Excuses in personal statement for low grades...

[Guest MicroMaster]

Does it sound whiney or does it sound valid to answer that your transcript is not a true reflection of your ability with:

 

two courses were not recommended to be taken together, though scheduling didn;t allow for following the recommendation, and that not only was the workload very heavy, but I took 4 labs in that term.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Thanks

[Guest doctorinthehouse]

I wouldn't do it. I did that on my first application (for personal reasons) and wish that I hadn't. Although I don't know whether that really had something to do with it or not, I didn't do it after that and am glad that I didn't.

[Guest satsumargirl]

How it will sound depends on how you write it I suppose. If you really feel that your reason is valid then you could put it in.

 

But, if all you are talking about are those two courses, it probably isn`t that great of an excuse of a low GPA since 2 courses wouldn`t have made that big a difference to your GPA (I wouldn`t think)

 

Good luck

[Guest starry234]

What about if there is a death in the immediate family?

[Guest g22g]

Yes to death in the immediate (and even grandparent/uncle/aunt). Proper griefing takes a while especially the first major death in your family.

For the having two tought courses together at the same time, you might shoot yourself in the foot. Ottawa strongly considers your non-academic involvment when your WGPA is taken into account, hence the detailed autobiographical sketch which messes up applicants with great GPA but no non-academic portfolio.

Good luck,

g22g