addressing application weaknesses in SoP

[10kb]

Hello,

I am applying to graduate programs in biology this year. I have almost four years of post-graduate research experience in top-tier institutions and labs, and am a co-author on 5 peer-reviewed articles, 3 of which are in Science/Cell/Nature.  I have good GRE scores. 

I think I would make a strong applicant apart from the glaring issue of my undergrad GPA (3.1). Unfortunately I experienced domestic violence and medical issues towards the end of high school up till sophomore year of college, which were partially resolved with professional help and positive changes that my family and I have made. I am really agonizing over whether this is appropriate to mention in an SoP. I haven't dove into the details at all so far, just said something along the lines of "I've experienced serious personal and medical issues at the time and persevered through them and my grades drastically improved in the last two years..." Is this sufficient?

I am sure there are a lot of stories similar to mine, particularly from folks who dealt with mental health challenges and that's perhaps even harder to address. I would love to hear how everyone's tackling gaps in their application due to these reasons, and I hope you all are doing better now. 

Edited November 7, 2018 by 10kb

[Rashi Jain]

This is such an interesting question. I've thought about it a lot before coming to this decision. I've also faced some issues during my undergraduate degree which led to 'that good of a GPA'. However, I am deciding that I wouldn't make a mention of it in my application. Surely I'd try to address the GPA and mention how I've filled the missing knowledge, however putting it on personal issues seems a bit too much to me. We all face issues in our life and we'll continue to face them: in one way or the other. Surely some of us are more sensitive to our environment than the others and thus end up having to go through a little bit more than others, but such problems will continue in grad school too. I can't go into the mindset of people in graduate school admission committee, but personally I don't think your personal issues should be an excuse for your professional performance. If they've been, than you should find ways to not let them be and make a demonstrate that in your statement of purpose. Also including them might tone your application down a bit. Seeing that it's necessary to make a mention of it, I would only briefly address it and glorify the other strong points of the application. 

[Teaching Faculty Wannabe]

On 11/6/2018 at 10:16 PM, 10kb said:

"I've experienced serious personal and medical issues at the time and persevered through them and my grades drastically improved in the last two years..." Is this sufficient?

First off, I am so sorry that happened to you. No one should ever experience domestic violence, and medical issues can be awful as well on many levels. I think what you wrote here is sufficient. I don't think you want to go into detail about it, especially since SoPs have limited space and you should use that space for other things. Also, you should be proud of all of your accomplishments. A 3.1 is obviously no 4.0, but it is still a decent GPA and you shouldn't feel ashamed for doing the best you can under the circumstances you were in. Good luck with your applications!

[TITX]

hey ~
I am in a similar boat where I had a really bad study abroad experience that basically left me depressed and resulted with some really bad grades. I'm not making any mentions of this in my SOP but for the schools that have 'personal history/diversity' essay options, I have weaved it into those. For schools that don't have those optional essays but do allow supplements, I've wrote a different statement to submit. I think that if you decide to bring those situations up in your application, you should talk about how you persevered through them and how those experiences have shaped your outlook today. I am personally submitting these statements because I feel its important for the adcomms to know what was really happening during those moments rather than think I was just slacking off. I do also feel you have to be careful in how you express the experiences that lived through as I'm sure they walk a fine line being included in your application.