Top Law Schools

i was physically assaulted and incurred broken bones and a concussion in my junior year and my grades dripped from my usual 3.5 average to a 3.2.

additionally, i was diagnosed with a medical condition where i had to take couple of weeks off from school and this affected another semester.

are these two reasons enough to talk about in a GPA addendum? or are they not sufficient?

What was your final GPA? If it's at or above a 3.0, I don't know why you would really need an addendum, especially if it's 3.3 or above. And if the semester was only .3 off your average, it's not like it crippled your overall GPA. So, although your story may be compelling, the actual impact on your grades was negligible and would be confusing in an addendum.

I would use something like this in a personal statement and spin it as a positive in the sense that you overcame a struggle/obstacle and still maintained your grades, are achieving your goals, it has made you stronger, etc...

normally I'm all for GPA addenda because of prisoner's dilemma and whatnot but in this case I think it is better to leave it alone. Just back of the envelope it seems like this episode, though unfortunate and sympathetic, would have only affected your GPA by like 0.08 which is not really worth writing about. The main reason being that a 3.5 isn't exactly stellar so the difference between that and a 3.42 is not really worth mentioning because I think it will just cause an adcom to wonder why 3.5 was the best you could do when things weren't going poorly for you.

my final GPA was a 3.41

i think y'all are right in just letting my LSAT and GPA do the talking rather than adding questions to the AdCom. currently have a 175 LSAT and with a 3.41, hoping I can ED Penn or RD NYU.

Nice.

Your 175 will be very valuable. With a decent app you'll get NYU. Don't ED Penn, at least not first round. Apply early (early early) everywhere and you'll get some good options because schools won't be sure what apps/LSAT scores are going to look like for the cycle. Good luck!

When is super early? I was thinking a few days before Halloween? I think my app will be decent at best. I have the typical internships and leaderships and will get 2 strong lor. Nothing out of the ordinary I think.

Sorry for adding on, but why not ED penn? I'm just curious to the rationale behind this.

Similar numbers here, 3.42/179, going to NYU this fall. I wouldn't ED anywhere because you sacrifice your leverage when negotiating aid. I bet you'll get NYU RD anyways.

Max324 wrote:Similar numbers here, 3.42/179, going to NYU this fall. I wouldn't ED anywhere because you sacrifice your leverage when negotiating aid. I bet you'll get NYU RD anyways.

I agree with pretty much everything that was said above.

Doesn't Northwestern offer full shollys to all ED admits? If that's the case he can go ahead an apply to NU ED. NU sounds like the right school with that split anyway.

papercut wrote:

Max324 wrote:Similar numbers here, 3.42/179, going to NYU this fall. I wouldn't ED anywhere because you sacrifice your leverage when negotiating aid. I bet you'll get NYU RD anyways.

I agree with pretty much everything that was said above.

Doesn't Northwestern offer full shollys to all ED admits? If that's the case he can go ahead an apply to NU ED. NU sounds like the right school with that split anyway.

Yeah, it's worth a shot, though it looks like they mainly accept people with 3.6+. Someone got in with 174/3.48 though, so it's possible.