<p>Like if your parents divorced/financial issues during high school and your grades dropped?</p>
<p>It depends on how you present the information and how exactly it affected you in practical terms. It's always helpful to be on an upward swing by the time you apply, if possible. If you are a junior and things have calmed down a bit, you may want to consider taking a summer school class at a local university or CC this summer to show you have recovered from the trauma of your family's difficulties and are able to perform at the college level. Good luck- if you can write a compelling essay about your challenges using a positive tome and outlook, then I think you will get some leeway. Whatever problems you are having, rest assured the admissions people have seen it a thousand times before so they know how grades can be impacted and they do not expect kids to be perfect robots. Work on your SAT scores to make up for your GPA.</p>
<p>They will take that into consideration and also look at when it happened. If it was in early high school they'll probably like to see improved grades in junior or senior year. I'm not sure what happens if there's an extenuating circumstance in like the middle of your junior year/senior year.</p>
<p>What schools are you looking into? If it's a public school, most likely they won't consider it as much because they're stats driven. If you're considering private schools, they will probably consider it.</p>