My Chronic Illness Affected My Midyear Grades, what do I do?
Hi, I am a senior applying to college and throughout my high school career until my most recent quarter, I’ve had a 3.98 UW gpa. In September, I was diagnosed with a chronic health condition, and ended up getting hospitalized twice for it, and spent 3 months bouncing around treatment plans making my health worse and worse. As a result, my grades in my 2 hardest classes, AP Physics C and AP Lit, dropped from A’s to mid Bs (86 and 85 respectively) in my second quarter (first quarter they were both 94s). I explained this situation in Full detail in my additional info and for context I am taking 6 APs along with Calc 3 this year, trying to max my rigor. With my senior year courses, I have taken about 19 AP courses total. I am also an engineering major. My questions is assuming I explained this situation well and my chronic illness, will there be little to no effect on my apps or will there be a significant negative effect? I’ve put in so much effort to maintaining my grades and I don’t want my hard work to go down the drain because of a low point in my life. My GPA now is a 3.944, so its only a 0.04 drop and my rank is the same (35/802). Now I am much healthier and my grades are doing much better. Also, I was recently deferred from Georgia Tech, and I know they value grades a lot, so how much would this affect my chances there?
Earn karma by helping others:
2 answers
Hi! I don't think you should have a problem since you explained the drop in the additional info section. Additionally, if your grades are increasing this should make it even less likely a single quarter should affect your application too much!
If Georgia Tech hasn't seen the improvement in your grades yet, it might be worth it to send a Letter of Continued Interest telling them about how you are improving and bouncing back from a difficult health situation!
Hey there! First of all I’m so sorry that happened to you :( but I’m glad you’re doing better now!
Since you explained everything in the additional comments section, I think that you’ll be just fine. Admissions officers are human too, and they understand that life happens sometimes, even to hardworking students like yourself. Especially since your grades have bounced back after you recovered, I don’t imagine they will see the grade dip as anything but the byproduct of the unfortunate challenge you had to face. They certainly will not attribute it to a lack of hard work or dedication, based upon the rest of your profile. :)
I don’t know much about Georgia Tech but as another person suggested it’s not a bad idea to write to them to demonstrate your interest!
I hope my comment helped alleviate some stress. You seem like a smart and dedicated student—trust in your ability to succeed. Good luck with your admissions journey! :)
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don’t ask “chance-me” questions. Use CollegeVine’s chancing instead!