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

Jolynne_Smyth
Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:19:26 +0000

Son’s finishing up his essays for a few schools now & we’re second-guessing the focus & wondered if anyone had some quick feedback?

Several have general instructions such as “tell about yourself in 250+ words.”
Given this opening, son has spent a section of his essay describing how he had a ‘low point’ during his soph year in which he ‘didn’t focus’ but when discovered an interest (his soon-to-be-college major) he turned things around academically.

This seemed necessary to explain why a kid w/34 ACT and a 3.85 UW gpa jr year (several AP classes) had some Ds and Cs (ugh) plus a few Bs in his soph year (all honors courses, though, so weighted gpa is still okay).

Essay looked good, then we started wondering if it was wise to focus so retrospectively on something in the past (even though son discussed his current, academic passion as the reason for his turn-around).

Just about to hit ‘send’ on some priorty-deadline apps, but thought I’d see if anyone had a thought on this, perhaps?

Thanks so much for any thoughts.

PS Has anyone used a website that offers to edit your essays?