Is this worth a GPA addendum? Forum

[InsertCleverName]

So I'm wondering if I might be able to get some advice on a potential addendum.

My UGPA is a 3.82 while my LSAC is 3.73; I did a lot of concurrent enrollment credit in high school. The entire difference between the two is due to a C+ I got in a college algebra course when I was seventeen. I'm also graduating a year early, so I don't have nearly as many semester hours in the GPA (lots of AP and CLEP; the CE didn't transfer) as what most applicants have.

Could I argue that my LSAC GPA is inaccurate because I've a smaller than normal sample size and a single outlier is skewing the data? It seems reasonable to me, but I'm afraid it'll sound whiny.

Thanks in advance.

[hokie]

So I'm wondering if I might be able to get some advice on a potential addendum.

My UGPA is a 3.82 while my LSAC is 3.73; I did a lot of concurrent enrollment credit in high school. The entire difference between the two is due to a C+ I got in a college algebra course when I was seventeen. I'm also graduating a year early, so I don't have nearly as many semester hours in the GPA (lots of AP and CLEP; the CE didn't transfer) as what most applicants have.

Could I argue that my LSAC GPA is inaccurate because I've a smaller than normal sample size and a single outlier is skewing the data? It seems reasonable to me, but I'm afraid it'll sound whiny.

Thanks in advance.

[Bildungsroman]

So I'm wondering if I might be able to get some advice on a potential addendum.

My UGPA is a 3.82 while my LSAC is 3.73; I did a lot of concurrent enrollment credit in high school. The entire difference between the two is due to a C+ I got in a college algebra course when I was seventeen. I'm also graduating a year early, so I don't have nearly as many semester hours in the GPA (lots of AP and CLEP; the CE didn't transfer) as what most applicants have.

Could I argue that my LSAC GPA is inaccurate because I've a smaller than normal sample size and a single outlier is skewing the data? It seems reasonable to me, but I'm afraid it'll sound whiny.

Thanks in advance.

You probably shouldn't claim that it's inaccurate because it's not; it is incorporating exactly what it would incorporate for everyone else, exactly what it is intended to incorporate. You could claim that it's not representative of your academic performance because of that single outlier, but with graduating early (and presumably applying straight out of undergrad) it'll be difficult to distance yourself from that grade since it happened so recently and you already have a more limited number of grades being calculated.

Regardless, law schools probably won't give a shit and will just go by your LSDAS GPA.

[JCougar]

I definitely wouldn't waste everyone's time with an addendum for this.

Addendums are for people with GPAs below 3.0 or people who flunked an entire semester because they had meningitis or because a parent died or something. Not to sound harsh, but an addendum on this subject would just be petty. It blows sometimes how LSAC calculates GPA, but that's just life. I got screwed by about .2 GPA points myself, but I still got in to probably the best school I was going to get into either way.

[sparty99]

This sounds petty. I would not waste my time. You are talking about a single course, not a semester that is significantly different from the rest of your grades.

[IAFG]

if it will make you feel better to explain, go ahead, but i am sure they already get it, that your situation isn't that rare, and they aren't going to give you a "bump" since no explanation will change what they have to report.

[robotclubmember]

I definitely wouldn't waste everyone's time with an addendum for this.

Addendums are for people with GPAs below 3.0 or people who flunked an entire semester because they had meningitis or because a parent died or something. Not to sound harsh, but an addendum on this subject would just be petty. It blows sometimes how LSAC calculates GPA, but that's just life. I got screwed by about .2 GPA points myself, but I still got in to probably the best school I was going to get into either way.

Agree.

Obviously you're a kid that's been given lots of opportunities, I don't think whining about your GPA will make you look better. And no, submitting a GPA addendum for a GPA that is 3.7+ will not be construed as anything other than whining.

[InsertCleverName]

Ok, thanks for the advice.

[J.Straw from Wichita]

Whoa, whoa. You SHOULD write an addendum. You (almost) should always write an addendum. Admissions personnel wouldn't insist that they appreciate ANY additional information about applicants that would further explain their academic records if they didn't mean it. I wrote an academic addendum for a very similar reason as you- and I've been accepted to several schools that I've been well below GPA median for. I think that it's because I gave brief and honest explanations for low points on my transcript. I don't believe sounding "whiny" should be a concern to you unless the tone of your addendum is obnoxious.

[TLSanders]

I'm inclined to agree with the crowd here, but...Does the difference put your GPA out of range for the schools you're applying to? In short, would THEY see a 3.7+ as something that needed explaining?

[ctxmike]

I know you don't have that many hours, but it boggles my mind that one C+ dropped you that much.