<p>I know most college advice magazines and articles say that the Junior year of high school is what colleges look at most. Well my Junior year started out excellently, getting a 4.61 GPA--cumulative is 4.22--but since then, I've missed 50 days of the second trimester (out of 60) with an illness. I am now making up all the work from the previous 10-11 weeks of work in around 1.5 weeks (I have 4 days left!!) my grades currently are:</p>
<p>AP Physics: ~75%
AP Chemistry: 1.4%
AP Biology: 24%
US Humanities: 64%
AP Calculus: ?? (probably A+)
AP US History: dropped (after doing all the work...)--will return for 3rd trimester
German 3: dropped--will return for 3rd trimester</p>
<p>I also intend to take the Environmental Science and possibly the US Gov. AP tests.</p>
<p>I'm sure I can get bio, chem, and humanities up to at least C's. That'd be about a 3.2 GPA. What will this show admissions officers? Is it negative or somehow positive? What should I do to compensate? Should I send a letter with my transcript or something? Will they accept this as a legitimate excuse?</p>
<p>Obviously, I'm speaking about CalTech admissions specifically.</p>
<p>hey, i'm sorry that you had ur illness but now ur better rite? if i was an admissions officer, i wouldn't look at it too negatively but i would rather question the extent of your illness during that time that u were absent. i think a question that they would ask you is "were you too sick to the point where you could not do hw while you were at the hospital/home?, etc" and if you were, then they would take ur situation into account </p>
<p>also, ur first trimester gpa is really great so they know that u are capable of getting good grades but i would still write a letter explaining ur situation (and maybe a note from a doctor to establish credibility, not that i'm question urs at all but it's what they need)</p>
<p>If you have a high school guidance counselor, a trusted teacher, or even a doctor send a letter with your application explaining the reason for your irregular term, it would make up for the grades. We understand an illness is beyond your control, and Caltech admissions won't penalize you for it.</p>
<p>Obviously, you would still be expected to know the material at a high level if you want to be admitted to Caltech, but you can demonstrate that through subsequent grades and good AP scores.</p>
<p>In any case, make sure to pass everything this term if you can, and rest assured that Caltech (and many other top colleges) will do their best to give you a fair shake and not punish you for a misfortune that you couldn't really do much about.</p>
<p>I hope you are better now and stay that way.</p>