Hello! I am applying as a transfer student into McGill for fall 2025 and am hesitating to add extenuating circumstances on my application (it is optional) as I am not sure that they would be considered legitimate. Some context:
Going into my final 2 years of high school, my family and I moved to a new country where I did not speak the local language. While the school I went to was in English, most of my classmates spoke that other language, causing me to have trouble integrating and developing social anxiety/depression, heavily impacting my ability to study or follow in class. I now know I had undiagnosed autism, which made me especially vulnerable to these problems considering how autistic people do not handle change well/generally struggle with social skills. This was also my first in-person school year after COVID, so my academic/social skills were really not developed like they should be.
This resulted in me getting a 37/45 IB result where I believe that if I had not changed schools/recieved the necessary autism accommodations this could have been better. My question would be whether this is a “valid” extenuating circumstance. I can definitely see the admissions people look at this as me trying to make a big deal out of something many people experience but I honestly believe that the combination of factors held me back from getting ideal grades. I am worried they might interpret this the wrong way and that it would affect my application negatively.
For reference: I took a gap year since then where I found out I have autism and am now applying from a UK university with a 90-95 average (3.90-4.0 converted CGPA according to the McGill website). I am applying for transfer to a Bachelor of Arts, but I am worried my high school results will screw me over (I applied to the same program last year with only my high school grades and got rejected)
Do you have any similar experiences or any idea of how this would be perceived?