Should discuss 'a bad grade year' in app essay?

interesteddad
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:07:08 +0000

The Application Essay is a precious opportunity to tell a story that highlights the most positive quality a student wants colleges to know.

It seems to me that wasting this opportunity talking about grades – good or bad – is probably not the most effective use of the application essay. Better to talk about the exhilaration of skateboarding or interacting with a young child in a community service project or gazing at stars in the planetarium or taking photographs in the streets during an anti-war rally or cataloging your bug collection or something that brings some vibrancy to the application.