Upward Trend/Bad First Two Years

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>I wrote out a whole long post concerning this, and then CollegeConfidential logged me out, so I'm going to keep this short.</p>

<p>To start off, I've always been the type of student who has taken advantage of the most academically challenging courses available to me, even since elementary school, being in "GATE" or whatever its called. Highschool has been no different, as I took 5 Honors courses freshman and sophomore years, and 6 AP/IB/H courses Junior and now senior year. </p>

<p>Saying that, for some reason, I didn't take freshman and sophomore years serious enough. I came out of the mentality I had since elementary school that I could just glide through courses without having to put much effort/studying into it. Boy, was I wrong. To make it worse, I underwent brain surgery in the second semester of freshman year, causing extended absence and a drop in grades. Out of a possible 4.7 (given my classes), I got a 3.4 and a 3.6 freshman and sophomore years, respectively. </p>

<p>Fastforward to junior year, I realized how badly I had screwed up, and decided to take things seriously. I unfortunately realized that because of my foolish and misunderstood actions, I virtually eliminated my former dreams to go to more elite schools like BC, UCLA, UNC, Duke etc. I got a 4.4 both semesters, and I am hoping to follow suit with a 4.4 or 4.5 this first semester of senior year. I also passed 4/4 of my APs with 4s.</p>

<p>Now finally, to my question, and thank you if you are still reading at this point, where do I tell this story in my application? Should I write about it in my essays as a "significant life changing event?" I have a (huge) upward trend in grades, and want to convey my realization and "turn-around," if you will, to the application readers. If anyone has advice on how to convey academic struggles in the application, I would gladly take it.</p>

<p>Again, thank you for taking time to read this and offer me advice. I really appreciate it.</p>

<p>Socal1</p>

2

<p>Um, yeah…wouldn’t call a 3.5 terrible. </p>

<p>You can write about how much you’ve improved but it strikes me as sounding horribly cliched.</p>

3

<p>Your story isn’t new. Colleges dig upward trends in grades. Colleges care about your <em>maximum academic ability as you start college</em> so a kid who started freshman year with a 2.0, and flew threw junior year with a 4.0 and averaged a 3.5 is <em>much</em> more valuable than a kid who had a 3.5 throughout and made no improvements. the 2nd student has shown that while starting strong, that’s the best he can do. that’s it. and it’s not 4.0 work. You’ve demonstrated your maximum ability, and should be confident in that. let your grades and transcripts do the talking and use your essays and ECs to set yourself apart from the kid who has a straight 4.0, who has an academic advantage over you.</p>

4

<p>Remember, schools take a holistic approach. You had brain surgery and missed large portions of school. If you’d just been lazy freshman and sophomore year, that would be one thing. You have a legitimate “excuse” / reason for a drop in grades and a 3.4 is still pretty decent. If you’ve got good test scores and high grades now, it’s certainly not hopeless. Those places are, to some extent, a shot in the dark anyway…</p>

5

<p>I have above 2 on the SAT. And it doesn’t say anywhere on my transcripts (obv) that I had this surgery. Maybe that would be something I could write about as a significant experience?</p>

6

<p>Amazingly, you & I have very similar backgrounds! I’ve talked to a couple admissions counselor about how to handle this when I was touring a few schools. I’ve ended up with a 3.5 GPA, which isn’t going to get me in to where I want to go without explanation! And I don’t have the nice trend you do. I’ve been through several surgeries & missed 2-3 months of school each year for the last three years, and gone back to school still very ill, so my grades have gone up or down depending on which semesters I had issues. Anyway, the admissions folks said exactly what I expected, but it still helped to hear it . . . that if the topic I choose is about overcoming challenges, my medical issues are certainly meaty & emotional material to use, just be very careful not to spend the essay outlining medical issues. You don’t want it an essay about your excuse (as dramatic as it is) or have it be depressing or uncomfortable to read. Just ending the essay on a positive 'look how far I’ve come & I can do anything now" probably isn’t enough. Have someone objectively read it to make sure the overall tone is really uplifting & satisfying. You need to make them want you to come to their school, not just understand & excuse your GPA. </p>

<p>What I’ve decided to do for myself is to just weave it in as a side note. I don’t want it to be the main attraction & what defines me. I think I’m going to hint at it in my essay, without dwelling on it, and then in the additional comments section, just include a short & & direct comment of explanation. </p>

<p>The approach you take might depend on where you’re applying, too. Some schools will pour over every word & you can be subtle, whereas others may not even look past the GPA, so you might have to be more ‘in their face’ to make sure it gets internalized.</p>

<p>Good luck - I know it makes it much harder to predict, as we need them to look at us with a different filter & not just judge us by the numbers. I’m really struggling to know how much ‘forgiveness’ I will get due to my background, so I really don’t know how high of a ‘reach’ is even a remote possibility!</p>