To addend or not to addend? Forum

[BostonOrBust]

Okay so here's the situation:

My senior spring grades are rough. I have a very good reason. I was dealing with something well outside the range of what the typical college student goes through, and class was not my priority. (Like I guess if it matters, I had been an abusive relationship with someone who raped me, and he was stalking me on campus and I ended up going through a crap ton of legal stuff etc that semester.) This semester significantly dragged down my GPA. I don't want admissions to think that I partied my senior spring away because I didn't give a crap. I would think this would be an automatic addendum situation, but I have a couple questions:

1. My personal statement mentions that I faced this challenge, overcame it, and the experience and lessons I learned drive my work today and my decision to practice law. The addendum would detail how this had a direct impact on my senior spring grades, what I could have done differently to not have my studies so impacted, and what my plan is going forward to make sure that my grades aren't impacted again. Is that redundant? Am I going to come off whiney?

2. My GPA is above the median for most of the programs I'm applying to, which I understand typically means no addendum. I'm fine with this, except that I worry the timing of the crappy grades makes me look irresponsible/immature.

Thanks for any advice!

[01panm]

If the grade drop was significant, then a short addendum describing the situation should be sufficient. No need to write paragraphs of reflection or self-improvement - just bring the timing of the issue to their attention (if they didn't already pick it up from the PS).

Either way, I doubt that it will make a material difference in the competitiveness of your app, especially if you're above median anyways.