<p>First and foremost, my transcript reads as that of a solid A-/A student with the occasional B/B+ firmly ensconced in the top 5% of his class (my school doesn’t rank higher than that) at a highly competitive public school in NY that sends 20-25 students of its 400 grads to Ivies every year. Our first semester ended Friday.</p>
<p>I was deferred from MIT early action (along with all 4 early applicants from my school).</p>
<p>I had a very active first semester, continuing participation in most of the activities listed on my app and most of those in a leadership capacity (participating in a Science Olympiad team that won its division in regionals, giving four presentations at an Aquaculture America meeting, leading the planning of a Mardi Gras dance as a French Honor Society officer, etc.)
My grades were the usual A-'s in one of the most rigorous courseloads available at my school, slightly lower than last year but no real blips except B+'s in French/Bio.
Then I had a 101 degree fever during midterms. Said midterms were painful, both to take and to get back, and had a disproportionate impact on semester grades. </p>
<p>These midterms torpedoed my AP bio grade, dropping it to a B-, and dropping AP French (widely considered the hardest course in the school) to a B+. Everything else, including AP English, AP European History, and AP Physics B stayed at an A- or A.</p>
<p>So, my GPA dropped from a 4.48 junior year to a 4.27 (mostly because of bio) but my cumulative stayed put at a 4.32. My rank isn’t really affected.</p>
<p>Should I mention the 101 degree fever and resulting (disproportionately large) impact of the disastrous midterms on the MIT midyear report and welcome the admissions committee to follow up with my guidance counselor? She’s going to mention this on my Common App midyear report as it is.</p>
<p>A letter from your counselor is certainly the best idea. If you don’t have anything else to update them about in the MidYear Report, try to give them a shorte glimpse of the situation.</p>
<p>You probably shouldn’t - it will only highlight your weakness and detract the admission officers from viewing your strong points (activities, EC’s, etc).</p>
<p>I would laugh if I was an Adcom ad MIT and a student blamed pathetic mid terms on a little fever. </p>
<p>However, feel free to mention whatever you want if you think it will help. I doubt they will care too much about the B’s, and even less about your explanation. In fact, the explanation may bring even more attention to it. Whatever makes you feel good though,</p>
<p>So the message I’m getting is that it would be a bad idea to mention it myself (which makes sense), that an update of this from my counselor would be okay (which also makes sense), and that Pancaked is kind of a jackass (I had to go to the hospital, you prick).</p>
<p>Thanks, guys. I’ll hold off on mentioning it myself. If my counselor wants to, I won’t stop her. And again, the only reason I’m concerned is that a B- in AP Bio can’t look too good on a midyear report to any highly selective school.</p>
<p>I’m going to steer back from people mocking you towards actually discussing your situation. I’d advise you not to put it on the Midyear report, and instead have your counselor mention it if at all possible (but not dwell on it much). If she can’t, just hope for the best.
Good luck.</p>
<p>You went to the hospital with a fever of 101? ‘-’ Make sure not to mention that temp in the letter, haha. And again, unless you were pulled out of class to go to the hospital in the middle of an exam… get real. They don’t want to hear it from you.</p>
<p>But I agree with you, if your counselor reports your sickness, the information will enjoy a MUCH better reception than from the applicant. In fact, I would specifically encourage your counselor to mention your sickness and absences (if there were any) during/near exam week.</p>
<p>Aaaaargh IT WAS FOOD POISONING. The fever was one of multiple symptoms but I had to go to the hospital to get my stomach pumped. Just really bad timing for that to happen, but I’m better now. Can we move away from that now?!</p>
<p>And I was leaning towards the route of having a counselor convey it anyway. So yeah, I’ll ask my counselor to mention it in an email or some such. Thanks guys (and sorry I got mad at you Pancaked).</p>
<p>What that means is that two grades below an A- never killed anyone, and given your otherwise stellar and background I doubt it’s going to keep you out of MIT.</p>
<p>Even if only one of your grades had dropped down to a C, I’d explain. But one B-, one B+ and the rest straight As? Those are <em>very</em> good grades, they’re certainly nothing to explain. Your rank and cumulative GPA are not affected. So what are you going to say in the explanation? “I had a low-grade fever due to food-poisoning and so I wasn’t feeling my best during my midterms. However, it didn’t affect my GPA or my class rank at all.” What’s the point of explaining?</p>
<p>Also, the reason people were originally ridiculing you is because a fever of 101 degrees, on its own, is not a serious fever. It’s considered a low-grade fever, and without any other symptoms the fever itself shouldn’t bother you. However, it can be indicative of some serious illnesses - you can have a low-grade fever with anything from the flu to tuberculosis.</p>
<p>I think juillet had the most sensible post by far. Don’t worry about it. </p>
<p>I was actually in a similar boat but for a different reason (my GC ultimately ended up mailing an update briefly explaining that I’d lost a family member over the course of the semester and my grades had subsequently dipped).</p>