Hello! I’m currently a rising junior so this isn’t a super pressing issue at the moment, but I’ve heard of many who explain their bad grades in their college essays and talk about how they’ve improved. I switched to a much more rigorous high school at the start of my sophomore year and received a 57 and 3 Cs, but have worked hard to raise my grades to As and Bs. I didn’t have the foundations that the kids who had been there since freshman year had, since my freshman year school was nowhere near as challenging, nor did my classes cover what they needed to for me to be at a good jumping off point at the start of sophomore year. I’m hoping to do very well this coming year. Is it worth it to explain my bad grades and use my essay for that, or write about something else? Thank you very much!
Use your essay for something else. You could put a brief paragraph of explanation in the “additional info” section in your app – not always a good idea, but explaining that the change to more rigor & gaps in your background caused one bad semester seems like a good idea for you. As long as your grades went up after that – otherwise it doesn’t hold up.
Your college placement/guidance counselor will be writing a letter of recommendation for you-- he or she can cover that. Or, as intparent suggested, you can use the “Additional info” section to explain your grades.
Use the essay to showcase WHO you are, not WHAT you’ve done in terms of grades.