Life trauma's affecting college admissions?

rockerguyasj
Fri, 30 May 2008 18:19:52 +0000

Hey, I was looking on the boards for a similar thread but I couldn’t find it so I am wondering how colleges consider applicants who had a real rough year at school. This past year (Jr. Year) I was sick in the hospital for 2 months, they thought it was cancer but it turned out to be something a bit more minor. Also, my brother was in ER for a couple weeks too and I had two murders in my family (I know, it sounds crazy but it’s true.)

This had made me miss quite a bit of school and in such, dropped my grades down. I had 2 B’s in high school before the beginning of junior year (I’ve had taken about 15 academic credits) and I took AP Calc, AP Chem, AP US History, AP English Language, Spanish 4 Honors, and Anthropolgy Honors this year. I think I might end up with with either 3 A’s and 3 B’s or 2 A’s and 4 B’s.

I’m just wondering how to present these set backs to the colleges I am planning to apply TO. I do not want to make it sound like I am making an excuse for poor performance but I want make sure they know that I had serious things going outside the classroom. Any tips on how to approach this?