do adcoms consider health problems?

[enfuego]

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My grades had taken a downward trend this year (they're not very low, still above 3.3 for these two semester, but lower than I did last year) due to some medical issues I'm dealing with. They are not any sort of rare illnesses, nor are they severe enough to cause me to miss school or spend time in hospitals, but their effects do interfere with my ability to work. Standard treatments that usually help others have not work well for me, so it has taken time to try to resolve these problems.

Do adcoms consider these types of issues? Since my grades are not extremely low, should I even mention it in my application or just wait to see if I get asked in an interview?

I don't want to jeopardize my chances of getting an interview in the first place just because adcoms look at my transcript and think I had problems with difficult classes or heavy workloads when it was actually an interference of health problems. Luckily they are not related to any sort of mental disorder, so hopefully I shouldn't worry about stigma.

 

[Vicviper]

There is a specific section on the application that asks if there was anything that affected your academic performance in any way, this is where you write that. Early in college for me I had some serious family health issues, and it didn't quiet make it easy to focus on school at all, and I ended up getting a D in Ochem and having that part to explain (you'll have to say it again at the interviews when they ask), really helps to clear the air over downward trending grades.

 

[Stephie3]

i wish my initials were MD too!!!! that is awesome

 

[NyCzPeter]

My grades had taken a downward trend this year (they're not very low, still above 3.3 for these two semester, but lower than I did last year) due to some medical issues I'm dealing with. They are not any sort of rare illnesses, nor are they severe enough to cause me to miss school or spend time in hospitals, but their effects do interfere with my ability to work. Standard treatments that usually help others have not work well for me, so it has taken time to try to resolve these problems.

Do adcoms consider these types of issues? Since my grades are not extremely low, should I even mention it in my application or just wait to see if I get asked in an interview?

I don't want to jeopardize my chances of getting an interview in the first place just because adcoms look at my transcript and think I had problems with difficult classes or heavy workloads when it was actually an interference of health problems. Luckily they are not related to any sort of mental disorder, so hopefully I shouldn't worry about stigma.

Make sure you don't try to make it sound like you blame your crappy grades entirely on your health problems alone. Throughout college, I've been poor as hell and that certainly affected my performance. So just know that every one has problems and you'll end up looking like a pompous fool if you don't atleast take some responsibility.

 

[enfuego]

Make sure you don't try to make it sound like you blame your crappy grades entirely on your health problems alone. Throughout college, I've been poor as hell and that certainly affected my performance. So just know that every one has problems and you'll end up looking like a pompous fool if you don't atleast take some responsibility.

Yeah, that is what I'm worried about. I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses because lots of people have dealt with more than I have. I know that part of it WAS the heavier course loads and the increase in ECs that I took on, but my health problems definitely interfered. I just need to figure out proper wording.