I’m currently a senior in high school at a school I transferred to after my sophomore year. My freshman year I was all in with my grades and not really was a social life and got a 4.1 GPA. (I was attending the same school as a boy who has sexually assaulted me and had strong diagnosed PTSD) My sophomore year I started doing lots of advocacy work for sexual assault and dating violence very publically. There was a lot of backlash from the student body and from my abuser. At the same time, I was beginning to take AP classes and pump up my course load. My PTSD got way, way worse, and I started missing a lot of school (excused absences) to avoid the panic attacks I’d get. As a result, my grades dropped significantly, I don’t know my exact GPA from my sophomore year but I got C’s in my two AP courses, C’s in honors chem, and C’s in Spanish. My AP test scores were a joke (they made me take the test next to the guy who assaulted me knowingly). I transferred schools for junior year, and basically got straight A’s…but my course load wasn’t as heavy because I transferred about a month and a half into the school year and was really worried about playing catchup (still took one AP and the rest was mostly honors). My senior year (now) I am taking three APs and mostly honors besides my electives like journalism (I’m an editor in the paper). I currently have straight A’s, and resume that is packed of advocacy work and public speaking, interning, and starting a nonprofit. At the end of my junior year I had a 3.49 unweighted and 3.88 weighted. Writing is definitely my biggest passion besides advocacy work so I feel my essays are really strong. I’m legacy at Stanford and Brown, and I want to know if there’s a chance that I could get into these schools still. I used my essay to describe my experience of course and the additional information to elaborate on my grades and how they are now on a clear upward trend since leaving the environment I was in. Do I have a shot, a strong shot, no shot? I feel really worried that that one year will ruin my chances. I know I can handle the course load, I work really hard and have good time management skills I just could not be in that situation and it made things impossible.
Just writing to express my admiration for your advocacy and recovery journey.
That means the world thank you!!! <3
Well done to you for pulling yourself together and being proactive about your circumstances.
Legacy doesn’t have the influence it used to have. In your shoes, I would be sure to make a balanced list of schools where your GPA puts well you above the 50th percentile.
You have a compelling story, as do many others. It’s a hard truth that many students go through difficult struggles and are able to maintain high grades. Those schools are going to be high reaches, as I’m sure you know.
You can certainly ask your GC to mention that you changed schools due to a traumatic incident. You can also add additional information to give context in the additional info section. If you do this, be factual about it. Of course your activities are going to be important and you will have supplements that will give your app more context. I’d buy sure to keep the emphasis on how you came through the experience with some kind of positive takeaway. Good luck.
Thank you for your help!!