<p>Well, junior year didn't exactly go as I planned. My parents went through a divorce, my grandmother died, and I went through pretty severe depression/anxiety. However, I think I'm getting better now.</p>
<p>The problem is, columbia has always been my dream school, and now my grades aren't on the same level as before. Before junior year, I got straight A's in almost all honors classes. I took 6 AP classes in junior year, ap lit, ap calc bc, ap physics c, ap latin literature, ap us history and ap art history. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with 1 C, 1-2 B's, and 3-4 A's. The C and B are in physics and math, respectively. I do not intend to go into either in college. I don't really think that helps though.</p>
<p>My question is, should I explain the downturn in my GPA to columbia (I'm going to apply ED)? I feel like it's kind of wrong to make excuses for your personal failures, but at the same time, it's not like what was going on didn't effect my schoolwork. And if I did explain, would columbia take my mental health history as a reflection of my inability to handle their workload?</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the usual procedure is for mentioning severe depression/anxiety, but you should definitely mention your family circumstances. You should ask your guidance counselor to mention this in his/her LOR, and you might want to include it in your part of the application as well (probably the “Additional Information” part). </p>
<p>I’m positive there’s at least been one thread about disclosing information on mental health issues, so I suggest doing a search of the fora (I think there was such a thread in the Parents Forum).</p>
<p>I agree with what demeter has said. But how the adcom will take it is another story. They will have seen thousands of these cases, these “explanations” why GPA dropped. Will they sympathize with your plea, or will they roll their eyes and go “not another whining one!”? I don’t know.</p>
<p>Colleges do take into account mental issues (it’s important, as demeter said, for your guidance counselor to mention it in his/her letter of rec), but what I’m worried about is your choice to take 6 A.P. classes. Almost all A.P. classes (along with IB) demand a huge amount of time and effort (yeah, yeah, I know A.P. statistics, A.P. Art are extremely easy). It was your choice to take all 6 A.P. classes and even if your parents didn’t divorce and your grandmother didn’t die, you’d still be hard pressed to get all A’s. Colleges could see it as you “biting off more than you can chew.” One of my classmate’s mom committed suicide in our sophomore year and yet she only has 1 B. She has also had to take a huge amount of responsibility since she has a younger brother who is 8 years old. A parent committing suicide is much more mentally damaging (in my opinion) than a divorce and death of an elderly grandmother. The only private she got into was Caltech (she applied and got rejected from Columbia). Summing it up, colleges DO take into account these matters but they aren’t justifications for huge drops in grades. Good luck though, maybe the admissions officers will be more sympathetic (i’m cynical as you can see).</p>
<p>Yes, I was considering mentioning it in my guidance counselor’s letter of recommendation (she’s already aware of my circumstances).</p>
<p>creamandcheese, I’m sorry about your classmate. But I don’t feel like the situations are really comparable unless she was a strong applicant in terms of scores, EC’s, etc., excusing her grades. I agree, I wouldn’t have been able to maintain all A’s even if my year had gone well. And yes, I did overload my schedule with courses and a bazillion EC’s. I know it sounds like I’m trying to excuse myself, and I guess that’s what I’m trying to avoid on my college apps. Bleh, I guess what I need to know is if columbia tends to care about personal issues and whatnot.</p>
<p>As I mentioned, she only got 1 B in her whole high school career. She took either 8 or 9 A.P.s so yeah she was pretty strong academically. My previous post was just to point out that there are people who go through mentally exhausting circumstances but still maintain high grades.</p>
<p>Definitely have your counselor write about it.</p>
<p>Also, do your best to get as high as a grade as possible in your first half of senior year (and if you apply ED, definitely your first quarter - have it sent if its good). Basically, if you take hard courses senior year and get good grades first quarter, you’ll improve your chances a lot as that would back up you reasoning as to why you didn’t do so well this year.</p>
<p>Of course, getting in will also require you having something else besides your grades. The B’s shouldn’t be a matter (C might be a concern). I’ve gone through second semester of junior year and first semester of senior year with some B’s in both AP sciences and maths (mostly B+'s though with a B in calc bc 1st semester senior year; my school is known for a harder science/math program though) and I made Columbia SEAS RD (and other comparably good schools - for comp. sci./eng. which I did ace and have some extra qualifications there in addition to other ec’s). So, especially since you aren’t going SEAS, if you have good grades/scores for everything else and have something that makes you stand out positively, than you should be fine.</p>
<p>Basically, a lot depends on how you present yourself. How you convey who you are, what you have done, how has your life been shaped, why Columbia would want you, etc.</p>
<p>thanks jooter. I think I’m pretty encouraged for next year, because my grades are significantly better in this second semester than they were in the first. Also, I’m toning down my math/science AP’s and taking harder classes in humanities. I should have a very strong mid year report, which, as you said, should strengthen my case that I can handle the work.</p>
<p>I guess the consensus is that I should have my guidance counselor mention it in her letter?</p>
<p>With those grades it’s gonna be tough, regardless of circumstances, because in effect you’re asking the college to really take a gamble on you and trust that once things are better on your end that you’ll become a stellar student again. So you better get some great recs and also have a bunch of stuff besides your transcript to show off about. </p>
<p>Also a word of caution about talking about depression. Yeah, it’s not your fault, but there’s a big stigma around depression and admissions committees tend to balk at any mention of it. Whether this is right or wrong isn’t for me to judge, and I’m sure you’re not mentally unstable or anything, but my point is that you have to spin this angle carefully or maybe not mention it at all. Talk to your counselor.</p>