1
3 years ago
Admissions Advice

Repeating a grade due to mental health

I'm usually an A-B student, mostly As with an occasional B, but during the pandemic I found myself becoming more and more incapable of getting out of bed, let alone finishing school assignments online that at times take hours of dedication to finish. So i turn, my As with the occasional B dropped down to failing every single class I'm enrolled in. I've talked with my parents about going to therapy because this is still an issue I'm facing to this day. I keep scaring myself into thinking I'm a failure and not going to succeed in anything because of these grades, and rather than moping around all day purely based off my own, most likely irrational thoughts, and the overly supportive words of my parents that I can tell are probably sugar-coated lies or only partially true. I think it's much better for me to ask for advice from an outside party. So, given my situation, what do you think would be most opportune thing for me to do, and how would schools in the future look at this? I'm in 10th grade, a sophomore as I think they're called.

anxiety
COVID
help
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5
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4 answers

3
3 years ago[edited]

Hi there, from what I can tell, this is something that schools would understand, but it does make it extremely difficult to get into top universities like any of the Ivies, schools like Vanderbilt and Duke, and possibly some public schools like UCLA or USC. If you show true dedication by getting yourself fixed up and get even better grades for the year that you come back, you'll get a great bounce back story to include in your essay and it wouldn't't hurt you much, but also try to make your application stand out with extra curricular activities and programs. You should do community service or volunteer to get yourself up. Try to do things that line up with your major, such as helping out at a law firm if you want to go to law, or helping at a hospital if you want to be a doctor.

I'm not very well aware of what you're facing, but I hope you do better and come out of this on top, because you have the potential to go anywhere and the fact that you're almost a straight A student shows that you're ready for college, just that nobody was prepared for a pandemic to crush everyone's spirts. I believe that this is just a down time for you and by the time you apply for college, you'll be happy that you worked hard.

Edit: some spelling errors (sorry)!

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1
3 years ago

I'm going through the same thing as you except I'm a junior. I suffered anxiety and depression a lot through sophomore year, came late almost everyday, and had a hard time paying attention in class(lack of sleep). Fortunately my grades didn't plummet, but I knew it was only a matter of time before things get worse. I used the summer to build my confidence back up and do some extracurriculars.I gained my motivation for school back and felt confident going back into the school year. Unfortunately for me things didn't work out and I almost failed some classes. This year has has been pretty disappointing, but I've also learned some important lessons I'll like to share:

Step 1: Create a schedule, both for sleep and daily activities. If your not sure know what your going to do for the day , its going to be hard to accomplish anything. List all the chores or other activities you may complete during the day. Get a read on how long it takes to finish hw, and create time for studying outside of that. You may have to give up some free time but it will be worth it. Make sure to create time for yourself too, since you're going through a hard time- try writing your thoughts down, as it will relieve stress and give you a chance to analyze how you feel.

You should have a assigned time to wake up and fall asleep, and you have to do this every day. Don't be tempted to sleep in on the weekends, take short naps instead. ( You may do more research on this). Make sure to show your schedule to your parents as they will be able to support you and give needed advice.

Step 2: Join a study group or get a tutor. This will practically guarantee you get your hw done( just make sure to turn it in when you're finished).It's common your teacher may offer office hours or help sessions to students that need it, join these as this will refresh what you learned in class. Even when you get good grades having a tutor or study group will help you do even better.

Step 3: Talk to your guidance counselor about how to prepare for Junior year/College And how to prevent this from happening again. As you're a sophomore, colleges won't look at your grades as much compared to junior or senior year, so don't beat yourself up.

Step4: Once you talk to your guidance counselor create a plan of what you're going to do during the summer: hobbies, retake classes you struggled in, etc. Of course ask the guidance counselor with help on this.

Step 5: Positive thoughts. When I got bad grades all I could think about was the time I did well and how much that effort means nothing now. I constantly daydreamed of how things could've been. But that's exactly what prevented me from making progress: I kept living in the past and kept ignoring the opportunities I had to make things right. You have to prove who you are and what you're going to be, use these sad times as motivation to do your best. Make yourself your ally. When all is done you will look back on this with satisfaction.

Make sure to always ask for help when you need it.

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0
a year ago[edited]

You still have an excellent chance to apply to a good university if you set your depression under control. During the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us had a bad time. Even I got depressed and started drinking too much because it was boring to sit in my house. Hopefully, my brother noticed this depression and addiction and approached a reliable psychologist and rehab service that helped me deal with my mental problems. If you still have issues with mental health, you can approach the service that helped me https://fherehab.com/resources/staging-an-intervention. I hope you will get better soon.

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a year ago

Good article. You are right that sometimes we ourselves, in the pursuit of perfection, which is replaced by disappointment, drive ourselves into a depressive state. Most often, they are formed in childhood, and then "accompany" us in adulthood. In addition, causes such as stress, anger, hatred, aggression, cruelty contribute to the development of psychological problems. In order to get rid of them, it is necessary to identify the main types and methods of struggle and get psychological help.

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