I’m a junior in high school and I was sexually assaulted in February- consequently, as this affected my mental state alot, my school performance suffered after this. Two weeks before school ended, I went on medical leave to get help- however, enough damage had been done in the 4th quarter and my school refuses to work with me on it and let me make anything up. I go to a very rigorous school, and my GPA was a 3.39 sophomore year, which dropped to a 2.93 (junior year). Overall my cumulative is 3.18. Can I explain this to colleges or will that make me look bad? My assault damaged my life in so many ways and it crushes me to think I have no chance of getting into a good college now. I have good ACT scores (33 first time, 35 second time), extracurriculars, etc. but I feel like my GPA from this year has ruined everything. Has anyone had a similar experience to this or does anyone know someone who has???
Can you work with your GC? They could help with providing some info to colleges. But I’m going to give it to you straight — your GPA before your issues wasn’t probably good enough for the most selective schools. If you can get good grades this fall, it would help. It would show that you had a dip due to this issue, but that it was a blip and not a permanent drop. Also, does your cumulative include 9th grade?
You may want to apply to a wider range of colleges given the large gap between your GPA and test scores. Look at CTCL schools, for example — you may be able to get some good merit from some of those schools. Women’s colleges also may be a good place to look.
I’m sorry this happened to you. I hope you are getting some counseling.
I can’t say for certain, but I’d imagine that if you explain this in your application they’d be forgiving on your grades, good luck with counseling
I would say talk to your guidance counselor, they can vouch for you and write about it in their letter. I am sorry about your experience – that is quite a traumatic and terrible experience I am sure. Best of luck!
You should not be the one to convey this information to the colleges. Your guidance counselor needs to do it on your behalf. It can be part of his/her letter to the colleges.
I agree with @intparent that you should apply to a wide range of colleges. In answer to your question, NO, this will not ruin your chances of going to a “good” college. There are thousands of good colleges. If you give us more information about your criteria we can help you come up with a good list. What state do you live in? What major or career are you interested in? How much money can you/your parents pay for college? Do you have a preference for smaller schools or larger schools?
Your sexual assault was still recent. It takes time to heal. You survived it and you will thrive. Keep going to the therapy.
I go to a really hard private school so before, coming from my school atleast, I had a good chance of getting into Fordham and NYU (my top two choices)
those are what I consider good schools @brantly @intparent
I am sorry you experienced this.
How were your first semester grades junior year? If they were stronger than your 3.39 sophomore year, then that will support your assertion that the drop was due to the assault, and will help convince admissions offices to disregard the lower grades second semester. And - yes - higher grades first semester senior year will also help.
@brantly is correct that the info should come from your guidance counselor, although you MAY write something in the additional info section if the common app (if you want) that BRIEFLY addresses the fact that you took medical leave to deal with the after effects of being a crime victim. (You don’t even need to detail the specifics if you don’t want to.)
Wishing you healing and comfort as you move through this process.
I am also very sorry that this happened to you. I think the fact the school isn’t giving you much of a chance to make it up is despicable.
I think Forham and NYU are likely to be understanding and sympathetic. You should have your guidance counselor write a letter and perhaps a psychologist or other medical professional helping you through this should also write one for your college file too.
Do your absolute best going forward. Get tutoring or whatever extra help you can at the first sign of trouble. I wish you the best of luck. Let us know how it works out for you next spring.