This question is on mathematics, career, and personal life.

I.) Assumptions.

i.) Suppose that I am a Junior in college majoring in mathematics at a top research institution in the U.S. I have "mostly" good grades in mathematics (say, around 2/3 of my grades are A's or A-'s), but I have some B's and B+'s. I've taken a good number of graduate level courses with at least half of them A or A-'s.

ii.) Earlier in my college career, there was a noticeable dip in my grades (A's becoming B's and B+'s) due to personal issues.

iii.) My goals:

• (Short term:) enroll in a top pure math graduate program in the U.S. (ideally a top 6 institution) where there is a strong research community in my field as well as other fields in mathematics which may be helpful to my own research or broadening my perspective.

• (Long term:) become a professor in pure mathematics at a top 30 institution (or equivalent) studying geometric topology or some related field.

II.) My Questions:

a.) Is it appropriate to talk about personal matters in one's personal statements or to have such a discussion in letters of recommendation, if it has negatively impacted one's academic performance?

b.) What are graduate school admission committees' views in regards to personal hardships? I know the short answer to this is "it depends," so I would appreciate getting the various viewpoints available on the MathOverflow community. I am sure it also depends on the school; school-specific viewpoints would be much appreciated.