How to Handle Upcoming Interviews with Poor 1L Grades
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 12:32 am
So I did poorly gradewise in my 1L first semester. I was significantly below median. Regardless, I was able to acquire several interviews for summer 1L positions ranging from large firms to government work. I imagine the only reason why I got these interviews is because my grades were not released at the time I applied for the positions.
There's slightly more to the story though. I did excellent in my legal writing course, and the types of positions I am interviewing for consist of similar memo writing that I did so well on. They also have my writing sample from that course, which may have been a big reason why I got the interviews too. In addition, I didn't do poorly in my other courses because I was lazy or because I didn't understand the law. I did nearly perfect on all multiple choice sections and spotted the issues just fine (already went over the exams with all my professors). It was very obvious that I knew it better than some of my close peers that performed better than me too. My issue was that I couldn't sit down and organize my thoughts coherently on the essay portions (once again though, this wasn't an issue of poor writing skills; I did well in my legal writing course). I was so concerned with my performance on these essay portions that I decided to get a psychological evaluation to see if something else was up. Turns out I have pretty severe ADHD and am now on a treatment plan as a result (no need to judge based on this, I can already tell people will have strong opinions on this subject).
How should I approach these interviews though? Obviously if they don't ask for an updated transcript, then I have nothing to worry about. But if they do, should I attach an addendum or somehow explain what happened first semester? Or would my reasons sound like poor excuses? I strongly believe I am capable of doing the work assigned to me at these positions and can do it well, but conveying that to them seems like it may be a challenge. Do I just bite the bullet on this one and make no mention of why my grades were poor?
There's slightly more to the story though. I did excellent in my legal writing course, and the types of positions I am interviewing for consist of similar memo writing that I did so well on. They also have my writing sample from that course, which may have been a big reason why I got the interviews too. In addition, I didn't do poorly in my other courses because I was lazy or because I didn't understand the law. I did nearly perfect on all multiple choice sections and spotted the issues just fine (already went over the exams with all my professors). It was very obvious that I knew it better than some of my close peers that performed better than me too. My issue was that I couldn't sit down and organize my thoughts coherently on the essay portions (once again though, this wasn't an issue of poor writing skills; I did well in my legal writing course). I was so concerned with my performance on these essay portions that I decided to get a psychological evaluation to see if something else was up. Turns out I have pretty severe ADHD and am now on a treatment plan as a result (no need to judge based on this, I can already tell people will have strong opinions on this subject).
How should I approach these interviews though? Obviously if they don't ask for an updated transcript, then I have nothing to worry about. But if they do, should I attach an addendum or somehow explain what happened first semester? Or would my reasons sound like poor excuses? I strongly believe I am capable of doing the work assigned to me at these positions and can do it well, but conveying that to them seems like it may be a challenge. Do I just bite the bullet on this one and make no mention of why my grades were poor?