<p>As of right now, the second to last day of my junior year, my weighted GPA is about a 3.8. My first round of SAT scorrs was a composite score of 1850 -- low for this site, but I was proud since I didn't do much prep -- with a 690 in Critical Reading, 670 in Writing, and a 500 in Math. In sophomore year, I had a 4.0 and my average was about 95-96ish. I've taken four APs so far (AP World History sophomore year, and AP Lang, AP Art History, and APUSH this year) and I've gotten high 90s in all of them. Next year I'll be taking AP Lit, AP Environmental, and AP Gov.</p>
<p>My problem is that in freshmen year I really messed up my grades. I had about a 91 average. During November of freshmen year, my friend died from brain cancer and it stayed with me the entire year. In sophomore year, I succeeded in my grades and it was an overall good year.</p>
<p>Then junior year came around and I fell flat on my face. My mom lost her job so now it's only my dad's income helping us out. Because of this, I haven't received a single report card so I don't know my specific grades. I only know my GPA because I needed it to apply for a summer program. My family fell behind on tuition so they've withheld grades from me and in November (which tends to be a bad month for me for reasons unknown), they suspended me from school for almost a week and a half because of tuition so I missed a lot. I've been doing well in most of my classes, but Physics is just the one that makes my grades drop. My teacher is not helpful and refuses to help students, like me, who don't understand.</p>
<p>Because of all the stress during this year and freshmen year, my mental health hasn't been so hot. I've had a personal and a family history of depression and anxiety since sixth grade and it's flared up horribly these past three years. Some days I could barely get out of bed and there was a time during this year where I couldn't even bring myself to eat because I've felt so bad.</p>
<p>Before I end this post, I'd like to say that I am NOT making excuses for myself. I know that there was more that I could have done, but my mental health really took a toll on me. I had plans to apply to schools like Barnard, Smith, Dartmouth, Columbia, Bowdoin, and some others, but now I don't know what to do. I don't want to seem like a whiner on my applications or like I'm placing the blame on others, but it's the 100% truth. I plan on prepping for the SAT and SAT II's this summer along with taking an online summer course in Italian offered by Wellesley and a creative writing course at LIU. I was an intern last summer and in terms of ECs, I haven't done too badly. </p>
<p>My main question is how can I make it seem like I'm not being complacent or whiny or anything like that, but like I'm being genuine and honest about my struggles? How much will colleges take this into account? </p>
<p>Also, I know the Ivies are a long shot no matter what, but I planned on applying because my parents want me to apply to at least two. Thanks for any help!</p>