<p>To begin I'd like to state that I don't think that there is ever truly a circumstance where good grades could not have been earned with the right mindset, even by students such as myself, who were faced with many adversities. However, I think that in my case explaining some icky grades Freshman and Sophomore year might help when it comes to my reach school (I am a Senior.)</p>
<p>My father has been incarcerated on and off throughout my life, and after being gone for a few years, he returned my Freshman year. His return stemmed a lot of drama within the family (my parents are divorced, so it was a matter of custody agreements, etc.) and through worrying about what was going to happen and having my parents being too preoccupied to pay attention to what was going on in school, I slipped into a depression and as a result, I let my grades go. My GPA is not at all a reflection of my potential or who I am as a student today (I've done well Junior and Senior year thus far), and I would like colleges to be able to see this. I would post it in the extra box thing on the Common Application, and I would try really hard to not make it sound like a total excuse for bad grades, because obviously if I had just focused on school and hadn't let my family life get in the way, I would have gotten the grades that I'm getting now! However, I just think it's less risky to post something like this, rather than have them wondering why my grades were so poor in the beginning?</p>
<p>Also, I thought it would be better to post it in the "additional information"box, rather than ruin an essay with it. Or it could be included in a recommendation letter (One outside of school staff) ?</p>
<p>If you are going to have in interview at any of your schools, that would probably be a good time to mention it. Otherwise ask your guidance counselor or another teacher who knows about the situation what he or she thinks.</p>
<p>Agree with the 2 posts above. Unless this fits into a specific essay prompt, I would forego mentioning it, and I certainly would not use the add’l info space to address. Have the GC cover it.</p>
<p>Would it be as effective coming from an outside recimmender? Rather than my GC? She has already written my recommendation and unfortunately she isn’t the most open/willing counselour so I’d really hate to ask her to write it again-I doubt she would. If I have it included in my other rec letter do they think they’ll even pay attention to it…? </p>
<p>AFAIK, the GC is usually the one to address these kind of issues. I have no idea how a college would view it coming from a different recommendation letter.</p>
<p>The general advice I heard from several schools is this is information they would want to know. They will see a dramatic change in your grades and they will be curious and want to know what made that change. The GC is usually the person to address it but maybe it can come in the teacher letter of recommendation. Does your teacher know the story? If you have a teacher who taught you in, say, 10th and 12th grade who can talk about the change?</p>
<p>The other thing you can do is simply call/email a college and ask. </p>
<p>Thanks! Yes, although I’ve heard it might come across as an excuse, I think that’s at least better than admissions officers viewing my transcript and wondering what in the world happened. My teacher already wrote my recommendation and wasn’t fully aware of my situation because I had her Junior year. I have an outside rec letter that’s being written (from EC’s outside of school), and he would be able to include it, but I’m going to bug my counselor and make sure she wrote something about my progress. </p>
<p>Is it appropriate for me to literally call an admissions officer and explain my situation to them? Or should I just ask them what the best way to include information like this is?</p>
<p>I had a pretty dramatic grade jump from freshman year to sophomore year (like 2.5 to almost a 4.0 ). I’ve continued earning those grades up until now and have a pretty respectable overall GPA, it’s just not what I would like it to be to feel comfortable for some of my reaches. When I applied to a DIVOH the admissions representative for the school actually called my home and spoke with my parent about my application. They had the question of “what happened here?” She was really interested in knowing what caused such low grades and how the jump occurred and responded very positively. Her advice to myself was to make sure that I addressed it in my college app(s). I told my college counselor about this and she agreed with the rep. My counselor wrote about my GPA difficulties/overcomings in her letter of recommendation but also recommended I wrote an essay about tit and put in additional info section of the common app.</p>
<p>To make a very long story brief, a death occurred in my family towards the beginning of freshman year and really tore my family apart. As a result, things in my life really went south and my grades fell with them. Eventually, I had a moment of epiphany and really felt determined to show who I am and what I could achieve. In my extra essay, I briefly explained what the situation was, how I remedied it and overcame my GPA/life struggles, and what I learned and how I’ve grown from the situation to become who I am today. I explained how I didn’t want to use the death of a family member as a crutch but I felt as though the story couldn’t go unwritten.</p>
<p>Ultimately, I would give you the same advice. Write about it honestly, and encourage your counselor to do the same. Although the grades are set in stone, you do have the opportunity to give an admissions officer an explanation of what they’re looking at.</p>