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CanadianWolf wrote:"At the behest of my family," instead of "At the advice of my family,". Also, instead of using the word "immaturity" twice, consider substituting the phrase "lack of maturity" for the first "immaturity".

Consider substituting "Accordingly," for "As such,".

Delete: "for myself" since it is redundant.

Anonymous User wrote: In 2004 at the age of seventeen, I finished high school early. At the behest of my family I enrolled at the local community college. I had no true goals or reasons to study at the time, and I did not take college as seriously as I should have. In addition to my immaturity, [During this time] my father needed my help for long hours in our family rental business, and I often devoted my time to repairs on rental properties instead of my studies. After taking five classes and earning a 1.75 cumulative GPA, I dropped further studies and pursued work in real estate.

Given time to mature and realize the goals I wanted to pursue, I reenrolled in community college in 2008. From that moment on I pursued my education with a greater sense of discipline, maturity, and focus, as I believe is evidenced by my cumulative GPA of 3.9 when excluding those prior five classes.

I understand, however, that these grades are not excluded, and they are a part of my record. This is a consequence that I both understand and accept. I cannot undo my performance, but I have learned from my mistakes and lack of maturity. Accordingly, I believe that my grades from 2008 on are a much more indicative measure of my academic ability.

benwyatt wrote:Honestly, I don't think you need this addendum and I think you run the risk of coming off a little whiny.
If you have a strong upward trend in your grades and it's clear that you worked your ass off after that, which it seems to be, the adcomms are smart enough to know that you were just immature when you were 17 and you needed to grow up to get it together.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who will disagree with this, but your story didn't strike me as particularly novel or unexpected so I think it's better to let your transcript speak for itself.

Clearly wrote:I'm staunchly against GPA addenda in almost every circumstance, but even I think you should write one here. That terrible semester is going to raise eyebrows and your reason while not drastic addresses the cause. If that semester was like a 2.9 or something I wouldn't bother, but literally anyone looking at your transcript is going to say wtf?

benwyatt wrote: That's the reason I don't think you should write it.
I don't think your story is particularly novel and I don't think it's an inference that the adcomms couldn't make based on your resume and transcript.
Compelling reasons justify addenda, but immaturity and uncertainty don't really make the cut.
With a 173 and a 3.5, I think you have a really good shot at much of the T-14 and I don't think this addendum is going to change your prospects.

Clearly wrote:take out any mention of immaturity. Your story is strictly that you had to devote excessive time to helping your family business and could not focus on your education. That not immature, it's life.

benwyatt wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

benwyatt wrote: That's the reason I don't think you should write it.
I don't think your story is particularly novel and I don't think it's an inference that the adcomms couldn't make based on your resume and transcript.
Compelling reasons justify addenda, but immaturity and uncertainty don't really make the cut.
With a 173 and a 3.5, I think you have a really good shot at much of the T-14 and I don't think this addendum is going to change your prospects.

I was thinking the same thing before, but I actually signed on for someone from Spivey to help with a PS and they advised me that this should be addressed, even if it was just immaturity. Like what the other poster said, it just is a huge flag that they will want to know what happened.

Well if someone from Spivey said to go for it, then maybe?
I have a similarly low GPA, primarily from the fact that I worked 40+ hours through undergrad, coupled with some immaturity and lack of focus in my Freshman year and I'm not planning to write an addendum because my understanding was always that addenda were intended for things not otherwise evident in your application.

ETA: things not otherwise evident which may significantly influence how a particular aspect of the application is viewed*

LawsRUs wrote:Send this as it is (in your second draft). I like the honesty in it.

sandwhich wrote:

Anonymous User wrote: In 2004 at the age of seventeen, I finished high school early. At the behest of my family I enrolled at the local community college. I had no true goals or reasons to study at the time, and I did not take college as seriously as I should have. In addition to my immaturity, [During this time] my father needed my help for long hours in our family rental business, and I often devoted my time to repairs on rental properties instead of my studies. After taking five classes and earning a 1.75 cumulative GPA, I dropped further studies and pursued work in real estate.

Given time to mature and realize the goals I wanted to pursue, I reenrolled in community college in 2008. From that moment on I pursued my education with a greater sense of discipline, maturity, and focus, as I believe is evidenced by my cumulative GPA of 3.9 when excluding those prior five classes.

I understand, however, that these grades are not excluded, and they are a part of my record. This is a consequence that I both understand and accept. I cannot undo my performance, but I have learned from my mistakes and lack of maturity. Accordingly, I believe that my grades from 2008 on are a much more indicative measure of my academic ability.

I just personally don't like the portions I striked . For the first strike, I think that part is implicit in the sentence I italicized. For the second strike through, I think you your explaination is good enough without that "apologetic" portion. The brackets are just a place holder.

I didn't read the other comments and am doing this from my phone. Again, these are just my suggestions.

OP: Fwiw I had a GPA addendum for similar reasons, and I guess it worked for me. So, if you want I'll PM it to you.

whats an updog wrote:

sandwhich wrote:

Anonymous User wrote: In 2004 at the age of seventeen, I finished high school early. At the behest of my family I enrolled at the local community college. I had no true goals or reasons to study at the time, and I did not take college as seriously as I should have. In addition to my immaturity, [During this time] my father needed my help for long hours in our family rental business, and I often devoted my time to repairs on rental properties instead of my studies. After taking five classes and earning a 1.75 cumulative GPA, I dropped further studies and pursued work in real estate.

Given time to mature and realize the goals I wanted to pursue, I reenrolled in community college in 2008. From that moment on I pursued my education with a greater sense of discipline, maturity, and focus, as I believe is evidenced by my cumulative GPA of 3.9 when excluding those prior five classes.

I understand, however, that these grades are not excluded, and they are a part of my record. This is a consequence that I both understand and accept. I cannot undo my performance, but I have learned from my mistakes and lack of maturity. Accordingly, I believe that my grades from 2008 on are a much more indicative measure of my academic ability.

I just personally don't like the portions I striked . For the first strike, I think that part is implicit in the sentence I italicized. For the second strike through, I think you your explaination is good enough without that "apologetic" portion. The brackets are just a place holder.

I didn't read the other comments and am doing this from my phone. Again, these are just my suggestions.

OP: Fwiw I had a GPA addendum for similar reasons, and I guess it worked for me. So, if you want I'll PM it to you.

I also had a GPA addendum and think submitting one is a must. Mine was almost exactly the same as OPs except that my cumulative GPA was much lower (I also had the same LSAT score as OP). I think that sandwhich's editing makes your draft stronger. I don't know if this mattered at all, but I included a line graph on my addendum page that showed the steep rise in GPA over the years which looked good and really drove the point home imo. Most people will probably tell you not to do that, but the people I circulated my draft to all thought that the visual was powerful.