How to Explain Poor Freshman-Year Grades

[joshuadelafuent]

Back in 2018 my essay was basically about how chill my life was. I was straight freaking honest and was like "yeah grew up in a solid healthy family, no significant hardships and I've got a clean bill health if you ignore thr asthma." When I met the admissions officer that accepted me, she literally explained it was a breath of fresh air reading my app. My GPA was a 2.9 but I got into a decent school, yall try not to stress too much and best of luck with applications.

[integralled]

"The reason my grades are so low are because my parents got divorced, my cat died, and they kicked me out even though I had stage 3 cancer. While I was getting mugged in the back of a Walmart in the dumpster while dumpster diving, the town got hit by an earthquake. After that, I only had 3 cents, so to make the most of it, I made a boat out of trash, sailed to Africa, and got to Zimbabwe."

"Makes sense, welcome to Oxford"

"OH WAIT BUT THATS NOT ALL. Zimbabwe kicked me out for being to poor, so I took all of jefry beeps besos pesos and make Shrek 5: a hour cut of shrek eating french onion soup. I had about 1m dollars left and come here."

"We wil literally give you every doctorate ever for free."

[nanaarmstrong]

could you list Covid-19 as a reason as to why you couldn't do as much during freshman year?

[adele_a]

Can I just say that American college seems so confusing. I live in Australia and every student gets an ATAR score which works as a percentile based only on your final year grades. Different courses have different requirements in terms of prerequisites and ATAR scores but these are generally similar across all universities. If you meet all the requirements you're guaranteed to be accepted. Also, the government loans you the full amount for your course/s and you pay it back in instalments once you start working.

[wiraa.wibisana]

Watching these videos made me realize how different the education system in the US and in Asia is. In here, we don't have to write a resume to enter college; only a test. But the test requires you to answer like 10 12th grade math questions in 2 minutes, read a whole English novel in 30 seconds and looking for the name of the third dog the protagonist got after his grandma graduated from flying school

[percy]

my freshman year, both my grandparents died plus two insane earthquakes happened in my country back to back which closed off the schools for a months and cancelled a shit ton of other stuff too so.

[suspicious_papaya]

Due to a national disaster, my family had to relocate, all of my cousins and aunts died in the disaster, my parents divorced and left me out know the street, that was when I discovered I had stage 3 brain cancer, I was very poor, then I got kidnapped, woke up on some boat that was taking me to Madagascar, I got dumped on the island, had to live with animals, I built myself a raft and sail to Mozambique, but after 30 storms, my raft broke, I reached Mozambique, got mugged, saw a doctor, and as we speak I will die tomorrow of the cancer. BUT if you accept me into your university, I will be cured!

[lunasills]

I did great in my freshman year, but the second semester of my sophomore year, and the first quarter of my junior (which ended just like 2 weeks ago) were horrible because of depression

I'm glad to hear that colleges will hear these circumstances and take these into consideration.

[AstroxV]

Omg!!! This is 100% going to help with me!!! I wasn't used to my 1 online year, which happened to be my freshman year. This year i got majority c's. My high school plan was to make up my grades, but this is going to change so much!!!

[ajramirez]

Honestly, seeing these videos makes me glad I went to community College then transferred to a UC. I had like a 3.2 in high school, went to community College, transferred, and graduated from a top 5 public school.

[emaselaive]

THANK YOU! Covid has affected my freshman year so much! And Ive been so so worried. I will still do my best for the rest of the year though. THANK YOU!🙏

[notyetdeleted]

Fires, lockdowns, distance learning, sheeesh. Wait, that’s my first two years, not just freshman.

[mayomeow]

I did a horrible job in my freshman year due to some serious reason it’s good I can mention the reason which is kinda better than not doing

[mattcrane]

Listen guys unless you're going to a really prestigious school don't let it all stress you out. But still try your best, but don't let it ruin your high-school experience.

[chromium_ink]

Definitely do this. My GPA dropped from perfect to okay/meh in junior year due such circumstances. I got back on track in senior year and graduated with many college cred classes and a good GPA. I still got into an Ivy league college by explaining the situation.

[AdmiralTrousersnake]

To everyone that failed or is currently failing due to abuse and depression, please always know that you matter, and that things will get better. Try and keep your head up and never be afraid to reach out for help!

[justinisorange]

Yeah and remember you should definitely write in the additional information section “My mom and dad are rich” and I guarantee that’ll smooth over any rough spots

[WoFDarkNewton]

Just remember high school will likely be the hardest time in your life, unless you voluntarily invite more challenge later (or some disaster strikes)

It gets better.

[reigndrops]

In Canada, most universities only look at senior year grades. Some look at junior year but not many. Grade 9 and 10 is not even a factor in your application. You could have gotten a 95 average or a 55 average, it doesn’t matter. Your senior year grades are the ones that decide your fate.

[Jasmine_Tea_]

“I was busy trying not to get deported”