I’m a junior right now in high school. During sophomore year, I did not perform very strongly during the spring semester-- mostly high 80s, some low 90s, and a 70 in chemistry. This was because I had to make multiple visits to the bone doctor due to a curved spine, and additionally I was prescribed to go to an exercise center during some weekdays afterschool, which significantly cut into my time for homework/studying. At the end of the semester, my GPA fell into the 80s.
As a junior, I have worked hard to pull my grade up. Last fall, I scored 95+ in nearly all classes and got a 96.33 average. However, that only pulled my GPA up to 89.75.
I really don’t want colleges to think that I was slacking off during that time period. Is there a way to let colleges know during the application process that I was unable to devote all of my time to schoolwork? Should I ask my counselor to put it on his SSR letter?
Talk to your guidance counselor and ask him/her to address it in the letter of recommendation. It is best if the explanation comes from someone other than yourself.
I’m not sure the reason you state is all that compelling. Many students have extra curriculars or sports that take up a lot of time after school, every day and maintain high grades. Colleges will want to see that you can balance school work with some other activities. I’d be very careful in how you phrase your situation to colleges.
My kid has two standing weekly non-EC appointments. He keeps his grades up. My friend’s kid has a chronic illness which is a much bigger problem than some scoliosis and PT appointments and she keeps her grades up. (She went through scoliosis, too and kept her grades up). I’m sorry to be so blunt, but unless you were spending 10+ hours per week every week seeing the MD and the PT, it doesn’t really seem to explain the grades. And even then, time like that in professionals’ offices should have come out of extra-curricular, not studying.
I agree with the above posters that this is a non-compelling reason for a drop in grades.
My D had a spinal fusion for scoliosis the summer between junior and senior year. She took 4 AP classes senior year and completed all the summer homework despite not being able to think clearly due to pain meds for a couple of months. She also participated on her school’s water polo team. She couldn’t play but still attended all practices and games, assisting the coaches.
ask your guidance counselor to explain it in addition to explaining it yourself in the Additional Information section on the Common App. You’ll be alright. I’m a current senior myself who also went through some bad personal stuff that caused some pretty low grades and I’ve only now realized that the college admissions craze is way overblown. You’ll be fine.
Thank you for your comments. I think I should be a little more honest to have a better chance at receiving advice, then-- I was having lots of anxiety during this time due to having been bullied the fall semester in chemistry. While I didn’t see those students in my spring chem class, I fell way behind in chemistry and still had trouble focusing afterwards. I discussed with my guidance counselor recently whether I should put having anxiety on the SSR to explain the low grades, he seemed to lean towards no because colleges might view it as not being able to handle the workload.
I did have to see a bone doctor during this period and I did have to go to an exercise center after school as mentioned in the post, so I was hoping that would be a good excuse. But this was probably the bigger reason why my grades were so low.
I’m a parent, not an AO, so I can’t read their minds, but my reaction would be to take one of two approaches.
Either don’t try to explain the sophomore year grades, just keep working hard and focus on the steady improvement. I do know that schools like an upward trend in grades. Not as much as they like 4 years of terrific grades, obviously, but steady improvement, continuing that 95+ record through the rest of the year and into senior year will look good. School’s don’t just look at the overall GPA, they also look what you did when.
Second choice, have the counselor, not you, briefly discuss the anxiety in his letter. He should probably say something to the effect that you had been bullied, it affected your grades that year, but you pulled out of it and your junior and senior grades are truly representative of your academic abilities.