<p>I'm a sophomore transfer applicant to Penn...hope I get in! I'm so nervous, I submitted my app yesterday.</p>
<p>So, I had extreme problems with panic attacks my first semester of college. Panic attacks have been an ongoing problem since my junior year in high school, and I've been seeing a doctor about them. Even though they were pretty bad my first semester, which caused some of my grades to go down, my doctor thinks I'm done being treated for them; I haven't had any panic attacks in the last 3-4 months and I'm doing really well this semester.</p>
<p>Penn has a midsemester score report, which asks for your grades at the middle of the semester. I'm just wondering, even though my gpa was pretty bad first semester, will they look at my gpa from this semester with the same weight, or will they hardly consider it?</p>
<p>I explained my problem with panic attacks to them in the "Additional Information" section of the Common App, and hope they look at that carefully. But, does anyone know how much second semester is weighted?</p>
<p>Also, should I get my doctor to write them a note? I wrote that they could call her, and wrote down her phone number as a reference. But, I'm not sure if I should get her to write to them as well since I already have three or four recommendations going in.</p>
<p>I would not do any more to have the committee focus on your panic attacks. Schools are tentative about kids with such conditions and I would not emphasize this in any way. If you’re applying to more schools I would not mention this at all. There have been multiple threads on this topic you can probably find by searching.</p>
<p>Will it hurt me that I mentioned it? I only mentioned it so they would understand why I had bad grades my first semester. I also said my problem had cleared up and this showed in my second semester grades.</p>
<p>Obviously not what I wanted to hear…haha…but with my less than stellar GPA but otherwise strong application to Penn, I felt I needed an explanation of why my grades were so low first semester</p>
<p>Yeah but I mean, you’re being quite furtive about the situation here - your GPA might not even be that bad. There’s a certain threshold beyond which no excuses can compensate for a poor performance. Also, there’s a ton of other important factors involved - like the type of school that you’re currently at.</p>
<p>You seem to suffer from T-M-I-itis. Too Much Information-itis. Send in your grades. Admissions will notice the upward trend- a good thing. Keep your history of panic attacks to yourself. You have them under control and your current grades reflect that.</p>
<p>…But that’s not exactly what you wanted to hear is it?"</p>
<p>Lecaf Oz, what is your problem? I have been browsing the site for the past few days and I’ve noticed that more than half the random posts I have seen authored by you were very negative or flat our rude. What’s the matter with you? Has anyone else noticed this or is it just me?</p>
<p>Tennisball, I took a look at your other posts to see if I could get a better idea about your situation. It looks like you applied to Penn last year as a freshmen and didn’t get in. That makes getting in this year extremely difficult, even with stellar grades. Most kids in your situation wait to try and transfer as a junior with 2 years of grades and activities.</p>
<p>So I can tell you as an alum who has worked in Penn admissions and interviewed Penn applicants for 25 years, if you don’t get in it probably won’t be because of what you disclosed.</p>
<p>If you’re applying to other colleges, as I wrote in my last post, I would avoid the subject. Colleges usually don’t consider ‘excuses’ anyway. Just read these board to see how many have an excuse for low grades from an illness to a death in the family. For the most part, they just stick to looking at what is rather than what might have been.</p>
<p>Anxiety attacks come under the header of psychological problems, an area that scares most adcom. They are not doctors and can’t parse your issues vs. the next guys, but they want to avoid potential problems on their campuses.</p>
<p>I’ll also throw in that the letter from your boyfriend to the admissions committee about how badly he wants you on campus is a very bad idea IMO. In all honesty, it’s not the schools problem if he’s unhappy there and just adds more negatives to the whole situation.</p>