<p>Thanks hornet. But I ended up getting waitlisted at Whitman as well. I will check out AmeriCorps, though, thanks for the link.</p>
<p>Okay, one more question - my dad died at the end of my sophomore year, and I was pretty close to my English teacher that year. He was my teacher for both my sophomore and junior years, and he referred to me as the best student of the year when I was a sophomore. Then, after my dad died, I was basically a wreck, and he saw how upset I was during my junior year. I never asked him to write me a recommendation because he basically gave me an A (my junior year) - there was a final project, and I didn’t have it, and I went up to his desk to ask him if I could turn it in late, and he said “Don’t worry about it, I will give you an A for the class because I know you are having a hard time, and I know you would have done a good job if you had done the project.”</p>
<p>So I never asked him for a rec because I was embarrassed about that, but do you think it would be a good idea to ask him to write a short letter about what a good student I was during my sophomore year and how much my dad’s death affected me, but that I eventually overcame it and am doing much better now?</p>
<p>BTW, my sophomore grades - A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A-, A-, A-, A-, A-, B. junior year - A, A, A, A, A-, A-, A-, B+, B, B, B, B-, C. senior year - A, A, A, A- (grades that Grinnell saw).</p>
<p>Everyone told me that my grade dip in my junior year was okay and relatively small considering what happened to me…but apparently it wasn’t okay. So do you think asking my English teacher to write something about that would help?</p>