<p>As a sophomore, I lost an immediate family member to cancer, and this heavily impacted my performance in school. I finished off my sophomore year with three C's. During my freshman, junior, and senior year (this year), I have gotten all A's (exception of 2 B+'s as a freshman) in honors/6 AP classes. </p>
<p>Will my mediocre 3.3 UW GPA disqualify me from getting into a highly competitive school entirely?</p>
<p>GPA: 3.3 UW/ 4.24 W
Rank: 78/410 (Top 20%)
SAT: 2230 combined
Extracurricular: Founder/President of a club, Vice President of a club, NHS, tennis, People To People, Internship at a Marketing Firm, a home business, etc.</p>
<p>Also, where is the best place where I can explain why I have a crappy GPA? on the common app? a letter to the school?</p>
<p>Will schools even consider my situation, drastic upward grade trend, etc?</p>
<p>Favorite Schools:
- New York University
- University of Michigan @ Ann Arbor
- UC Berkeley
- Stanford (a verryyyyy far reach)</p>
<p>Any input will be great, and I hope this will help anyone in a similar situation :)</p>
<p>Well, those are going to be huge reaches or out of reach with a 3.3 GPA. If you need substantial financial aid, all except Stanford are likely to be unaffordable anyway (unless Berkeley or Michigan is in-state).</p>
<p>The best way to do this is by asking your guidance counselor to comment on this in his/her letter. Don’t waste your limited space on this. Even so, the GPA and course rigor is the most important part of the application at the more selective schools and no amount of explaining is likely to work at a school as selective as Stanford. Go see your guidance counselor for advice on picking match and safety schools and remember that these need to include schools you can easily afford. NYU, for example, is known for offering admission without adequate financial aid and although that may be a dream school, such a scenario is no better than a rejection.</p>
<p>I think you should write your essay on your loss, the cancer, and all that. Make it sort of an “overcoming an obstacle” type essay. That might change things in your favor.</p>
<p>^ I would disagree with this advice. I faced an obstacle (medical illness/death of a family member/unexpected move/athletic challenge/etc.), put my mind on overcoming it and did so is very cliche and the adcoms at selective schools read thousands like that. It would be more helpful for your GC to just say in one line that your performance dipped sophomore year because of the family death and that your outstanding performance in the most rigorous classes available to you is better represented by your transcript in other years. Use your essays to stand out and engage the reader. When 75+% are turned down at competitive schools, your essay needs to put you in the minority and not sound like so many others.</p>
<p>Your essay should only be about overcoming this obstacle if you really overcame it, rather than simply learning to deal with it. Your Sophomore year was lousy because you were dealing with a death in the family. What did you learn from the experience? If you learned that you needed time to process what happened, don’t write that essay. If you learned HOW to manage your time and keep “living” while dealing with such stress in your life, it might make for a good essay. If you get into Stanford, and there is another death in your immediate family while you are there, will this experience have made you better prepared to deal with it, or will you have another bad year? If you learned new stills that would help you cope with such a situation, that might make a good essay. </p>
<p>Otherwise, leave it to the those writing your recommendations to mention it.</p>