<p>Hi, fellow hopeful 2014ers and the admirable Stanford students!</p>
<p>I was a game addict for many years with my climax located in 9th grade. Thanks to this, I started off my high school career with a 2.7 UW GPA on mid-term report. However, I started to improve, finished off 9th grade with a 3.2 and got 3.7s UW in sophomore and junior (Full IB) years. I am still improving but I was wondering whether I should reveal my past (through my CommonApp Essay and maybe counselor rec) to show how I’ve overcome a serious problem.</p>
<p>I don’t want to focus too much on my academic achievements as I know that doing so hurts anyone’s chances. But the content of my essay may look pretty obvious.
What do you think about revealing one’s not-so-attractive past?</p>
<p>Mega i think that if you reveal your past,it will seen that you are honest and realising with this problem.Many people had a dark-ish past, but don’t worry.The point is that you got over it and that is the important in whole situation.</p>
<p>I hope you the best,and don’t worry everyhting is gonna be ok…!!
Good luck:)</p>
<p>i honestly would recommend against you doing this. The admissions officers at stanford don’t put a whole lot of importance on 9th grade grades. And by looking at your transcript they will see an upward trend in your grades. They are intelligent people and pretty perceptive. By looking at your transcript they can figure that you had some sort of issue in that first semester and will more than likely understand that you pulled yourself together and did pretty well later on. I would take the space on my common app to talk about something else. You want them to see the real you, and on the common app you get so few chances to do this. So don’t waste your space talking about something they can already see somewhere else on your app. you could ask your counselor to touch on the topic if you are really worried about it, though, once again, it really isn’t necessary.</p>
<p>Stanford sees freshman year as a period of adjustment and ignores those grades completely. Writing an essay about how bad they are would be suicide.</p>
<p>I agree with whoaness…All universities put the importance mainly to 11th and 12th grade.I suppose that the most important part is the SAT exams,recomendations letters and the extracurriculars activities…</p>
<p>how detrimental would it hypotheically be if you hypotheically addressed the fact that you got more B’s then A’s freshman year but showed an obvious impreovement trend through sophomore year and got straight A’s junior year when you took the hardest classes. And said that “studying for tests, keeping an agenda for assingments ect… were foreign to me because everything used to come easy to me…”</p>
<p>hypothetically…</p>
<p>i know i shouldnt have done it but idk my grades are the glaring weak spot in my application imo and i felt i had to address it.</p>
<p>But regardless is it really that BAD to address your problems?</p>
<p>All of you have very good points. I thought writing about the worse-off past can show how students develop and their maturity processes. Maybe it has a big opportunity cost: we would miss the chance to show our passion through the essay. Now I am thinking of not writing an essay about it.</p>
<p>Just mentioning this but there was a guy who got into WashU with 1310 CR+M after writing about an essay revealing the truth that he was a game addict. He wrote a book about his high school life in U.S. after realizing that his gaming habit was something too detrimental so I saw his essay. It was a good development essay although I thought it was sometimes too revealing.</p>
<p>@Nitro hawk: Did you address your problem by writing an essay about it or asking your counselor to mention it in his/her rec?</p>
<p>i do kind of regret putting it in but to be honest it really cant HURT you that bad, worst case addcom reads it, rolls their eyes and moves on. I realize how cut throat Stanford is and that every little mistake is amplified ten fold because of it but if you have a solid application otherwise, all you did was address a problem you felt you had, and the addcoms might respect you for accepting your short comings, despite it being obvious that you overcame them with the upward trend in grades…</p>
<p>^I am a bit confused. Do you mean a few words of mention in counselor recommendation would hurt too or only if you write an entire essay about it??</p>
<p>I was actually intending to focus more on the non-academic stuff, like I said in my first post, about how I gradually came to appreciate reality through community and service and etc.</p>
<p>^im confused too. I’m talking about a little paragraph i wrote in the “Additional Information” portion of the writing section of the common application… the place where you can upload resumes or add siblings or “clarify somthing…” idk what you mean by counselor recommendation. Mine doesnt know like anything about me beyond my transcript, so i wouldnt know what your counselor might put in your recommendation or how it might affect you.</p>
<p>What i wrote in the “Additional Information” section of the Writing Page of the common app, was more focused on academics but at the end i tied it into getting more involved in ECs…</p>
<p><em>Edit</em> ahh didnt read your first post carefully as to where you would get your “past” information in. i would focus on posative things in parts of your applicaton that carry alot of weight (aka recommendations, main essay…)</p>
<p>if you are going to bring it in i would do it in “Additional Information”</p>