<p>I wrote a letter to my top school (USC) in order to explain a low GPA (the weakest part of my application) throughout most of high school and I was wondering how much leeway will it give me or will it even make a difference in their decision???</p>
<p>the letter was about my mom being sick throughout high school, she experienced 4 major heart attacks, two of which were followed by short comas, one was in the beginning of sophomore year, two in junior year, and one during finals week senior year. After these events she was basically in bed all day long because of the heavy medication she was on and I decided to sacrifice after school time to do pretty much all household work: dishes, laundry, cooking, etc. in addition to this, I had to find time to keep up with varsity cross country training and honors/ap coursework.</p>
<p>My GPA is 3.413 unweighted and 3.95 weighted (all honors included)</p>
<p>Sounds like a good excuse. It depends on your SAT scores--because most people dont take courses or study much for the test. Those would provide an uninfluenced indicator. I dont know how schools check that type of thing though, because it seems that anyone could just fabricate that kind of excuse. Assuming they believe you are honest, I believe that it will help.</p>
<p>for them to believe why your GPA is so low your grades have to show grade oscillation as in u dipped under 3.0 a few times, went above 3.0 a few times. if u maintained a constant 3.4 with honors classes, it seems a lil suspect. And yes, your SAT scores have to be high, probably in 2100-2200's to show them u r actually a very bright person and that GPA is really a reflection of you being distressted over the years. If u have like a 1900-2000 and a consistent 3.4, it will look more to them you are just trying to evoke sympathy.</p>
<p>my freshmen year was pretty much the only year when my mom wasn't in the hospital or recovering from a hospital stint, and during frosh year it was a 4.0 UW...but then like throughout soph./jun. year it was like a 3.2 UW</p>
<p>okay for one semester did u get like a 2.8 and another u got a 3.5 and then another semester u got like a 2.6 adn then a 3.7 etc etc. Did ur grades show a great fall and then influx semester by semester or did u steadily get like a 3.5, 3.3, etc etc</p>
<p>it was more steady like i was pretty much getting straight b's through soph./junior year as opposed to straight A's frosh year. I guess that kinda hurts my case, but it defnitely affected my grades none the less</p>
<p>well hmm..i dunno. It would have been significnatly apparent to USC that ur mothers sitaution affected ur grades had there been great dips and rises in your gpa : /. I guess your only hope is to hit 2100 to show them that your grades dont reflect your true ability ?</p>
<p>Unless you've got medical charts, or a medical bills to send them, I'd say they are unlikely to accept your explanation. It's just way too easy to make up an excuse like this--and people (unfortunately) do it all the time.</p>
<p>Are you serious?? wow, I cannot believe that people would do that...jeez, I guess I could get a hold of some medical stuff to send em, but like, wow, would they really not believe me, I wrote about one of the events in detail in an essay...</p>
<p>People can research it and mind you theres a bunch of great writers out there lol. You need to prove to them that hey i had issues that really affected my studies, and even with that, it might not help u much. Your telling them I could have done better if this wasnt there, but they dont know how much better u could have done and it really becomes a sympathy issue. Ur january SAT score will say alot about ur chances.</p>