Potentially sensitive, yet potentially relevant issue - to mention or not?

Transfer Students
1

<p>I just completed my freshman year at a well-respected state university. The summer before my senior year of high school, I attended Harvard SSP and loved the atmosphere, leading me to apply to Harvard, Penn, and Georgetown among other schools. After many, many college visits, I think the reason these three stood out was the combination of their location (urban), academic reputation, and more than anything, a feeling of being surrounded by passionate, engaged students. The school I am currently at is in the middle of nowhere, is not an academic standout, is dominated by Greek life, and "D for diploma" type attitudes towards academics/apathy towards getting involved are all too prevalent.</p>

<p>I was obviously rejected from these three schools. I ended up choosing between American, BU, and the school I am attending. I am happy with the choice I made out of the three. If I had to speculate about why I was rejected from my top-choice schools, I would blame my GPA and an issue with a recommendation letter. My GPA was a low A, and my senior year performance headed downward pretty badly, with several Cs on my final senior year transcript.</p>

<p>To make a very long story short, I performed poorly my senior year, especially in AP courses. For several years, I had been frustrated by an inability to concentrate and study, but it simply had not mattered since I could get As in most high school courses prior to senior year with very little work. Senior year, this could not work anymore. I am skimming over this kind of to the point of ridiculousness, but basically several weeks before college started I decided that I could not afford to have college turn out like senior year and the frustration I had for several years was worth looking into. I discussed the problem with a doctor who diagnosed it as ADD and began treatment. The results have been nothing short of amazing. Last year, I knew I was capable of far more than I was achieving - my SAT was 1510 and my grades were trending towards mediocrity. This year, I have actually been able to focus and finished the year with a 3.9 GPA.</p>

<p>While I am not unhappy with my day-to-day life at the school I am currently attending, I do not think it is a great match. The things which originally appealed to me about Penn and Georgetown still do (I've sort of accepted that Harvard is extremely unlikely.) I suspect that if I keep up the same performance next year in college, I would have a decent chance of getting into Penn or Georgetown as a junior transfer.</p>

<p>My actual question: Do I mention the ADD in any way when applying for transfer, or just let my improved performance stand by itself? If so, how do I go about doing it? What potential positive and negative effects could it have on my application?</p>

2

<p>As sensitive issues go, this seems like a pretty normal, common one. (Major depression would be worse, I think - you are mentally stable, at least.) I'd say tell them, just so that you have an explanation for whenever your performance was less than stellar, but place major emphasis on how improved you are, and how enabled you are (and have proved you are) to succeed at the schools to which you apply. You'll have a strong two years' performance to illustrate this; they'd be fools to care - but it will explain the earlier dips in GPA, etc.</p>

<p>Good luck! I don't know what school you attend now, but provided that you put in a good performance, I bet you'd have a shot at Georgetown, and maybe Penn.</p>

3

<p>I would.</p>

<p>I'll open up for you....</p>

<p>Fall of 06: I dropped all four of my classes at cc and had to re-enroll for ITV (they are half semester length) because I was failing all of the classes. Why? </p>

<p>Bulimia Nervosa.</p>

<p>Yep. Typical girl disorder... but it was very sensitive as it literally screwed up my whole life, from school life to personal.. it made me irrational and made me zone out in class and at times pass out at my house. I was terrified talking about that in my personal statement because it felt like I was using it as an excuse.</p>

<p>Let's just say, my GPA at the time of application to UCLA and Berkeley wasn't high.... and I got in.</p>

<p>They have no problem with sensitive issues... as long as you can say you learned something from it, etc.</p>

<p>Good luck :)</p>

4

<p>Yeah, you should mention it, and talk about what meaning you have derived from it or how it has changed your life. </p>

<p>I had a very sensitive issue myself, but I chose not to mention it on my application, since my grades were good and so were ECs. I didn't want to spotlight anything negative if I didn't have to. My other reason for not wanting to write about it was that I didn't want that one hard situation in my life to define who I was. So I guess I chose not to talk about it for personal reasons, as well as trying to strategize a bit on the app.</p>