<p>For brevity's sake, I'll clarify that my post is a personal story that underlines this question: is chronic illness taken into consideration by adcoms in graduate admissions if it interferes notably with one's academic records as an undergraduate?</p>
<p>I'm a sophomore undergraduate who's tentatively planning on applying for graduate school in the sciences, or possibly math. I'm undecided on any field specifically, but I'm a declared physics and math double major with plans to investigate some molecular biology stuff to see if that pulls me in any harder. </p>
<p>Although I loved school when I was a lot younger, from middle school onward I was a mediocre student and only worsened in high school. In about eleventh grade, I "rediscovered" my former interest in academics, so to speak, which lead to a sharp increase in my ambition but frustratingly not my grades. I managed to scrape by with a 32 on the ACT but ended up graduating with a 3.1 GPA. I set my sights high with my undergraduate applications anyway but was rejected from all the schools I had interest in attending.</p>
<p>It wasn't until my freshman year of college that I was diagnosed with a sleep disorder, which was severe enough to manifest itself in symptoms of ADHD (the original diagnosis by a psychiatrist I had seen, actually; apparently modern psychiatry doesn't make much of a distinction between sleep and attention difficulties). I had never thought of my academic woes being caused by a physical condition before, but once I began medication in the spring I was granted a mental clarity I had never experienced before. Unfortunately, this grace period was short lived-- I took a break from that treatment, and when I began again in the fall there were complications with the anti-depressants I was taking simultaneously, which made me very ill for a good portion of the semester.</p>
<p>I transferred from a liberal-arts college to the flagship state university this year. My GPA from freshman year was something like a 2.7, and then this past semester I earned an 1.8 and was put on academic probation. I'd finally reached a point in my medication saga to be fully functional most of the time in December, but by then it was too late to salvage my classes. I'm retaking my intro physics class, and I feel like I'll be in much better shape next semester.</p>
<p>Will this permanently put a dent in my prospects? This probably seems like needless paranoia on the surface, but the reality of the situation is that in less than two years, I'll be shipping out my applications. To put that in perspective, my grades this semester likely bars me from participating in my school's undergraduate research program next year as a junior.</p>
<p>I appreciate any and all feedback on my situation and this question in general. Thank you very much!</p>