I don’t know if this would count as a legitimate decision to explain my poor grades, but both my parents have excruciating work hours (4 AM - 10 PM) and are under constant stress since we aren’t that wealthy. During my freshman year, I would have to put off homework to help around the house while parents were out working most of time all while my brother would be helping while juggling his AP classes, it was essentially pretty hard work. I would go help my mom Saturday mornings (her second job is a cleaning lady). Now obviously that messed up a little with my grades. Majority were As and Bs with a few Cs. It wasn’t until Soph year came around, I promised to get straight As, but since my brother left for college, things have been drastically going down hill for me. I’ve gotten majority Cs the first semester, my parents have been working more hours to pay off my brother’s school tuition, and from that I’ve found out that my mom has been diagnosed with depression and my father with diabetes. I’ve told my teachers and parents that I want to go to Uchicago for CS, least I can say is they didn’t take it too lightly and all I could blame is my GPA. Hard to deal with, but I did quite some self-reflecting over my winter break and prevailed, I am now managing straight As the second semester of my soph year with two APs. Wouldn’t count out it too much since I bet there are more people who went through way worse, but that’s my explanation for my poor grades. One talent that I would emphasize is being a natural born talker and I developed a particularly eager hobby relating to building robots and coding from home since I can’t much ECs because I don’t a have a ride home from parents nor my own car.
A lot to take in, but better to give as much info for better insight on the situation.