GPA Addendum for Illness? Forum

[glaw01]

I'm a relatively decent student with a current 3.76 GPA in a 5-year master's of accounting program. Last fall, I got sick and ended up making a LOT of B's in one semester. Should I include an addendum with my application to explain this?

[rinkrat19]

Health problems can be a legit addendum topic. But define 'sick.' Did you have a bad flu? No, don't write the addendum. If it was something more along the lines of mono or anemia, it'd probably be fine to write one. If it was something REALLY serious like cancer, definitely write it.

A lot of people include 'documentation can be provided upon request' with a health-related addendum, so if you have a record of doctor's office visits, prescription meds, admittance to the hospital, etc., it would support your claim. If you were just feeling crappy for a couple of weeks and maybe saw the doc once to get some prescription cough syrup, that's a little iffy.

[glaw01]

Rinkrat, you called it - I ended up with iron deficiency anemia and it wrecked me. Think AdComms will really care, though? I don't want to come across as a whiner.

[rinkrat19]

Rinkrat, you called it - I ended up with iron deficiency anemia and it wrecked me. Think AdComms will really care, though? I don't want to come across as a whiner.

They won't care enough to let you outperform your numbers, but it might remove the small red flag that an outlier bad semester might cause.

[dtownlove]

I think it would be silly not to add one, especially since you had a legitimate illness. Otherwise the schools might get the impression that for that one semester you either a) simply weren't able to master the work, or b) didn't care enough to put in the effort to get your regular As.

I'm thinking an explanation (and the probably low risk of being perceived as a 'whiner') is probably a better choice than either of the other two assumptions they may make.