<p>Basically, my grades and test scores this year haven't been as good as they should have been. One of the reasons is that my father died in January. </p>
<p>I want to let colleges know this WITHOUT putting it in my admissions essay and WITHOUT wanting to look as though Im trying to get sympathy. How do I do this? Or should I just not tell colleges at all?</p>
<p>have your counselor tell them</p>
<p>^Exactly what BigWeight said.
And you should definitely tell colleges your situation.</p>
<p>you can definitely write that elsewhere on your application. there usually is an “additional information” section reserved to explain an extenuating circumstance. (death of a parent would certainly be one of them)</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice people. I don’t have a college counselor since I’m British and that kind of thing doesn’t exist, so I’ll do the “additional information” thing instead.</p>