boyfriend (think aim til all hours=less homework). Plus, adapting to the work required in an all AP/Honors program. More "independence", less required work, threw me for a loop. I did score 4's on my AP's (wish they were 5's).</p>
<p>How should I handle this on my apps? Ignore the fact that I went from mostly A's to mostly B's and my first C+ ever? Or, try to explain what happened, while not trying to make excuses? I hear a grade drop in junior year is the kiss of death for adcoms.</p>
<p>I'm taking a heavy load of AP's senior year and am determined to do well.</p>
<p>Actually it is a kiss of death...but a letter explaining that it wasn't from laziness or inability to do work might bring you back to life a little.</p>
<p>I'd work on making your excuse sound more serious...a lot of people change friends and have boyfriends in high school, but not everyone has a drop in grades.</p>
<p>Second with stillmanz.. and I personally think that staying up late to talk to a boyfriend on AIM instead of doing homework is laziness (although that wouldn't stop me from doing it) (in re to kami's cmt). I would write a short letter to admissions discussing about how the change from a regular to a more advanced courseload took a toll Junior year but how since then you're better prepared to do well with such work.</p>
<p>I have a similar situation. I did relatively good freshman year. (3.7 UW) avg with hardest courseload (3 honors). Then I got to sophomore year and took my first AP along with having a very bad honors math teacher. I was dealing with a lost best friend since 5th grade and getting a girlfriend who made my life very stressful. She was like a full time job to keep her happy. I ended the year with a 3.15 UW 3.4 W. My Jr year I took 3 AP's and rest honors +college courses and got a 4.0 UW 4.66W. Would it be a good idea to send a note with my application or just let it go?</p>
<p>Obviously you don't have a problem with workload since you did well in Jr year, so i won't matter much.</p>
<p>Include a note to explain of course about your sophmore year. Might wanna include some photos of you dumping your girlfriend and/or throwing pie at your teacher...then put captions "I decided not to repeat the same mistakes junior year" etc.</p>
<p>lol nice joke. Is it a better idea for people in our situation to just let it be or should we seriously atatch a note to our transcript.. "bla bla this happened in our sophomore year" ?</p>