Hi
So i havent been doing as well in my senior year of high school primarily due to the death of my grandfather which caused my me and my family alot of pressure and stress. Would colleges excuse a bad midyear report with this explanation? I truly faced alot of pressure within my family which affected my concentration. In addition i have been taking a VERY rigorous courseload which only added more pressure. Btw i am looking at schools like Columbia, Cornell and NYU and i understand that these schools are tough on grades.
Any perspectives would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thank you
Sit down with your counselor. He/she is the only one who should address this with the colleges. And haven’t you already applied? Are you taking a gap year?
Yea the problem is that my counselor wrote all our recommendations in early september which didnt give me time to explai.n the situation. She also submitted it to common app by the time i told her so she said to write this explanation on the additional info section which is what i did (idk how much this will actually mean to colleges but that was my way to communicate this info)
No im not taking a gap year
@Hopeful-TBivy The transcript that is sent to schools, depending on when your college counselor sent the documentation, will have your grades 9 - 11. The purpose of the mid-year report is to provide senior year 1st semester grades. I believe your college counselor would have an opportunity to provide an explanation here. I am no AO but the details in the explanation are what is going to make the difference. For example, if your grandfather passed at the end of the semester and you were headed into finals with straight As but did very poorly on the final which was worth 30% of the semester grade resulting in your grade tumbling, that is a different scenario than if you were not doing well all semester. Talk to your college counselor. There is also an optional form on comm app that the counselor could submit at this stage to provide the additional information.
@paveyourpath Thanks for the advice. Definetely going to ask my counsellor to submit a optional report but im jot sure if its already too late since applications were submited 1/1/17.
No, it is not too late, but it needs to come from the counselor.
@Hopeful-TBivy It’s not too late. The deadline is for the student to submit the app. College counselors have a little more time to get additional documentation submitted.
@Lindagaf @paveyourpath
Thank you so much for your help.