How to address low undergrad GPA

[kateausten]

Anyone have advice on how best to handle addressing a low GPA semester due to mental illness? I have chronic depression and ADHD, and one specific semester I had some bad side effects to an ADHD medicine I started taking, had to stop taking it fairly abruptly, lost it a bit and didn't finish my final assignments for most classes, and wound up with a 1.8. Since I got at least a D in all classes and that was considered passing at my school and I didn't want to take out loans for an extra semester in the midst of an economic crash, I just cut my losses and accepted those grades rather than trying to get an incomplete or retaking them. All other semesters my GPA was above 3.0. I took a semester off and did some traveling, Spanish classes, and volunteering, because I still felt a bit shaken and wanted to make sure I was confident and focused when I returned, and my grades were very good for the next year (my last year).

I know that a semester with a GPA that bad needs to be addressed. My question is, how much am I obligated to disclose? I really don't want it to be a large or distracting paragraph on my SOP and would prefer to address it in 2 sentences max - during X semester, I experienced some health issues resulting in me not finishing all final assignments and took a semester off to recover fully (reflected in my transcript). Is this adequate or would more detail be expected? I don't want to mention mental illness without following with details about how I've developed better coping and time management skills to keep it from being an issue in the future, and I'd rather spend my 400-600 words on things that are relevant to the program than a story of my depression and ADHD.

[amlobo]

Anyone have advice on how best to handle addressing a low GPA semester due to mental illness? I have chronic depression and ADHD, and one specific semester I had some bad side effects to an ADHD medicine I started taking, had to stop taking it fairly abruptly, lost it a bit and didn't finish my final assignments for most classes, and wound up with a 1.8. Since I got at least a D in all classes and that was considered passing at my school and I didn't want to take out loans for an extra semester in the midst of an economic crash, I just cut my losses and accepted those grades rather than trying to get an incomplete or retaking them. All other semesters my GPA was above 3.0. I took a semester off and did some traveling, Spanish classes, and volunteering, because I still felt a bit shaken and wanted to make sure I was confident and focused when I returned, and my grades were very good for the next year (my last year).

I know that a semester with a GPA that bad needs to be addressed. My question is, how much am I obligated to disclose? I really don't want it to be a large or distracting paragraph on my SOP and would prefer to address it in 2 sentences max - during X semester, I experienced some health issues resulting in me not finishing all final assignments and took a semester off to recover fully (reflected in my transcript). Is this adequate or would more detail be expected? I don't want to mention mental illness without following with details about how I've developed better coping and time management skills to keep it from being an issue in the future, and I'd rather spend my 400-600 words on things that are relevant to the program than a story of my depression and ADHD.

I would not put anything in about mental illness... to avoid having to explain why it won't interfere with your graduate studies. I think you either briefly mention the aberration on your transcript, and just say you had personal or health issues, something vague (and point out that all other semesters were higher)... or have one of your LOR writers mention it in their letter, which still gets the explanation in front of the adcomm without you having to take up space in your SOP. I know some people would rather their LORs explain those kinds of issues just to save the space, since LORs aren't limited. Just food for thought. I had some difficulties in undergrad, too (undiagnosed ADHD, death of immediate family member)... but in the end, I've decided not to disclose these issues, as I feel like my grades weren't bad enough to warrant the space I'd have to spend on the explanations. In the end, it's your decision on what works best for your circumstances and overall application.

[moody]

Either ask a letter writer to mention it, or include something supplemental (perhaps a brief note on your cv?). I would term it as "health issues" and leave it at that. I wouldn't discuss it in your SOP – the statement of purpose should be about research and what you plan to do in the future (academically speaking); the past is only relevant when it's about specific courses you've taken and research projects you've been involved with.

While these issues can be really difficult, and I completely sympathize, the admissions committee doesn't know you personally (yet) and you want to avoid coming off as "whiny" or as someone who makes excuses. (I'm definitely not saying that you're making excuses, but there is unfortunately still stigma attached to mental illness and you don't know how people will react.)

Good luck!

[kateausten]

Thank you! I definitely don't want to "make excuses" and that's why I don't plan to use it to explain an okay-good general GPA. Sure, my GPA probably would have been a couple points higher if I didn't deal with this, but everyone has some sort of limitation. I just know that I need to explain a semester with a 1.8 and a semester off after it and wasn't sure if "medical issues" would be considered enough detail. In this case it also wasn't particularly my cognitive issues that caused the problem but a reaction to a medication that had some strange effects on my personality, and the withdrawals which also had some strange effects.

For my application, there is no area online to upload any supplemental files where I could attach an explanation, and my recommenders didn't know me during that period of time. I'm not sure where else I could put it. I was planning to make it a very short paragraph after the entire SOP, like a post-script, rather than incorporating it into the narrative flow of my statement, of course.

[Usmivka]

I would read this about what to/not to put in your SOP. It has a peer reviewed article, and super useful advice that directly pertains to what you are describing. Pretty much anything about mental illness in your SOP is considered a "kiss of death" for your application to graduate programs.

[amlobo]

Is there a part of your SOP where you are discussing your qualifications/background? You could add in a quick reference to the bad semester and "gap" semester without spending too much time going into detail. It could be as simple as: "Due to medical issues in my X year, my grades suffered tremendously, and I made the difficult decision to take some time off from my studies to address these issues. The next year, I was able to come back and return to my previous level of achievement, attaining X and Y...." You don't need much space to point out that you had an issue that had a very acute effect.