Hey Guys
I feel like I have 4/5 things that I want to include in the additional information portion o the common app, but they may be too extra(i don’t know):
1.) During Sophomore year, my mom was officially diagnosed with a serious mental illness and it has been affecting my home life in some way for some time, however, from 8th grade to 10th grade it got really bad( affected my grades and outlook on life and home life fo many years)
2.) During Junior year, I missed the first month of school because I was in the hospital(affected my grades)
3.) Also in junior year, My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and is one of the reasons I wanted to study medicine(affected my grades and outlook on life)
4.) The fact that I am part of the LGBTQ community, and I created something like a club( but it’s not like an official club, so I didn’t know what to list it as under the activities portion) where students meet during lunch, its kind of like GAS but more about helping other students find themselves and their identity
5.) The link to my business that I included in the activities portion of the common app
Thanks, also how should I word these statements? like an essay or more to the point?
I would break it into 2 points. First talks about sophomore year diagnosis and your moms breast cancer, the second talks about you being hospitalized. I think its more concise and not as repetitive if you break it into 1 being about your mom and how that’s affected your life, and another about how your own struggle affected your life. Also, put the LGBT thing in your activities section instead if you have room and just list it as “other” or something.
I missed close to a month of school at the beginning of Junior Year because I had a serious medical condition, my lung collapsed. The subsequent hospitalization caused a severe drop in my grades, but I worked hard to bring them back up at the end of the year.
During my sophomore and junior year, my mom was diagnosed with a severe mental illness and recently breast cancer, and that caused a drop in my grades. Although these events have shaped my outlook on life, they do not define who I am as a person. My future choices and experiences in my life, especially college, are the events that will truly define who I am as a person.
Let your GC speak to the challenges you overcame. (If you’re at a “renowned private school,” he or she is your point person on this.) If you brought your grades back up to the level your targets expect, adcoms will see that on your transcript. Show, not just tell. If not, it can be a problem, depending on the courses.
I’d leave out the part about “Although these events have shaped” to the end. Just give the facts. Also, can your GC talk about this?
I am going to be honest, though. As legit as these seem to be, the bottom line is that you have an excuse for not-great grades every single year. A college has no way to know how you would perform in the classroom otherwise. If you have high test scores, that helps some. But you need to apply to some schools that match what your stats really are, not what you would hope they would be without these situations. Apply to a couple reaches, but be realistic.
I think kids need to understand that excuses aren’t tips. Nor assertions that if they just let you in, it’ll all be better. They like to see when applicants have triumphed despite challenges.
And adcoms want to know you’re academically prepared for the 4 years and lower grades don’t show that. Too much explaining can lead them to wonder what happens if you run into some hurdle during college.
They’ll see you had a number of ECs despite these roadblocks. They can wonder what the story is.
I think that what you wrote is fine, you can get rid of the “although these events…” part and just stick to concisely letting them know what happened. MAKE SURE you talk to your counselor about this because they will have to write a letter of recommendation for you and they need to know to mention these things in the letter. If your counselor doesn’t corroborate what you wrote here, colleges may not believe you and could think you are just making it up to excuse poor grades.
I agree that it would be best if your guidance counselor addressed these issues. It is more believable coming from an independent third party and there is no chance that it could come off like you are making excuses. And IMO there is no need to address #4 - #5 in the additional information section.
@happy1@ddeebaa@lookingforward My school has a guidance counselor for 9/10th graders and she knows most of this stuff because she was my homeroom teacher. Also if I tell my Adcom now will she be able to change her rec letter even though i have already sent material to my EA schools
Will your guidance counselor be writing the rec or your adcom? Make sure whoever is writing the counselor rec that actually goes to your schools is the one who knows. If the guidance counselor knows but isn’t the one writing it then there’s no point. And yes, tell her now because even if she’s written the rec she could probably send in an additional letter explaining the situation or let them know somehow.
The GC submits a letter with the School Report. OP makes it seem he/she isn’t working closely with the GC on these decisions and hs policies. You should be.