Should I include my less-than-stellar grades in my essay?

<p>I was wondering if I should address my low GPA (~3.0UW, ~3.3W) in my college essays? My only real reason for the low GPA is that I wasn't mentally stimulated by my classes, so I didn't care enough about them to do the homework.</p>

<p>Not if it’s for that reason, no. It would probably decrease your chances.</p>

<p>Think about it from a college’s perspective. You won’t be mentally stimulated by all your college classes either; are you going to just not do the work for those too? Why admit you over someone with higher stats, or even someone with the same stats who seems willing to put effort into all their classes?</p>

<p>2 reasons:</p>

<p>1) your essay is your lone opportunity to say something about how you might contribute to the college. Don’t blow the chance</p>

<p>2) if you wanted to share an extenuating (i.e. reasonable and excusable) cause, then maybe. Whereas your line is you’re just a slacker or a know it all. You won’t win many points for that. But of course, I’m sure you don’t believe that about yourself.</p>

<p>No, I kinda believe that. I’ve noticed that I can be a sort of know-it-all, and it’s the homework assignments that I already feel comfortable with that I chose not to do. I’m trying to avoid that during my senior year. I figured that it would be a bad idea to mention without a good reason, but I thought I should ask on here, just to be sure.</p>

<p>If you had a valid reason then you could possibly mention it in an essay (though a letter from your GC would be better) but you don’t have a valid reason. Not being interested in classes could even hurt your chances. Don’t make excuses for yourself, especially in your essay.</p>