Yes, I’m in college at present. I’ll probably be admitted as a junior–I have 120 credits already but they won’t all transfer. I see what’s causing confusion in the first post: the second sentence should read “spring of my junior year of high school”.
My intention is not to discuss these issues at length in the application, and I only elaborated on them in this post because otherwise the responses would all question whether my circumstances were truly extenuating or if I was just lazy. At least since I elaborated nobody is trying to claim I’m a bad student. I hope I’ve made it clear that I’m not interested in sympathy or pity points from the colleges I’m applying to, and I feel mentioning the circumstances is relevant only in the sense that it shows the grades received during the affected semesters were anomalous and due to factors largely outside my control. Of course it’s not a selling point. I’m not trying to make it one.
The tip to not mention mental health issues at all in the application is a good one, because I would have otherwise thought mentioning it briefly without much detail would be fine.
In any case, I think my situation is generally applicable to a lot of students who are applying to schools and have experienced similar GPA-affecting life events. If the school does not provide a place to mention exceptional circumstances, where is the most appropriate place to include them in the application? Or should an applicant never elaborate unless given the opportunity to do so?