Please critique/offer advice for my addendum! Forum

[kjames511]

Hi all- I would appreciate any comments you might have regarding my addendum below. It refers to why I graduated college early and info about the Honors College I was in. Thanks so much

-Katie

South Carolina Honors College:
During my time at the University of South Carolina I was a member of the universities Honors College. Admission into the Honors College requires excellent high-school grades, strong scores on the SAT or ACT, and completion of a rigorous application. The mid-range of SAT scores (critical reading and math) for students in the Honors College for my freshman class were between 1370 and 1450 (95th-97th percentiles). The average weighted high school GPA was 4.51.

Graduation with an Honors degree from the South Carolina Honors College requires 45 honors credits, including courses across the liberal arts curriculum and a culminating senior thesis. The title of my senior thesis was For-Profit Colleges: Federal Student Aid, The ATB Test, and What We Can Do to Fix the Cycle. Completing the requirements of the Honors College, in addition to my University major requirements, has left me with a strong grounding in a 21st Century liberal arts curriculum that will be applicable to my time in law school. During my time in the Honors College I have undoubtedly further developed my critical thinking as well as communication skills.

Graduating The University of South Carolina Early:
I graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2.5 years, which required me to take a heavy course load as well as summer courses. Many students and professors alike have asked why I chose to graduate in such a short period of time. Although I would have loved to spend a full four years at South Carolina, I knew that it was not economically feasible. When I first began college my mother worked two jobs to help pay for my education. Both of my parents have always been extremely hard workers, yet they were unable to afford a 4-year college education for both my sister and I. In order to avoid exerting extra financial pressure on my parents, I chose instead to increase my course load and graduate early. Although it was difficult at times, graduating early has taught me how to best manage my time, resources, and personal energy. All of which are invaluable life lessons that I look forward to applying during my time attending law school.

[sparty99]

I don't understand why you need an addendum explaining why you graduated early. This doesn't need an explanation or you can state this in your personal statement.

If you are going to have any addendum it would be to explain your honors program and the grading system, etc. The adcomm's should know that you took an accelerated program. However, there is usually a space on the application for this.

This was never explained: "During my time in the Honors College I have undoubtedly further developed my critical thinking as well as communication skills."

[franklyscarlet]

Why do you need to explain the honors college? Sounds pretty standard for an honors program at a public university.

[sparty99]

I talked about mine within my LSAT addendum.

It is probably not really needed if the OP has good LSAT, but I might talk about it - it can't hurt. It'll differentiate the applicant. Shows that she took an accelerated program. Adcomm's have seen this before, but putting context behind it adds more "color" to the application.

[lats19nys]

Couldn't you write a little note under maybe honors/awards sections that law schools give out? I mean, before I read it, I figure standard "why i didn't do so well" but it seems like if anything you did extremely well. Idk, probably isn't necessary, given how well you did. Mentioning under honors/awards might be all you need to do to highlight it. Or are you worried that they might think you're not old/mature enough to handle law school right now?

[kjames511]

Hi all-

Thanks for your replies. My transcript doesn't mention that I was a part of my schools Honors College, so talking about it in the addendum and listing in on my resume is the only way they will know about it.

I wanted to include info about why I chose to graduate early because after talking to some admissions officers, it became apparent that some might worry that I wasn't mature enough to enter law school because I am so young (20 years old).

[sparty99]

Hi all-

Thanks for your replies. My transcript doesn't mention that I was a part of my schools Honors College, so talking about it in the addendum and listing in on my resume is the only way they will know about it.

I wanted to include info about why I chose to graduate early because after talking to some admissions officers, it became apparent that some might worry that I wasn't mature enough to enter law school because I am so young (20 years old).

They failed to tell you what they really care about: Your LSAT Score (75%) and GPA (22%). The rest of the stuff really won't matter.

[kjames511]

Hi all-

Thanks for your replies. My transcript doesn't mention that I was a part of my schools Honors College, so talking about it in the addendum and listing in on my resume is the only way they will know about it.

I wanted to include info about why I chose to graduate early because after talking to some admissions officers, it became apparent that some might worry that I wasn't mature enough to enter law school because I am so young (20 years old).

They failed to tell you what they really care about: Your LSAT Score (75%) and GPA (22%). The rest of the stuff really won't matter.

Unfortunately I know that, but i've put so much into this application process already I would regret it if I didn't put my absolute best foot forward.

[ekbrown09]

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[kjames511]

Hi all-

Thanks for your replies. My transcript doesn't mention that I was a part of my schools Honors College, so talking about it in the addendum and listing in on my resume is the only way they will know about it.

I wanted to include info about why I chose to graduate early because after talking to some admissions officers, it became apparent that some might worry that I wasn't mature enough to enter law school because I am so young (20 years old).

I graduated early too, so I understand the need for assuring schools of your maturity, but you really don't need to write an addendum for being a part of the Honors College. Put it in your resume and call it a day. Listing high school statistics necessary for HC admission won't impress law schools worth impressing... they will most likely just find it irritating you wrote an entire addendum to tell them information they already assumed from reading your resume. If you do decide to include it though, go through and fix some of the grammatical errors you have in it... ex: universities is supposed to be possessive, high-school should be high school. Also, take out the percentiles, they know that anything between 1370-1450 is a good score, adding percentiles is unnecessary and may be irritating to read.

thanks for the advice- I really appreciate it!

[ekbrown09]

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