How to answer this.. Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hey all,

Just a quick question. My grades 1L year actually dropped the 2nd semester due to personal reasons (my parents went through a divorce and my grandmother who practically raised me went through open heart surgery). I had to go back home a few times during the semester.

Do you think telling the interviewer all that would hurt me or would be an adequate explanation he would understand?

Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

your should tell him, otherwise you'll just be dinged automatically if your grades are in fact that bad. problem is a lot of times they may not even bother to ask and will just ding you based on grades (unless its something really weird like going from all As to all Bs). so don't wait for him to ask you and try to work it into your narrative and then add in thats why your grades dropped. try to do this naturally and dont just randomly bring it up or itll come off as you making excuses.

[Anonymous User]

OP here, our OCIs were pre-select

[ggocat]

Do you think telling the interviewer all that would hurt me or would be an adequate explanation he would understand?

Both. It would be an adequate explanation for why your professional work suffered due to your personal problems. But I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. Most people have stuff going on in their personal lives, if not this year(s), then in others. I think it will come across like you are making excuses. Unless there is an obvious and clear correlation between your grades and your personal obligations (e.g., an assignment due/exam while, or during close temporal proximity, you had to be out of town), I would not try to suggest this was the reason for your worse grades.

But whether or not to tell the person could really depend on who your interviewer is, what they personally think of such situations, how they've dealt with them in the past, etc. I don't think there's a right answer.