Low midyear grades due to injury

Applying to College
1

For most of high-school, I’ve been a straight A student with a few B+s. I’m applying to highly selective colleges. A couple months ago, I had a severe injury on my dominant hand that left me unable to write at all for two months. While I attempted to follow with my other hand, I did not take any tests in that time and was exempt from many assignments. Though I tried to do work with my left hand, I naturally fell behind in every class. Now retaking the exams from months ago, I have needed to basically relearn and self-teach all the material on my own. My grades have become nearly all Bs.

Will admissions officers understand this? Will it affect their view of my application?

2

Could your guidance counselor put a note in with your mid year transcript stating what you have just told us?

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Yes, they said they will. I’m just worried that the grades will still be a concern given that it is in nearly all my classes.

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And if AOs will consider this injury as a valid explanation for the drop

5

Control what you can.

Highly selective colleges are reaches for all or nearly all. You can’t control what they think or what they’ll decide.

Make sure you apply to a wide swath of schools from a selectivity level.

Then your problem is solved.

You can find like schools with all different levels of selectivity.

Good luck.

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EDIT: I do have a wide range of schools. I basically just want to get to the point where any rejection isn’t going to be because of the MY report. Just wondering if this is that.

7

None of us can predict what any given AO may do but the scenario you presented makes sense to me. Having the guidance counselor write the note is great because: 1) there is an independent verification and 2) it won’t sound like you are trying to make excuses.

Admission at T20 colleges is difficult for any unhooked applicant. As long as you have a well balanced application list (including match and safety schools that appear affordable and that you would be happy to attend) then you will be fine.

Good luck.

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When one is rejected (or accepted), one never knows why.

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9

It’s a shame your school couldn’t accommodate you with maybe oral tests or something different due to your injury.

Doing speech recognition is a way to do speech to text via Naturally speaking or the like. Most computers even have some function like this that works fairly well. It’s built in to ipads etc incase you still need to write papers etc… FYI.

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@Knowsstuff i was thinking the same.

But since they apparently didn’t…I think the counselor should address this.

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Absolutely! It’s actually a shame.

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Did the student or the student’s parents request and fill out the paperwork for a 504? They would have to do that in order to get accommodations whether it is extended time, assisted technology, or a scribe for OP to take notes.

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No clue but aware of that…

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Where I am, if a teacher or teachers see significant issues, they can also request a 504 meeting.

But back to this student….this is in the past now, and best addressed by the school counselor.

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We can’t change how this was handled in the past so let’s focus on the OPs question.

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