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I got terrible grades my freshman year. (2.44)
However, I don't have a legit reason for this except that I spent too much time on the social aspects of college and it took me a while to adjust.
Should I write an addendum for this or will a law school admissions officer assume that this is a reason for the poor grades if I have a high LSAT to counter poor academic performance and, more importantly, how do I write it??

If you're going to write an addendum, keep it concise.

However, it doesn't sound like an addendum will serve you very well. Addenda are helpful when people got low grades for very good, sympathetic reasons -- having a serious illness, being a single parent, taking care of a dying relative, working full time to pay their way through school, and other reasons that would explain why a smart, mature, hard-working student didn't get good grades. If you "don't have a legit reason," the addendum can't do much for you.

voice of reason wrote:If you're going to write an addendum, keep it concise.

However, it doesn't sound like an addendum will serve you very well. Addenda are helpful when people got low grades for very good, sympathetic reasons -- having a serious illness, being a single parent, taking care of a dying relative, working full time to pay their way through school, and other reasons that would explain why a smart, mature, hard-working student didn't get good grades. If you "don't have a legit reason," the addendum can't do much for you.

TITCR.

The only thing I will add to this is admissions committee members have to read thousands of applications - as a general rule, you don't want to make them read anything more than they have to.

Thanks, my gut feeling was to avoid writing an addendum.

I dunno, though. I went to a "Getting into LS" seminar and the Georgetown ad com said that it's generally better to just explain things rather than just leaving the reason for your uncharacteristically low GPA to their imagination.

You don't have to necessarily say "Yeah, I was partying too hard," but something like what you wrote in your op would be good. Just make it clear that that was the result of immaturity and that you've changed. Otherwise they might assume some... rather unflattering things, like that you've been cheating to get that GPA back up or that you were involved in illicit activities your freshman year and aren't being honest enough to disclose that.

tl;dr - Just be honest, but tastefully so. You don't want them assuming bad stuf went down when it didn't.

Just copy/paste this into your apps. You don't even have to cite me for it

Dr. Strangelove wrote:Dear AdComz:

As we all know, when bitches on a young buck's jock, it's damn near impossible to brush'm off till they done gettin' they they fix. Bein' the playa I was back in first year, I got a straight 4.0 in pimpin'. So, don't let my school grades fuck up yo' head 'bout me. Once I proved to myself I could jock the hos, I started pimpin' my grades; I'm all grown out of that "bitches and hos" thang now ... I got me a girl. So when bitches come up on this jock, I tell'm I aint got time for that nonsense no more, feel me?!

Peace

-Dr. Strangelove