<p>I feel pretty stupid because people that usuallly do this have 4.0 GPA’s and perfect Sat scores. but anyway</p>
<p>My freshmen year of high school was very difficult. I was in all honors, but my father was terribly ill and had a heart attack. That year I did terrible. My unweighted GPA was 2.6 and my weighted was 3.2</p>
<p>From that point on i made a pact to myself to do good in school, and i believe that i did.</p>
<p>My sophmore unweighted GPA: 3.7 weighted 4.3
My junior year: unweighted GPA: 3.8 weighted 4.8
SAT 1: 2310
SAT 2: Biology, 720 World History, 760
I took all honors and AP classes. I took French all 4 years of high school. And i chose a photography elective all 4 years also.</p>
<p>EC: President of French Club; Treasurer of International Students Organization; Vice President of Electronics Club; Chess Club; French National Honor Society; Key Club; Golf Team; Volunteer 30 hours at hospital; 40 hours at a library; and 50 hours for a local art center.
I generally love to sing, dance, play guitar, and i’m really into photography.</p>
<p>Harvard would be my absolute dream school. </p>
<p>Do you think i have a chance?
Thank You, any thing would be greatly appreciated</p>
<p>I would not use the “my dad was ill” excuse. Many people will have major obstacles and be able to excel regardless. My father died of an unexpected heart attack, yet I was still able to maintain my 4.0, improve my rank, and remain extremely active in my extracurriculars.</p>
<p>First of all, even if you’re right in your view that family illness is a bad excuse, it’s still far better than no excuse at all, which admissions officers could very well take to mean he/she was just slacking off or something.</p>
<p>Second, I’m sure your ability to perform so well amidst family strategy will help (or has helped) you in admissions, not to mention it being a testament to strength of character in its own right, but that totally doesn’t qualify you to dismiss it as an invalid excuse for someone else. It’s entirely reasonable to expect that a 14-15 year old’s grades might suffer in such a scenario, and the circumstances of your situation and his/hers might be totally different and neither you nor I have any idea what he/she went through.</p>
<p>sigh. @shockstot, nobody wants to hear your not so sob story about how you were so smart that you put academics before family to make sure that you got X gpa and X sat score and went to X school. what the OP was asking was if he had a shot at applying, not about excuses. i think its very honest to say that there were some family issues and that would explain perhaps some sub part scores. i had family issues which i worked into a supplemental essay.</p>
<p>Also, if you were posting this in the Princeton forum as well, Princeton recalculates GPA without freshman year, I think. Dwight is completely right about that year’s impact here, but it will be much less there.</p>
<p>Many of you are kinda being well, ******-y. Yes it’s true, no college admissions boards want to hear a wah poor me story, but to discredit a family illness and heart attack? That’s awful. It would be worth it to explain the sub par performance without making it into a “sob story.” I think it shows you are family oriented and know there is more to life than academics, which is something many of the 30,000+ Harvard hopefuls are lacking. I think it’s crucial you explain yourself, just do so carefully.</p>