<p>So, I kind of messed up my Junior year, the one year you /really/ aren't supposed to mess up. Earlier this school year I found out that I have a medical condition and had to be put in medication that made me not feel very well. As a result, my grades suffered some during first semester. I know that this seems like it's an acceptable reason to have messed up grades - and it is - but it's the problems that I encountered trying to bounce back and get into my normal rhythm that have really messed things up for me. For some reason or another I just couldn't do it. I don't know if it was because I was finally feeling well after years of constant headaches and dizziness and I was actually enjoying life or I was just too lazy to do it anymore or what. I am also involved in a lot of school activities, and they tend to take up time, causing me to get farther behind (I like to honor my commitments, even if it hurts me some because I want to stick to my word). I'm in IB, too, so it has really caused problems for me. I'm about to fail math if I don't do well on this next unit test, something that I have never done before in my entire life (fail a class, I mean). I'm terrified. I really need to get out of this pattern of procrastination and just not doing things - I need to get back to my old, disciplined self. </p>
<p>My question is: what can I do? College applications are coming up, and I don't really think that I can ask any of my junior teachers to give me a good recommendation because they wouldn't be able to do so completely honestly. I've had a lot of the teachers from this year in the past, too, so it's even more difficult because, rather than see me grow, these teachers have seen me regress. I'm really worried about junior year messing up my chances of getting into a phenomenal school.</p>
<p>Agree with Erin’s Dad. Drop the ECs until you are back on track academically. </p>
<p>Your options?
a) apply to less academically selective schools than you might otherwise have
b) take a gap year so that your (hopefully better) senior grades are part of your GPA and you are 100% back to full health</p>
<p>Sounds like not only was your health poor in junior year, but you had some learning to do in terms of setting priorities.</p>
<p>It’s not that my grades are all trash - I actually have mostly A’s and B’s. The problems that I’m running into are that my GPA is going to drop (again) and, of course, that I might fail math.</p>
<p>With the EC’s, it wasn’t as drastic as it sounds. I would skip if I needed to, but if I had committed to something a month or 2 in advance, I couldn’t just drop it the day of because I had gotten a lot of homework - it wasn’t right. But, I will be scaling it down on the EC’s this year.</p>
<p>Do you have any suggestions on what I should do about my recommendations, though?</p>
<p>Schools will accept recommendations from teachers in your senior year, so that’s an option - with or without the gap year. You could also go to teachers in 10th grade although most schools ‘recommend’ or ‘prefer’ recs from 11th and 12th grade teachers. It does raise questions if all your recs are from 10th grade - but one from someone with whom you are especially close, would probably work. Make sure any 11th grade teachers who write your recs are aware of your health issues so they take that into account.</p>
<p>If you have a close personal relationship with someone other than teacher - a coach, tutor, religious leader, or supervisor - who could provide an additional recommendation that sheds light on other aspects of your personality, that might also be helpful, especially if you think the teacher recs might be less than glowing.</p>
<p>I know this is probably something you don’t want to hear, but if you don’t think that you’ll get into a decent college with the grades you have now, you might want to consider community college. It’s easier than high school, and transfer admissions to most schools are a little more lax. Not only that, but you can choose how many classes you want to take each semester/quarter, that way you won’t overwhelm yourself with a huge workload-- especially when your medication makes it difficult for you to concentrate. I got D’s and F’s throughout high school, went to community college, and then got into UCLA and UCSD. It’s worth the wait, especially if you want to get into a fancier school.</p>
<p>I agree with monacorona about going to community college. It is a really good way to get into the swing of school past high school, and you can take as many or as few classes that you want to. i did not find it to be actually easier than HS, but my classes in HS were not demanding whatsoever. I transferred to a university after getting the credits that i needed from my local cc.</p>
<p>You do need to get your priorities in order as well. If you want better grades then you have to focus on those. Can you get any help with the math class that is getting you down? I was never good in math, but maybe you would be able to bring it up with a final test or something.Get some help from friends on that if you can. They will likely be the best resource for what type of a test that you can expect from that teacher.</p>
<p>About the recommendations, you can definitely ask people other than teachers. You can ask your teachers for your current year, who’s classes that you are doing well in. You should also talk to your doctor about your new medicine. It probably has some side effects that are making some things difficult and you might need to make some adjustments.</p>
<p>I was able to get my quarter grades up to A’s and math up to a C -___- BUT it’s better than it was looking, so that makes me a bit happy. I’m worrying about my final grades, now, since those determine the real total damage.</p>
<p>My GPA and SAT scores are good enough that I won’t need the gap year or community college, although I’ll probably have to re-evaluate some of my college choices. Maybe add a few more safeties and take away a reach school or two. </p>
<p>One of my teachers actually wrote in my yearbook that he’d love to write me a recommendation, so there is a little bit of hope there. It’s going to be the other teachers that I might have some difficulty with. They all know about my medical condition, but I feel like they expected so much more from me, and I continually disappointed them. Thank you for the information on the recommendations. I never knew that we could ask other people aside from counselors and teachers - it’s not something they really ever tell you.</p>