Will an explanation help me?

Applying to College
1

So recently at the end of this summer, I realized that my anxiety has gotten much worse than before. It’s possible that I also have a mild case of depression (and no, I’m not trying to say I’m lazy or edgy). This, as you can imagine, has tremendously taken a toll on my grades. I went from being an A/B student to having 1 D and 1 C on my report card and I feel as if my whole world is falling apart. If I add an explanation in my application letting the admission officers know about my mental health struggles, do you think they’d understand?

Here are my stats so you get a good idea of where I’m coming from:
W: 4.1
UW: 3.8
Rank: 76/503 (top 15%) ((has possibly changed since the start of the school year))

AP- APUSH, AP European History, AP English Language and Composition, AP Biology, AP Psychology, AP Literature

All Honors classes and AP

EC:
Tri-M National Music Honors Society (President)
National Honors Society (Executive Board Member)
2 years in my counties’ youth orchestra (selective process)
All-County Orchestra
International Club
Key Club
7 years playing the violin (1st chair)
10 years playing the piano
3 years playing the guitar
Volunteers at the library

Colleges I’m planning to apply to:
UNC Chapel Hill
UNC Charlotte
UNC Wilmington
NCSU
ECU
Virginia Tech
Spelman
NC A&T
NYU
Duke
Barnard

2

If an explanation needs to be added, it should be added by the GC, not you, IMO.

3

Agree with skieurope - have your guidance counselor address the issues in your LOR. Be sure you take the year getting professional help and taking good care of yourself. Look for schools with solid counseling support for students and be sure you are well before you fly too far from home. Good luck!

4

One very important issue: Are you getting treatment for your anxiety and depression? If so, then how it is going?

No one is perfect. We all have goofed up at some point. However, schools will want to know whether the problems that you have had in the past are likely to be an issue once you show up on campus. If you are getting treatment and things are going well now, then that can help you quite a bit.

5

I would expect at GC to want to see a doctor’s note with a formal diagnosis before writing a note asking for any kind of “pass” based on medical grounds. Otherwise the system gets abused and colleges will stop overlooking any such anomalies in grades.