I have suffered from anxiety since sophomore year, I have a pretty low GPA (2.5) and I think that it may have made some things harder for me, such as studying for tests and retaining information, because I would get too stressed and sometimes have panic attacks. If I explain this to colleges in interviews and things, will it my chances of getting in? I don’t take medication for it but I do see a therapist.
Is it likely that your issues will continue into college resulting in a mediocre GPA? If so, no top college will want to take a chance on you.
What colleges are you considering?
Probably the best thing for you would be to go to a college that fits you with your anxiety (one that would be a match for you with your 2.5). Do you really want to be in a place where you’ll have constant stress to keep up?
@leafconeybearismart: Not to be rude but on one thread you are blaming low GPA on not knowing what a GPA is and now you are saying you have panic attacks and anxiety. You need to get your explanation straight. If you are having panic attacks and are seeing a therapist, then when applying to colleges, this should be addressed by your counselor in their recommendations and have documentation to prove your situation. If you are aware of the problem, what have you and your therapist worked out to help you?
College will only be more difficult and stressful, so you need to figure out how to handle your problem or you will not be able to function in a college environment.
You need to deal with your anxiety problem first, then worry about getting into your “dream school”.
I am trying to get into schools like Roosevelt University and NIU, so nothing top notch. I’m honestly not sure if this willl continue into college but most of the stress is about college so I’m hoping not. @Gumbymom I’m not trying to make excuses, I swear. I know that it sounds like that but I’m just trying to find ways to show colleges partly why it’s so low, I am aware that it’s on me. My therapist believes that the stress will lighten in college because I stress mostly about getting in.
It’ll be over a year before you can actually start applying to schools. If you have anxiety causing you to make a low GPA in high school, what do you think colleges will think of you taking harder courses?
No college wants to hear the blame game. The best method I’ve heard to explain those things is for your school counselor to mention that you struggled through situational anxiety, but it is gone due to XXX being over and proof is that your junior and senior GPA has improved dramatically.
The best thing you can do is work on improving the GPA.
If you pulled a 4.0 your junior year, you could submit a 3.07. That’s not the end of the world.
You can look up the average GPA (unweighted) for each school on the common dataset. This will give you target to aim for and you still have Junior year to bump up your GPA. I also hate the idea of a “dream” college. There are so many great schools that students can attend so do not fixate on any particular school. “Bloom where planted” means do your best and you will succeed where ever you end up.
Here is some data for Roosevelt University based on the % enrolled student with the following GPA’s:
Percent who had GPA of 3.75 or higher: 18.2%
Percent who had GPA between 3.50 and 3.74: 12.2%
Percent who had GPA between 3.25 and 3.49: 14.9%
Percent who had GPA between 3.0 and 3.24: 14.9%
Percent who had GPA between 2.50 and 2.99: 24.2%
Percent who had GPA between 2.0 and 2.49: 14.0%
Percent who had GPA between 1.0 and 1.99: 1.5%
I hope this set’s your mind a bit at ease. You are in the ballpark.
Sections C7-C12 has much useful information regarding SAT/ACT scores, what is considered important on their application review etc…
https://www.roosevelt.edu/~/media/Files/pdfs/IR/CommonDataSet.ashx?la=en
If you have anxiety sufficient to impair your school performance and skew your college acceptance curve, then you should consider medication for anxiety in addition to counseling. I would let my grades rest on their merits. FYI, if you have had any accommodations for anxiety during high school, then it is just as arguable that your GPA is an overrepresentation of how you might do in college where accommodations might not help as much due to more difficult material.