I need some help in this decision, so any advice would be appreciated.

For my my first 3 semesters of undergrad I had a 2.2 GPA because I was partying and snowboarding too much. Finally got it together and put together a 3.9 for everything since which puts me currently at a 3.2. I think it is necessary to explain the reasons for my poor initial performance, but I am unsure what is the best way to do so.
I ended up putting together two sets of documents that I now need to decide between.

1) Personal Statement that does not address or explain academic performance or GPA and a seperate addendum that specifically addresses my GPA.

2) Personal Statement that includes explanation of GPA and no GPA addendum.

So what I am wondering is if it is appropriate to address my GPA in the Personal statement or seperate addendum. I was initially planning on option 1, but have since heard that additional addendums are sometimes not attractive to admissions officers.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thread and thanks in advance for the help!

Unless you can work it into your personal statement in an interesting and natural way, I would advise that you put it into a brief addendum.

Proceed with Option 1. Personal statements should be positive and focus upon your unique story or attributes you will bring to law school. Addendums are great for explaining your weaknesses in a positive light to add context to your application.

Law schools do like an upward trend. While not as extreme as your case, I had a 3.0 my first 2 years and a 3.9+ my last two and my final gpa was a 3.5 but I got into several great schools (Berkeley, Columbia, Chicago, etc.) as law schools focused on my latest grades plus my other strong factors (LSAT, good recs, etc.). So keep up your strong grade trend and you will make your past mistakes forgivable.

Note that I decided to a year off before law school so all of my recent grades could be viewed instead of just one year if I applied early in my Senior year. Best of luck,

Ken

Ken,

You really got your stuff together information wise. You should really start a blog or social networking site so everyone can partake in your knowledge. I mean you could even have forums for people to discuss the law school journey. Think about it.