Hi, I know a lot of forums are riddled with these threads “Will I get in?”. But, I have a genuine, pressing question regarding my admission. Recently, my father died the beginning of my Junior Year of High School and I lost my focus. My GPA tanked from a 3.92 to a 3.85 my Junior Year. So, I was wondering if U of M considers this in their admission process.
Tanked??
I’m so sorry for your loss, but this can’t be a serious inquiry.
Hehe!
First off I’m so so sorry for your loss. Secondly, that is not a large drop at all. Thirdly, there is a place on the Common App to explain reasons for drops in grades and you should DEFINITELY include when/what happened.
Exactly what @NICE8x said. And people explain much worse grade drops with far less serious reasons.
Michigan takes everything into account and I’m sure it will even speak to your character that you were able to keep such high grades after such a traumatic event occurred during high school- and from my experience, character is really just as important to admissions as your grades and test score.
So on your essays, try not to focus too much on explaining how your father passing away negatively affected your grades- since quite frankly a .07 grade drop sounds like a trivial and inauthentic thing to apologize for when one of your parents just passed away- and more on how it affected you as a person, how you were able to push through it and how it has made you stronger.
good point by transferette. Maybe not even link the death to your grades. If you mention the death and its obvious impact on you, the inference back to your grades (which in this case are more impressive) can be made by Admissions.
Have your guidance counselor mention your father’s death in her write-up of you. Better for the GC to do it than for you. Especially since your GPA drop was trivial.