Personal Problems into consideration w/ GPA?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

My dream school is Northeastern and I want to go there more than anything, however, during my sophomore and beginning of junior year my mom was going through cancer treatments and it really impacted my grades (A’s and B’s but one C) and now my W.GPA is a 3.7 but i have really good extracurriculars (Varsity Field Hockey, Destination Imaginaion Global Finalist 4x, Soph/ Junior/ student body president, internship at Vet Hospital) and Volunteer work (400 hours with Amigos de las Americas in Ecuador, fostering puppies 150 hours). I’m expecting to get a 30 or 31 on my ACT. I also have a challenging course load at a very hard school: (AP Bio, Pre-Calc Honors, Honors English, Ap Spanish, APES, AP Lang)

I know I’m a well rounded student and I know the main thing holding me back is my GPA and I dont want to make excuses but a huge reason it’s low is because of the cancer treatments (i basically took care of my family).

Will this be considered/ is there anywhere when I apply other than the Essay where I can let this information be present?

thank you!

2

Your situation was really extenuating, but the problem is your extracurricular activities. If you can, stop them immediately to allow more time for studying (for school and for the ACT).

You can use the additional information section of the Common App to write about your situation. You can also tell your counselor to write it in his or her letter of recommendation.

GPA>EC’s. Drop your student body president and field hockey if it means you can get more A’s.