Should I Include a Doctor's Note in my Common App?

tothefullest
Sun, 13 Oct 2013 19:03:59 +0000

Hello!
Over the last 6-7 months, I’ve been undergoing treatment for an illness that has made it very hard to function. I’ve had constant fevers, migraines, fatigue, nausea, etc that had an effect on both my 4th quarter grades and my SAT scores (example: I got in the high 700’s in Critical Reading on my first SAT before the medication, and in the high 500’s after I started treatment). I still did very well academically, but my scores and grades were definitely impacted and I was putting in twice as much effort.
I have a doctor’s note explaining the situation that I was thinking of including in the “other” section of the CommonApp along with my doctor’s contact information. In my guidance counselor’s recommendation letter, he said he included that I was “resilient through illness,” and I think having a doctor’s elaboration would be helpful. That being said, I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses. Still, I don’t want schools to think that my grades dropped slightly for no reason.
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you, and have a great night :)