What are some non obvious ways to raise my GPA fast?Answered
I’m a junior and this year was a very tough time in my life resulting in my gpa going down. I really want to go to a specific college but my gpa is pretty low
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i think @AllyG gave you a bunch of good advice on extra measures you can take to try and bring your GPA up a bit, but i'd also say to prepare to discuss what you went through this past year on your application. reason being that when colleges see a sudden drop in GPA, they're going to want to see some kind of explanation for that—whether in an essay or in your additional information section or somewhere else. being able to effectively explain what you went through and what you might have learned from it will likely be more valuable to your application than the small GPA boost you'll be able to get from taking extra courses.
If your school weights GPA, taking AP/IB/Honors classes and doing well in them are your best bet at this point-- although depending on your schools and when you apply, they may not look at your senior year grades, and your GPA may not include them (for example, 1st semester doesn't end until January at my school, and many RD applications are due DEC 31st). If you're really desperate and don't know if next semester will factor into your GPA for admissions purposes, email your school counselors and see if they accept transfer credits from any online courses that would factor into your GPA. For example, I'm taking AP Calculus online and the grade and credit transfers as if it were any other class. If this is an option for you, taking some classes online over the summer could raise your GPA and show initiative, as well as showing that your recent decline in grades wasn't a downward trend, but an isolated incident due to your situation. No matter what, GPA and prestige aren't everything, and I really hope you find a path that makes you happy!
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Absolutely! Personally, I would include it in the additional information section and use your essays to highlight your strengths. While resilience is important, colleges will know you are resilient from that extra information, and "sob story" essays tend to be a little overdone. It's often more powerful to explain what happened briefly & focus on your strengths than to spend an entire essay on it-- it shows that that negative experience impacted you, but doesn't define you or take over your apps