Report Medical Condition to Colleges?

Hello CC,

Growing up, I had a severe lazy eye and suffered from many hemorrhages until i got surgery after junior year. My grades went down from freshman to junior year, stemming from this. I didn’t think colleges would care, so i didn’t report it in my applications. I have a 3.75 UW GPA ( I know its not low, but applied to some elite schools), but it was difficult for me to do as well as i did. Should i have reported this to my colleges, and would they understand? If so, would emailing the admissions office about my former condition make any difference? I recently informed my GC about this.

It’s worth consideration. I chose not to disclose until after I had already picked my school, BUT, the only part of my grades that was affected was PE, so it’s not like I wasn’t going to be admitted because I was an honors student with bad gym grades. It feels weird using health issues as an excuse, but it’s not unethical as long as you don’t exaggerate. Think of it this way: if it comes down between you and another person with the same grades, you put in more effort and deserve the benefit of that effort. If you have/had an IEP or 504, say that because it validates the effects of your vision issues.

Your guidance counselor should have addressed this. If you do, you run the risk of sounding whiny, though I am sure you aren’t.

IMO it is way too late in the game to report it. Such a late disclosure of an issue you had freshman year could well come off as kind of grasping at straws/desperation. If you wanted this health issue to be part of your HS record you should have:

–informed the HS and your guidance counselor in your freshman year about your problem.
–provided any requested documentation to the school from the start of your HS career.
–if appropriate register for an IEP/504 or whatever accommodations could have possibly helped you show your best work throughout HS.

Plus in another post you said you are in the top 4% of your class so I’m guessing if you don’t get into top schools I don’t think it will be because of your grades.

My D had a fairly serious illness freshman year. We got her GC to mention it in her letter of recommendation -mostly because it explained her lack of ECs especially participation in sports. However she was not applying to super competitive schools.

I agree. It should have been mentioned in letters of rec or in the “additional information” essay on Common App.