<p>The grades just came in for fall semester of my fall semester of senior year. </p>
<p>AP Litt= B+
AP Chem= B
Honors Precalc= B+
Spanish 3= B+
AP Gov= A
Debate 4= A</p>
<p>I'm applying to Wesleyan, Cornell, and Barnard </p>
<p>I feel like I just blew my last chance of getting into any of these colleges. I had a really stressful situation come up in the last few weeks of the semseter and all my grades dropped from what was initially straight As. If I only had another week I wouldve been able to resolve everything. Unfortunatly none of my teachers were willing to let me make up work for my absenses and whatnot. </p>
<p>Is there any way of explaining this to the schools? Can I send a letter? </p>
<p>I have a Cornell interview tomorrow morning, would that be a good time to bring it up?</p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t think an interview is the best time to draw attention to the weakest part of your application. Almost anything you say, by way of exculpation or explanation will sound like you’re just making excuses. If you absolutely must bring up the subject of grades, you may try the opposite tack – taking full responsilbility for your performance. It might not have the desired effect ultimately, but it would be refreshing from an adult’s point of view.</p>
<p>I personally think informing those colleges of your situation and explaining why your grades dropped (you said something happened to cause the decline) will put them at ease a bit. Just explain that you’re normally an A student, but your current situation started to make them turn for the worse.</p>
<p>I know it’s bad in some cases to make excuses, but if you don’t be honest with them and explain what’s going on, all they’ll see is a decline in grades your senior year and start making assumptions.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t bring it up in your interview, though.</p>
<p>They don’t really care about senior grades</p>
<p>if your Cornell interview is with an alum, don’t do it. They don’t even know your grades, they’re just there to basically talk up the school and make sure there isn’t some glaring thing that should keep you out of the school.
If you want to let the adcoms know about your excuse for your grade drop, the best way is to have your counselor send a letter which is going to be much more credible than a letter from an applicant. And I got to say that when you write “none of my teachers were willing to let me make up work for my absenses and whatnot” this works against you in my mind. Maybe your teachers all are cruel SOB’s but as an adcom that doesn’t know them I’d give them the assumption that they are fair and reasonable people. If you weren’t able to convince a single one of these people that actually know you and heard your excuse to give you a break, as an adcom I’d suspect you really didn’t have a good reason. I’m not saying that’s the case, mind you, I’m just telling you that other people may interpret what you’re saying differently.</p>
<p>Porkperson is totally wrong. Your grades aren’t that bad though! I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Those grades look a lot like mine for second quarter. I applied to Cornell and Barnard, too. Maybe I’m being delusional but I don’t think they’re cause to be concerned!</p>