<p>allanyue,
In your #16 post you point out the problem with using the death of a grandparent to try to justify poor grades. There is no “of course, if it’s a great aunt or great grandpa, not a quality excuse”. There is no logic behind giving a valuation to any death of a relative or friend as an excuse for poor performance. My kids, for example, would not be devestated by the loss of a grandparent that they do not know well, but would be heartbroken by the death of some of their “foster grandparents” that they have wonderful relationships with.</p>
<p>You don’t get a “get out of bad grades free” card because of the death of a grandparent. </p>
<pre><code> Again, what else contributed to your poor grades? When did your grandmother actually die, and what were your grades up to that point? I for one am willing to bet that they were already slipping.
Start working harder this semester and applying yourself to your work. As an adcom person said at one of my daughter’s college tours: you don’t get ready for a marathon by running sprints. In college you will have even more distractions and temptations than you do now, so start working on some self-discipline.
</code></pre>
<p>Do not write the letter yourself. The only way it will hold merit is if it comes from your counselor. It should have been stated in his/her mid-year report to the Common App schools. If it was not significant enough for you to address the issue with the counselor or teachers during your time of crisis, I would have to say you are probably grasping at straws. I am sorry to sound harsh.</p>
<p>OP, another opinion here that if this communication takes place, it should be from your guidance counselor, not directly from you. I would go see your GC and discuss this with them. See what they think about it.</p>
<p>“However, if your son has a real humdinger of an explanation for his so-so semester (Grandma died, Dad disappeared, etc.) it’s worth mentioning. He can also try a little humor to put a grade or two perspective (e.g., “My 81 in AP Calc won’t wow anyone in your admissions office, but we’ve nicknamed our teacher Hard-hearted Hannah for good reason, and my grade puts me squarely in the middle of a competitive class and doesn’t come close to reflecting my effort.”)”</p>
<p>Sorry, but is it true that the Dean says that death in the immediate family is a logical explanation? (Colleges state that death in the immediate family can be a logical explanation.). Would “immediate family” include grandparents?</p>
<p>And the Dean seems to believe that you can send in this explanation, no problem. Is this true?</p>
<p>Allenyue, what part of “talk to your guidance counselor” are you missing? Several people have suggested it. Even if you do communicate it, it will have more weight (and be more believable) coming from your GC. That is part of their job, to communicate additional information to the colleges that add depth/information to your application beyond what is shown there. The poster above who said this should have been in your mid-year report is correct, but it is likely too late for that now. But you still want your GC to do the communication on this if possible.</p>
According to the article, FDR (family death rate) jumps from 0.054 with no exam, to 0.574 with a mid-term, and to 1.042 with
a final, representing increases of 10 fold and 19 fold respectively.</p>
<p>Many people have given you good advice and it doesn’t seem to be what you want to hear.</p>
<p>Go ahead and write your schools and tell them about your grandmother if you want to. No one is stopping you. You asked for advice, it was given, and then you can take that advice or leave it.</p>
<p>There is really no debate. Just do it or don’t. </p>
<p>Honestly, it’s March. Chances are it won’t make much difference anyways.</p>
<p>Even if the note comes from your guidance counselor, the adcom will likely interpret it to mean that you do not handle stress and adversity well. It would likely hurt your admissions chances.</p>
<p>Sorry, but in the event that the GC couldn’t write it (like, due to a large load of students)?</p>
<p>What do I do?</p>
<p>I’m trying my best to adhere to all advice, but I think my public school GC has a large load so it’s getting difficult…</p>
<p>I don’t like to sound argumentative. I like to adhere to all advice, but it just seems really dificult since the GC has such a large load to deal with…</p>
<p>Clearly, I have failed to understand the situation. I apologize. I should have realized earlier that you would accept only one answer. Please allow me to try again:</p>
<p>Yes! By all means, write to all the colleges you applied to! I think that’s a perfectly splendid idea! It’ll probably get you into some colleges you didn’t even apply to!</p>
<p>ok, thanks, but if my GC has such a large load that it’s difficult for her to write the explaantion (since she’ll report academic side but student need to report what happened), I’m not sure what to do, so: maybe I should write it? Idk.</p>
<p>Dear adcoms, my grandma died. I loved her very much. My grades suffered.</p>
<p>My guess is the adcoms will go omgoodness, what a great reason for bad grades!!! Grandparents never die, so this must have been quite the shock. An old person dying.</p>
<p>Do we not expect people to die anymore? Are we not prepared for that? Guess not,</p>
<p>If ur that determined to send an email, just do it .
U should’ve worded ur post differenly then. </p>
<p>Idk how to say it…
Not to be harsh, but unless u were an orphan raised by ur
Grandma or something, it won’t help at all.
Why bring attention to ur poor grades by mentioning it?
And why wait til march to report it to colleges if it happened months ago?
It will look incredible suspicious. Like it just occurred to u that you have an excuse.
Schools probably have already made their decisions.
Just move on. If not, have in choosing ur wording. Chances are, the adcoms will have also experienced death o a grandparent. So they will either sympathize or think that if they could handle it, so should u.</p>
<p>oh sorry… i think i forgot to omit this information ;(</p>
<p>but anyway, instead of saying, “I believe my grandma’s death impacted my mid-year grades” I should just explain what happened, without making any references to the mid year report? </p>
<p>Another question: I say something like, “First and foremost I take full accountability for my 7th semester grades. I’m here today to honestly say that it does not in an way reflect my motivation and ability to handle college level material.” or to that effect, would this be an excuse?</p>
<p>If colleges need to know it, then a logical explaantion needs to be attached but I am trying to make it NOT sound like an excuse… (since my GC seems to have extremely limited time due to an extremely large load of students)</p>
<p>Would this sound like an excuse (for the mid year report problem earlier stated):</p>
<p>“During the early part of the year, my grandmother passed away. As you can imagine, this put an emotional strain on my family and me. I know, however, that I have learned to deal with the situation and I am very much looking forward to college. If I can provide any further information, please let me know.”</p>
<p>It might give insight to the lower grades but it is said WITHOUT any mentioning of “midyear report”, “grade”, or the like. </p>
<p>You already have 30+ posts giving you plenty of solid advice. I personally think you should let it be and not bother mentioning it to adcoms. At this point you really seem to be trying to milk the situation for what it’s worth, and it’s almost a little phony and offensive tbh. It’s probably pointless for me to be telling you this since you seem to be ignoring almost all the advice everyone else has given you. Just move on.</p>
<p>I’m really sorry for your loss, and I know that a grandparent dying would have strong emotional effects on me too.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters that you shouldn’t email colleges about this. By definition, it will appear excuse-y, as you are using your grandmother’s death to excuse bad grades. It could be a legitimate excuse in their eyes, but it probably won’t change the way they view your grades. Worst case scenario, they’ll see you as making excuses and not taking responsibility, or see you as trying to play the pity card. Best case scenario, they take it into account when looking at your grades, which seems unlikely, to be honest. A death in the family would be an excellent excuse to do poorly for a few weeks, but is something that should be worked through with your high school teachers, but admissions committees.</p>
<p>Also, to address the ask the dean post you referenced earlier, he specifically says this later in the answer:
This type of addendum may work for one class or perhaps even two but won’t carry much clout if your son offers excuses for EVERY grade.
So if you are still determined to use this excuse, only do for a class where perhaps the teacher was unwilling to let you retake an exam you missed because you were at your grandmother’s funeral or something. But if there wasn’t a case where a teacher was actively unwilling to work with you through your grandma’s death, it’s not really a viable excuse.</p>
<p>Good luck in admissions next month and again I am sorry for your loss.</p>
<p>My sympathies on the loss of your grandparent.</p>
<p>To answer the question in the title of the thread: No.</p>
<p>You state that your grandparent passed away early in the school year. The time to address the impact that had on you was in your application essays, supplemental essays, and additional information sections of your applications, which were due after your grandmother passed away.</p>
<p>To contact admissions officers now saying your were severely affected will make them wonder why it was not mentioned in the application and can only look like you are “making excuses” regardless of how you word it.</p>
<p>To address your two more recent questions on the thread:</p>
<p>“First and foremost I take full accountability for my 7th semester grades. I’m here today to honestly say that it does not in an way reflect my motivation and ability to handle college level material.”
This is relatively pointless to send, as it offers them absolutely zero new information. They’ll probably ignore it.</p>
<p>“During the early part of the year, my grandmother passed away. As you can imagine, this put an emotional strain on my family and me. I know, however, that I have learned to deal with the situation and I am very much looking forward to college. If I can provide any further information, please let me know.”
This sort of just looks like a pity card email, which would probably be frowned upon. Many people go through difficult times in high school, so, as hard and painful as I know your experience is, it is in no way a unique experience, and colleges will probably have received several emails already from students using death in the family as an excuse to wipe away an entire semester. If you send this, you’d just be joining that group of kids. Don’t.</p>