GPA addendum...a little help please. Forum

[louieg834]

Hello all!

I'm fairly new to this website but I have already gotten valuable insight from it. I was wondering if you all could give me some feedback on my GPA addendum. I tried to make it as short as possible without leaving out any information that I feel would help me. Thanks in advance for all your feedback!

GPA ADDENDUM
I believe my overall college GPA is not indicative of my true abilities because I have always excelled in the classroom. Unfortunately, I come from a small family comprised of only my parents and sister. Not having any relatives in California, we have always been an extremely close-knit family. Regrettably, my sister went through a bitter divorce during my time in college. My niece Ashley was caught in the middle of this brutal divorce and I quickly came to her aid. I supported her physically and emotionally for those times were particularly rough on her. By the end of my college career, I was her only father figure.

[Woozy]

OK, no one seems to want to be the one to break the news to you, so I guess I'll be the a-hole.

This addendum gives the reader no idea of what was actually going on with you or in what ways you were supporting your niece. You start off fighting an uphill battle because it strains credulity that a sibling's divorce is responsible for a significant level of academic underperformance over a span of four years (or did it only affect you during a different time span? I don't know because the addendum is vague) so if this has even a shot of working as an addendum, you need to be more specific. If you can provide some real information about the time commitment that this entailed (if it in fact did entail any significant time commitment) then it might be slightly helpful to your chances - think hours per week, having to miss classes to take her to the doctor, or things of that nature. As it stands now, this is just a lame excuse that sounds pretty ridiculous and will probably hurt your application.

Keep in mind that even if you are able to convince them that this divorce did actually significantly impact your studies, you still need to explain how it will not also harm your law school performance.

[FiveSermon]

Um this doesn't address anything specifically. It just seems like a broad excuse.

[crit_racer]

take out the "physically" supporting her. I don't know what that means. Financially? Or if it's just emotionally, say that, but be prepared to back it up. Talk about how much time you had to spend w/ her during the divorce, etc.