<p>id really wanted a shot at some ivies like cornell and brown, and some top 30 schools like northwestern, uchicago, umich, etc... i got a 3.52 GPA freshman year, and im heading for about 3.8 this year (junior year). i should be able to pull off the same or better for senior year. my sat is a 2230 and i have decent EC's (pres of a few clubs, interning, volunteering etc).</p>
<p>heres the problem, my sophomore year went terribly. my grandfather, aunt, and good friend died, and this really had a bad impact on my grades. if everything pans out like it looks at this point, ill get a 3.5 gpa best, which is probably going to bring my class rank down, hopefully ill still be top 10%. some people have told me to maybe write my application essays on my experiences and how it negatively affected my grades, but i cant help but feel it seems a little too cliche, and theres a lot more about me than death that id like college to know about me. i also dont feel comfortable trying to justify a few bad grades (my worst was a C+) by using my situation as an excuse.</p>
<p>does anyone have any suggestions about what i can do in the situation?</p>
<p>Cornell and Brown probably won't happen with any essay. Very few unhooked candidates who are barely top 10%, unless it's at a very top HS (average SAT 1350 plus old). Set your sights on some realistic reaches by looking at college common data sets. You can always transfer.</p>
<p>My son wrote his essay on the suicide of a dear friend of his that happened during his junior year during exam week. He did not focus on it as a reason for his lower grades, but rather
used it as an opportunity to describe an important relationship in his life and discuss what he learned and how he grew.</p>
<p>It was a phenomenal essay and I think i instrumental in helping him gain admission to his first choice college</p>
<p>If you use your experience to show the schools who you are, it will be powerful. Do not try to use it as an excuse</p>
<p>Good luck, I am truly sorry for the losses you experienced</p>
<p>Okay, here are my suggestions: Write an extra letter/couple of paragraphs detailing your personal struggles, but leave your essays to other, more insightful topics so that the admissions committee gets to know you. Shoot for a couple of real reaches and a couple of smaller reaches like UChicago and UMich, but make sure that your list has lots of balance. Also, there are tons of top universities and colleges in the country--don't ignore the LAC list, where you can find every bit as great of an education and, for all but the most selective LAC's, the door is open just a little bit wider.</p>
<p>thanks for the advice... another friend just suggested to me that i try and switch into a better college after freshman year. i dont know much about how this works, what would i have to do?</p>
<p>Well, transfer admissions to Ivies are hardly wide open paths. I don't know about Brown and Cornell specifically, but at most Ivies transfer admissions--if permitted!!--are even tougher than freshmen admissions. I think that you should have a well-formed college list--you should probably apply to more schools, by the way, since your case is a bit unusual--see where you get in, choose the best school for you, and then later consider if you really want to transfer. Transferring is fine if you really are unhappy, but it is just a whole other year of work and waiting and one more hard transition.</p>