<p>my grades sophomore year were not so good...had a few d's and c's, but i went through extreme hardship that year (i was assaulted and thus had difficulty focusing on school). should i explain that, or do they kinda see that as an excuse?</p>
<p>the best strategy would be to have someone else (such as your GC) explain your problems in their rec. Bad things happen to people thru no fault of their own and it affects their schoolwork -- such as illness or death in the family or of the student, being assaulted certainly falls into this category, etc. So it's a legitimate explanation and I think adcoms will understand it. </p>
<p>However it is difficult to write an essay explaining the issue without straying into the territory of complaining or worse. Now I don't know what you'd write, but I can imagine an essay that says teachers were unsympathetic and accused the victim of exaggerating, were not willing to accept late homework or give makeup tests, the school did not provide enough support and created the situation that led to the attack in the first place (especially if the attack happened at school), and so on. Now the problem is these things may actually be true, but an adcom reading your essay has no way of knowing this and doesn't have the time to do their own investigation. And I have no idea of how serious the assault actually was but there ARE people out there who will blow things out of proportion, and an adcom has no way of knowing the truth (or time to find it out).</p>
<p>A person who has a bit of distance from the issue, such as your GC, makes a much better source for explaining your dip in grades and how you've come back strong since then. They will be seen as a more impartial source. A GC who writes to the effect that "Joe was traumatized by the attack and his grades suffered accordingly, but now he is back to his normal self and all the teachers are impressed by his work and attitude" is giving you a strong rec that you can handle big problems in life and work thru them. It is much harder to convey this in your own essay.</p>
<p>My 2 cents worth. Your mileage may vary ...</p>
<p>It's better to have your GC do that. If you need to also do that, include a supplementary essay. Let your major essay demonstrate what you have to offer the college, not problems that you've had.</p>
<p>One of the school's DD applied to had a separate prompt (a comon app school with a supplemental app IIRC) where you could explain anything that needed explaining about your grades etc.</p>