Hello all,
So here is what happened. During my freshman year of high school, I suffered from severe bullying from other students, resulting in a slew of mental health issues including depression and anxiety. Due to these issues, my grades suffered significantly (I believe a 2.6 unweighted GPA). Shortly after my freshman year, I transferred schools to a recovery school to bring up my grades, to where it now rests (before results from Fall 2015) at a 3.2 unweighted GPA. Since freshman year, I have taken several honors as well as college classes at the community college, receiving straight A’s in all of the classes. I have also since taken the SAT and received a 2140 (1450 CR+M). My main question is, how will my freshman year grades affect my chances at college admissions? Has the damage been done, or will my personal statement redeem myself? Also, what will be my chances at merit scholarships from the colleges? Will I still be able to receive them because of my current grades or will my freshman year hinder my chances at those scholarships? Thank you for taking the time to answer!
freshman year will generally not be a factor in anyone’s application
for you, since your freshman year is DEFINITELY not representative of you as a student, then it should NOT impact your chances for scholarships and admissions.
Do NOT address mental issues in your personal statement. Let your GC handle that. Some colleges don’t want students with mental issues. Let your record speak for itself (most colleges like improving grades). Use your personal statement to talk about who you are.
Lots of students have a weak freshman year - for many reasons. Some schools don’t include it at all, others weigh it less. Rather than wasting valuable ‘real estate’ on your application talking about a negative, let the GC address it, if they choose to at all. Keep your application focused on the positive - what you’ve got to offer these schools, who you are as a person, what your hopes and objectives are. They want a reason to admit you, so give it to them.
Going into mental health issues is always risky, not because of the stigma, but because schools are sensitive to liability. They know freshman year of college is difficult enough without taking a chance on a student who might have problems adjusting or could relapse if they had a history of depression and anxiety. Do not give them a reason to turn you down.
Thank you all for responding, this was very helpful!
Also think about it from a colleges point of view…if you are now taking AP classes and doing well in them, that is representative of what you can do in college. What happened 4 years ago is not.
Some colleges (e.g., public) have numerical cut offs for scholarships (GPA and SAT). For your state U, you might want to contact the admissions people and see if there is anyway they can discount freshman year.
You may want to look for colleges that take a more holistic view…they will see the upward trend.