<p>I had a terrible sophomore year. By terrible, I really do mean terrible-- one D, one F, and the rest Bs and Cs.
Junior year I got all As and one B in PreCalc (I retook the classes I got the D and F in).
Freshman year was so-so. Not bad, not impressive.
My senior grades are great as well, straight As so far.
I have a 27 ACT.
I've always taken all Honors and AP classes.... but still, I want to explain such a bad year to colleges, I don't want them to think that a year like that, or even similar, will happen again.</p>
<p>I'm planning on doing this with the additional information section of the common app, but I also need that section to make a reference to another part of my application, so I can't dedicate the whole page to it.
How would you guys suggest I do it? Add another bullet and explain the year... how would I start off...?</p>
<p>Just start by saying, “I’d like to address my low grades during sophomore year.” and continue to explain why; hopefully it’s a pretty good reason.</p>
<p>Would it hurt me if I didn’t address it all? I’d like to “explain myself,” but of anything the reason is more personal and emotional, rather than an illness or family death. And again, so many people pass through things much worse and still keep their grades up…</p>
<p>I would make sure they know you know it looks bad. You don’t have to go into detail, but emphasize that you have made great strides and have a lot of confidence that you will continue to be successful in college. Explain what you learned from the experience. For example, you will always have personal problems, but you have learned X,Y,Z, about how to handle such a situation. In other words, how would you handle it differently if you run into personal problems in the future?</p>