A while before starting my freshman year of high school, my mom died. That completely and instantly changed me as a person.My freshman year of high school, I got a 2.7 average GPA. YES. A 2.7. I regret it more than anything. But I was able to overcome my issues in sophomore year when my grades started going up. I had a 3.3 first semester, and 4.0 second semester. And junior year I had a 4.0 first semester, and I’m maintaining a 4.0 right now. As you can see, I’m a good student. Would USC appreciate the upward trend and the fact that I pushed through my hardest struggles? Freshman year really brought down my cumulative GPA. I also plan on getting over a 2200 on my SAT and a 32 or 33 on the ACT. And write a great essay ofcourse. Could I still get in?
Yes, I would imagine so. It’s one thing for any relative to pass away, but it being your mother/father is a very special circumstance. There’s room to point this out on the common application, and if your mother has passed, they (rather grimly) make you put her date of death in the parents section of the common app, so it would line up.
Do your best on the SAT or ACT and I can see you standing a really good chance given your comeback story. Here’s some pragmatic and maybe insensitive advice: have one application essay focus on the death of your mother and how it transformed you, and have the other essay not mention it at all. When I say “focus” on her death, it could be a very tangentially implied thing, fitting the theme of death - like a third person narrative, or metaphor for her passing. That would be a bit more impactful than saying “my mother died, and I got depressed, but then I decided to live my life to the fullest for her.” You should then address it very literally in the “additional information” box. Listen to your counselor/advisor over me though, or better yet, do what is most natural to you. Good luck.
My husband died of cancer when my D was in middle school and my S was a freshman in HS. When it came time for them to apply to college, their GC told them not to dwell on their father’s death in their applications and not to think that their father’s death was a ticket to admission. She said the admission counselors who read the applications are young and had little connection with grief. (“They read hundreds of ‘dead grandma’ essays.”) In addition, she said that since he died several years before application time, the admission counselors would expect D and S to be “over it.” Sounds very callous and I’m not sure she was right. Both of my kids wrote about their dad in an essay, but from the perspective of how seeing him deal with his cancer had shaped them. Definitely not "woe is me"essays.
@museoffire i wasn’t planning on writing my essay about it, but mention it in the additional comments section of the common app. and while yes, i am ‘over it’ now, i wasn’t over it in my freshman year of high school. but thank you for sharing!! hopefully admission counselors will understand.
@onedayusc Please know that I wasn’t implying that you should be over the loss of your mother. On the contrary. That’s one of the biggest lies of grief. We never get over it. It just becomes part of us.
@museoffire ofcourse ofcourse, i understand! i was just hoping admission counselors would understand that, and not take my grief in freshman year as an excuse for my poor academic performance
Yes. My son just was accepted to a school he really wanted to go to and though what he/we went through wasn’t as awful as losing a parent it was very hard. His grades went down, he wrote about it and so far he has been accepted everywhere he has applied, some that we really didn’t expect him to be accepted to. This is exactly the sort of thing that the holistic application is for, that you aren’t a statistic. Good for you for recovering and getting back on track. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been to lose your mom at that age. Make sure you get your high school counselor to help with your applications. The fact you went through such an awful thing, and have learned resiliency from it, will matter to colleges. You are more than a number or statistic! Really!