Mention reason for poor semester?

Sinisterwing
Thu, 10 Dec 2015 19:33:05 +0000

Hello everyone.

I’m a senior MS student in CS and I want to apply for a PhD. My GPA for the first semester of my master’s studies was around 3.7, but a family emergency during my second semester caused my grades to fall closer to 3.2-3.1. I’m looking to finish my last two semesters with good grades, but the deadline for PhD applications is approaching, so I thought about putting a mention of the reason for my poor performance that one semester.

Is it worthwhile to do this? If I do, what’s the best place to mention this? Also, one of my professors is aware of the troubles I was having at that time—should I ask him to mention this in his recommendation letter?