Hi, I am a senior applying to college and throughout my high school career until my most recent quarter, I’ve had a 3.98 UW gpa. In September, I was diagnosed with a chronic health condition, and ended up getting hospitalized twice for it, and spent 3 months bouncing around treatment plans making my health worse and worse. As a result, my grades in my 2 hardest classes, AP Physics C and AP Lit, dropped from A’s to mid Bs (86 and 85 respectively) in my second quarter (first quarter they were both 94s). I explained this situation in Full detail in my additional info and for context I am taking 6 APs along with Calc 3 this year, trying to max my rigor. With my senior year courses, I have taken about 19 AP courses total. I am also an engineering major. My questions is assuming I explained this situation well and my chronic illness, will there be little to no effect on my apps or will there be a significant negative effect? I’ve put in so much effort to maintaining my grades and I don’t want my hard work to go down the drain because of a low point in my life. My GPA now is a 3.944, so its only a 0.04 drop and my rank is the same (35/802). Now I am much healthier and my grades are doing much better. Also, I was recently deferred from Georgia Tech, and I know they value grades a lot, so how much would this affect my chances there?
The most important thing is your health.
I am very pleased to read this.
One obvious question: Is there a link between stress and whatever health problem you have been dealing with? If so, then keep this in mind when deciding which school to attend after you get a list of acceptances to decide between. Some of the highest ranked schools can also be stressful (Caltech, MIT and GT come to mind as examples) and as such they are not necessarily the best fit for any one particular academically very strong student.
Another question is whether or not you want to stay near your current doctors in choosing a university to attend. I have known a small number of students who were dealing with a chronic but well controlled health problem and who were able to switch over to a new doctor because their university was some distance from home. At least in their cases this went well. It is however something to think about.
Two B’s is fine. Don’t worry about this part. AP Literature is in particularly not critical for a potential engineer. I have worked in high tech my entire life and I am pretty sure that AP Literature has never, ever come up.
GT has an acceptance rate around about 12%, and is a reach for pretty much everyone. If you do not get in you will have no idea why. A number of years ago MIT admissions said that something like 85% of applicants are academically qualified to attend, and I doubt the number is all that much different for GT. Both are for example academically very challenging schools that are known for engineering, CS, and related fields (so they might have similar applicants). This suggests that a lot of academically qualified students do not get accepted. That is okay. There are lots of other very good universities to attend. Also, GT is most known for areas (such as engineering and CS) for which “prestige” does not really matter. Graduates from GT and MIT and Stanford routinely work alongside graduates from a wide range of other universities and in the vast majority of cases no one cares where you got your degree.
I do not think that any of us can really guess what your chances are at Georgia Tech. So long as you have applied to a good list including some solid safeties you will be fine.
19 APs is a huge number of AP classes. To me it is somewhat shocking that 19 APs and a 3.944 unweighted GPA would leave you only 35th among 800 students in your high school. To me this sounds like someone is putting too much stress on high school students.
However, with this high a GPA and this many APs you should be well prepared to do well in university wherever you end up.
Your hard work is not going to go down the drain. You will do fine. You do not need to attend Georgia Tech to do very well in life. You will have multiple options for very good universities to attend, again assuming that you have applied to a good list of schools including safeties.
I have known or have met or worked with a few people who have been very successful in life. None were billionaires, but a few were way past millionaires. As far as I know none of them took the shortest or most direct path from where they started to being successful. We all run into a few bumps or obstacles or mistakes along the way. This is perfectly okay. This is just the way that life works.
Your hard work in high school and your very good results will allow you to get accepted to many very good universities. Whether GT will be one of them we do not know, but it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you will be accepted to some very good schools, you are well prepared to do well once you get to university, and you have learned how to deal with at least one glitch in your life. There will be more glitches before you are at the point I am at (retired with successful adult children) and that is perfect okay. Learning to deal with a glitch in life is likely to be more important in the end compared to two B’s in two AP classes.
I think that you will be fine. Keep you health as a priority and Best Wishes.
Two Bs are no biggy but how did you note this for 2nd qtr grades when you didn’t yet have grades when you applied?
I’m not sure, in general, adding info matters (may be school dependent) but even so, likely should come via your counselor and/or a dr note. And you have no way to prove your grades dropped due to this vs the classes were just hard.
Ps - there was zero reason to take Calc 3 or 19 APs. Not sure that much rigor matters as you are a high schooler. Hopefully you took the classes and didn’t self study.
I’m sure you’ll find a great home.
I am sorry to hear about your chronic health condition. Your health should be your priority. Some AOs are going to be more concerned about a recently diagnosed chronic illness that resulted in significant lost school time rather than two B’s.
Did you address your chronic condition stability/treatment in your addt’l info/wherever and however you noted this, and whether it is well controlled now? (you don’t have to answer that here)
Your HS counselor should send a note about the impact of your illness and missed school…have you asked them to do that? They could also address that the condition is being treated/under control/shouldn’t interfere with school moving forward, assuming that’s the case.
Are you in or out of state for GA Tech? Do you have any affordable acceptances yet?
Get your medical documents or ask your doctor to write a brief letter supporting your story. See your guidance counselor, who can mention that you did well despite being sick. Contact the GC and meet with them. They need to be aware of the situation as they are the credible point of contact between you and colleges.
Do not focus on your illness; no need for medical records, doctor’s statement, or guidance counselor letter as the illness appears to have had a very negligible effect on your GPA and no impact on your class rank.
Focus on your strengths, not on an adverse health condition which seemingly had little adverse consequence on your academic performance.
The only reason that you should raise the issue of this health condition is if you will need special accommodations.
Every time a student loses a straight A, if they have an illness, they blame the illness. That’s a mistake. They have no way to know why they got 2 Bs. They still managed As in everything else.
The student may have simply earned Bs. One can’t tie one thing to the other. So to do that would be a negative or excuse making.
I wish no one was ill but the cause on grades is an unknown.
I’m still unsure how this was included in an app that was submitted b4 the grades were received.
I cannot imagine that the minuscule change to your GPA (3.98 to 3.94) will have a material impact on a college’s holistic review of an application. But if you are concerned, ask your guidance counselor to add a note with your mid-year transcript noting that at the start of the year you were dealing with a health issue, missed time for a hospital stay, and that the issue has since been treated. IMO it is much better if the explanation comes from your guidance counselor who will be regarded as a credible, unbiased third party.