<p>During my junior year, I got really sick and was stuck in bed for a long period of time. My grades that semester are a pretty big flaw in my application, so I mentioned how being ill affected my grades in the additional information section of my application. To determine how long I was sick for, I remembered two events I was too sick to attend, my grandma'a birthday and my cousin's birthday, and calculated the time between the two, which came out to three weeks in total. I wrote this on my ED application, but upon further review I realized that for a portion of the time I was sick, school was out of session for winter break, and that I actually only missed around 1.5-2 weeks of school.</p>
<p>And thus my question: should I contact dartmouth and tell them about my mistake? </p>
<p>I asked some other students and a few teachers at my school, and they all said this won't matter, and that I definitely shouldn't report it because it will further highlight a shortcoming on my application. This being said, I know Dartmouth places a lot of emphasis on applicants being honest on their applications. I'm really torn and don't know what to do. Any advice CC?</p>
<p>Also sorry for any syntax errors. Typing this from my phone as I stress out in Spanish :/</p>
<p>My take: You were sick for that period, so saying that would not have been a misrepresentation. If you said that you missed three weeks of school, then would be a misrepresentation, but an inadvertent one. If you were stuck in bed, your academic performance was probably affected both before and after the actual period of forced rest/convalescence/whatever. I would not bother trying to parse things too finely. There was a glitch in your grades; you offered an explanation for it. Your actual class attendance was not the only thing affected. Rest easy. I do not see this as an ethical issue, but only you know exactly what you said, so treat the above as guidelines.</p>
<p>I think the question won’t be whether you missed 2 weeks or 3 weeks of school, but how being sick made such a huge impact in your grades. Many students are ill or have sports travel commitment, etc. that make them miss large amounts of school and yet they somehow make up the schoolwork … so you need to be prepared to explain more of the “why” behind the impact on your grades. Was it finals time? Were you vomiting 24 hours a day and completely unable to do any work? Teachers unwilling to allow any extensions?</p>
<p>Also, it is usually more meaningful if you can get your GC to write about your being sick and the impact it had on you performance rather than you elaborating on it.</p>