Is a GPA addendum warranted? Forum

[jdhopeful11]

It took me 5 years to complete my UG with a cumulative LSDAS GPA of 3.05. I am consistently scoring in the 165-170 range on my PTs and am afraid that my horrific GPA will hurt my chances at a T20 (preferably Gtown ED and PT if necessary).

So, I have been exploring the idea of attaching a GPA addendum to my app, but in the same token, I don't want to come off like a whiny bitch. Therefore, I've decided to elaborate on my situation to you fine folks, and see what amazing advice you have to offer.

First things first, I did not attend an Ivy.

My GPA after my first two years was a cumulative 2.52,
after three years it was a 2.67

My last 2 years since, it has seen significant improvement, and I have gotten straight A's my last 2 semesters, leaving me with my 3.05.


So what caused my improvement? This is where the addendum could be key.

My first two and a half semesters at college I was running an online hookah business from my home. I would live at school during the week, and come home on the weekends to ship out all of the orders. I handled all of the customer relations and company operations by myself. After I convinced myself that I could no longer balance the workload of school and my business, I closed down shop to focus more on my grades. That's when you see a noticeable improvement in my grades, which is more indicative of my intelligence.

Also relevant is that I have a consistent upward grade trend from literally every semester since my freshman year.

Do these facts help write off my poor GPA to some degree? If so, what degree do you all think that is?

[billyez]

I had an addendum that mirrored this circumstance that was included in my application. I just made it clear that the period during which my grades improved, I developed a way to balance the work-school relationship and I pivoted the entire addendum as a way of showing my maturity as a result. Just make sure you present it in a manner that paints you as someone who recognized that you needed to focus on your studies, rather than someone who is just using the job as an excuse and you'll be fine. Also, right on the money on trying to make it more indicative of your potential - I did the same. You have to separate yourself fromt he below average grades you made beforehand.

At first,I was going to say no, and let the upward trend speak for itself...but I'd feel like a hypocrite since I did the same thing you're doing.


To be clear, nothing writes off a bad GPA but an LSAT score that's within the 75% of the school.

[jdhopeful11]

I had an addendum that mirrored this circumstance that was included in my application. I just made it clear that the period during which my grades improved, I developed a way to balance the work-school relationship and I pivoted the entire addendum as a way of showing my maturity as a result. Just make sure you present it in a manner that paints you as someone who recognized that you needed to focus on your studies, rather than someone who is just using the job as an excuse and you'll be fine. Also, right on the money on trying to make it more indicative of your potential - I did the same. You have to separate yourself fromt he below average grades you made beforehand.

At first,I was going to say no, and let the upward trend speak for itself...but I'd feel like a hypocrite since I did the same thing you're doing.


To be clear, nothing writes off a bad GPA but an LSAT score that's within the 75% of the school.

Did it help you get into schools that were above your GPA median? Do you think that you benefited from it in any way?

[voice of reason]

It doesn't sound to me like you should write an addendum.

I think many people think of a GPA addendum as a place to try to make an excuse for a subpar GPA. I look at it differently.

A GPA addendum is where you should explain unusual circumstances that cast your GPA in a new light to show how kickass you are. It's where you explain that you were a single parent working full time to put yourself through college, or that you were hit by a truck and paralyzed two weeks into freshman year -- circumstances that would make the admissions committee say "Wow, this kid got a 3.3 with all that going on! Adversity is nothing to this person. We want him/her."

If you're just making excuses for how life got in the way of homework, or you needed time to grow up during college to realize the importance of focusing on your studies, then it is a waste of time because it doesn't make you stand out. Thousands of other people with average or below-average GPAs can and do say the same thing, but the admissions committee has no reason to care.

[billyez]

I had an addendum that mirrored this circumstance that was included in my application. I just made it clear that the period during which my grades improved, I developed a way to balance the work-school relationship and I pivoted the entire addendum as a way of showing my maturity as a result. Just make sure you present it in a manner that paints you as someone who recognized that you needed to focus on your studies, rather than someone who is just using the job as an excuse and you'll be fine. Also, right on the money on trying to make it more indicative of your potential - I did the same. You have to separate yourself fromt he below average grades you made beforehand.

At first,I was going to say no, and let the upward trend speak for itself...but I'd feel like a hypocrite since I did the same thing you're doing.


To be clear, nothing writes off a bad GPA but an LSAT score that's within the 75% of the school.

Did it help you get into schools that were above your GPA median? Do you think that you benefited from it in any way?

Here's the thing - there's no way for me to tell. I can't isolate my addendum and say that this is what got me into the schools I was accepted in. Personally, I think it helped. The difference was between a year of having a 3.0 and two years of a 3.56 - so I felt like I had a good way of explaining the difference in grades and had a solid reason for it. That being said, the above poster has a point. The spirit of your addendum, however, seems to be right; don't bother sending it in if it comes across as whiny. Be a man about it, note that you made a mistake, and that you gained something from that experience. It's very much like a PS in that respect - it shows something about you.

I will say this, URM boost or no, there was no way in heck I should have been accepted into UVA with my numbers and I was. So perhaps it helped. I just can't say that it wasn't the totality of the application package that helped me instead of the addendum itself.

[northwood]

im not sure about an addendum. Your reasons for a bad gpa arent that noteworthy. A lot of people work while going to school and an balance the 2 very well. Let your grades tell the story ( they went up and up). You didnt have a major life event ( illness, death, big scare, etc) that would make someone become sympathetic to you, you just worked. Also, hookahs may have a negative association with pot. If you were to write about having an online hookah business, it could sound like you were somehow associated with drugs. ( hookahs are not illegal unless they are used to smoke illegal drugs) You must remember that admissions people are very conservative, and may immediate associate hookahs with illegal activiites, and ding you for that.

[billyez]

I don't know about admission officers being very conservative. But I will say this, "small business owner" sounds a lot better than "online hookah dealer".

[jdhopeful11]

Thanks for both of your responses guys. I probably should have been clearer about my situation, and if I choose to write an addendum, I certainly won't phrase it the way that I did in this post.

The biggest motivator behind running the business that I started when I was 17 was to pay my way through college. I did not want to put any financial burdens on my parents because they were going through financial troubles of their own. Part of the reason why I stopped the business was also because I had saved enough money to get by for a few years whilst working summers. Running a business on my own was no joke either. It took serious commitment and energy to deal with customers everyday, and list and maintain the website and account. I had about 50 orders per week that I had to ship.

I'm not trying to force the issue here - if a GPA addendum is not warranted, then I won't include it. But I want to make sure that I make the facts clearer for you guys before I take your advice.

[jdhopeful11]

I don't know about admission officers being very conservative. But I will say this, "small business owner" sounds a lot better than "online hookah dealer".

+1


I mean I sold tobacco-free molasses as well and other middle eastern items. So maybe I should refer to it as a Middle Eastern Imports business or something, lol idk I will figure that part out later, I've always assumed that the hookah thing would be a potentially touchy subject.

[billyez]

With the added information, my opinion is just becoming even more favorable towards the idea of an addendum.

[jdhopeful11]

Cool. Anyone else have any thoughts?

[jdhopeful11]

bump it up

[Judge Philip Banks]

I spoke with a friend in admissions at a top 20 law school, and she basically says to not leave anything up to the admissions committee to decide. So, if you have an opportunity to explain anything (that you can put some positive spin on obviously), then you should. Do not be redundant either. Your situation ("small business owner" at age 17 and onward) sounds like it could be used for your personal statement, too. So if you touch on that in a personal statement, then I am not really sure if an addendum on that would be helpful. Your story sounds relatively unique, so I think it is a good idea to talk about that either in your PS or in an addendum. Oh, also, your upward grade trend will get noticed, but it might be a good idea to put an explanation behind that. It is important to show your growth since the time when your grades were sub-par. Also, like someone else mentioned, it is good to show that your higher grades are more indicative of your abilities, and how that can carry over into law school.

TL;DR: Do not leave room for questions - explain as much as you can on your apps without being redundant. And show growth and maturity, and show how your better grades are more indicative of your abilities.

[Barbie]

I don't really think it will help much.. but you might as well try. Was there a real financial need for the business? Was there a reason you couldn't have stopped doing it / do it less earlier on in your UG? Maybe include a justification of why it was so important to continue to do even though it was hurting your education.

[jdhopeful11]

I spoke with a friend in admissions at a top 20 law school, and she basically says to not leave anything up to the admissions committee to decide. So, if you have an opportunity to explain anything (that you can put some positive spin on obviously), then you should. Do not be redundant either. Your situation ("small business owner" at age 17 and onward) sounds like it could be used for your personal statement, too. So if you touch on that in a personal statement, then I am not really sure if an addendum on that would be helpful. Your story sounds relatively unique, so I think it is a good idea to talk about that either in your PS or in an addendum. Oh, also, your upward grade trend will get noticed, but it might be a good idea to put an explanation behind that. It is important to show your growth since the time when your grades were sub-par. Also, like someone else mentioned, it is good to show that your higher grades are more indicative of your abilities, and how that can carry over into law school.

TL;DR: Do not leave room for questions - explain as much as you can on your apps without being redundant. And show growth and maturity, and show how your better grades are more indicative of your abilities.

Good info. I saved your response in a word doc in case i need to go back to it.

I wrote my PS about the business last year when I applied, and I was thinking about changing the topic this time around because of the thin connection to how it has influenced me to go to law school. Can you comment on this?


@Barbie - I got around it by giving up living at school to commute 4days a week. My UG was an hour each way from where I lived, so it wasn't an easy decision. My loans and grants were able to pick up the charges after that.

[merc280]

I spoke with a friend in admissions at a top 20 law school, and she basically says to not leave anything up to the admissions committee to decide. So, if you have an opportunity to explain anything (that you can put some positive spin on obviously), then you should. Do not be redundant either. Your situation ("small business owner" at age 17 and onward) sounds like it could be used for your personal statement, too. So if you touch on that in a personal statement, then I am not really sure if an addendum on that would be helpful. Your story sounds relatively unique, so I think it is a good idea to talk about that either in your PS or in an addendum. Oh, also, your upward grade trend will get noticed, but it might be a good idea to put an explanation behind that. It is important to show your growth since the time when your grades were sub-par. Also, like someone else mentioned, it is good to show that your higher grades are more indicative of your abilities, and how that can carry over into law school.

TL;DR: Do not leave room for questions - explain as much as you can on your apps without being redundant. And show growth and maturity, and show how your better grades are more indicative of your abilities.

Good info. I saved your response in a word doc in case i need to go back to it.

I wrote my PS about the business last year when I applied, and I was thinking about changing the topic this time around because of the thin connection to how it has influenced me to go to law school. Can you comment on this?


@Barbie - I got around it by giving up living at school to commute 4days a week. My UG was an hour each way from where I lived, so it wasn't an easy decision. My loans and grants were able to pick up the charges after that.

That is exactly what I was thinking, that I doubt there are many cases where a GPA addendum actually hurts your cause, at the very most it would come off as a whiney explanation of why the GPA is the way it is. my gpa is a 2.8 and I had a upward trend from my sophomore year up until my last semester and the real reason was working 40hrs a week because of family issues. I figure it wouldn't hurt to tell the adcoms that. I doubt I would get rejected solely because of my addendum.

[Judge Philip Banks]

I spoke with a friend in admissions at a top 20 law school, and she basically says to not leave anything up to the admissions committee to decide. So, if you have an opportunity to explain anything (that you can put some positive spin on obviously), then you should. Do not be redundant either. Your situation ("small business owner" at age 17 and onward) sounds like it could be used for your personal statement, too. So if you touch on that in a personal statement, then I am not really sure if an addendum on that would be helpful. Your story sounds relatively unique, so I think it is a good idea to talk about that either in your PS or in an addendum. Oh, also, your upward grade trend will get noticed, but it might be a good idea to put an explanation behind that. It is important to show your growth since the time when your grades were sub-par. Also, like someone else mentioned, it is good to show that your higher grades are more indicative of your abilities, and how that can carry over into law school.

TL;DR: Do not leave room for questions - explain as much as you can on your apps without being redundant. And show growth and maturity, and show how your better grades are more indicative of your abilities.

Good info. I saved your response in a word doc in case i need to go back to it.

I wrote my PS about the business last year when I applied, and I was thinking about changing the topic this time around because of the thin connection to how it has influenced me to go to law school. Can you comment on this?


@Barbie - I got around it by giving up living at school to commute 4days a week. My UG was an hour each way from where I lived, so it wasn't an easy decision. My loans and grants were able to pick up the charges after that.

Well, you make a good point that it might not have a strong connection to your decision to go to law school... According to my friend, her school (and probably others) likes to see "personal" personal statements. So if there is some way to tie your business and its success with some facet of the law, or a specialization/program that a specific school has, I think it could be beneficial. These are things they look out for. They take special note if you indicate that you can contribute to some specialization or program in your PS. With the relatively unique story of starting/owning/running a small business indicating in some way that you can contribute in a unique and powerful way, it could really strengthen your app, in my opinion. If that is too much of a stretch, then I don't really know. What did motivate you to want to go to law school?

I am just trying to pass on the advice I received from my friend in admissions at a good law school. I had asked her about these things myself, because I am in a sort of similar situation as you (mine: poor GPA, studying hard for Oct. LSAT, trying to figure out if I should do addendums or not, etc.). Hopefully this stuff helps...

[jdhopeful11]

I spoke with a friend in admissions at a top 20 law school, and she basically says to not leave anything up to the admissions committee to decide. So, if you have an opportunity to explain anything (that you can put some positive spin on obviously), then you should. Do not be redundant either. Your situation ("small business owner" at age 17 and onward) sounds like it could be used for your personal statement, too. So if you touch on that in a personal statement, then I am not really sure if an addendum on that would be helpful. Your story sounds relatively unique, so I think it is a good idea to talk about that either in your PS or in an addendum. Oh, also, your upward grade trend will get noticed, but it might be a good idea to put an explanation behind that. It is important to show your growth since the time when your grades were sub-par. Also, like someone else mentioned, it is good to show that your higher grades are more indicative of your abilities, and how that can carry over into law school.

TL;DR: Do not leave room for questions - explain as much as you can on your apps without being redundant. And show growth and maturity, and show how your better grades are more indicative of your abilities.

Good info. I saved your response in a word doc in case i need to go back to it.

I wrote my PS about the business last year when I applied, and I was thinking about changing the topic this time around because of the thin connection to how it has influenced me to go to law school. Can you comment on this?


@Barbie - I got around it by giving up living at school to commute 4days a week. My UG was an hour each way from where I lived, so it wasn't an easy decision. My loans and grants were able to pick up the charges after that.

Well, you make a good point that it might not have a strong connection to your decision to go to law school... According to my friend, her school (and probably others) likes to see "personal" personal statements. So if there is some way to tie your business and its success with some facet of the law, or a specialization/program that a specific school has, I think it could be beneficial. These are things they look out for. They take special note if you indicate that you can contribute to some specialization or program in your PS. With the relatively unique story of starting/owning/running a small business indicating in some way that you can contribute in a unique and powerful way, it could really strengthen your app, in my opinion. If that is too much of a stretch, then I don't really know. What did motivate you to want to go to law school?

I am just trying to pass on the advice I received from my friend in admissions at a good law school. I had asked her about these things myself, because I am in a sort of similar situation as you (mine: poor GPA, studying hard for Oct. LSAT, trying to figure out if I should do addendums or not, etc.). Hopefully this stuff helps...

Well I've always wanted to go to law school because of my interest in studying law. Besides that, I've never had a full grasp as to why exactly I want to go to law school, but also never thought of it as a problem. I look at it as I'm keeping an open mind until I find something that really interests me. I interned at an AG office too, and it only strengthened my desire.

As far as my PS is concerned, I haven't made up my mind about the new topic. I'm devoting my time right now to LSAT prep, and should have one written in October. I feel as though I can tweak my current PS a little bit and submit that if all else fails. The law "connection" that I made in my PS was how I was almost sued by a manufacturer because I was undercutting the market with his supplies by selling them for so cheap (I could afford to do so since I was a one man team!). I add that it sparked an interest in intellectual property law because I looked up all the laws about it and yadda yadda yadda.

[Judge Philip Banks]

Well I've always wanted to go to law school because of my interest in studying law. Besides that, I've never had a full grasp as to why exactly I want to go to law school, but also never thought of it as a problem. I look at it as I'm keeping an open mind until I find something that really interests me. I interned at an AG office too, and it only strengthened my desire.

As far as my PS is concerned, I haven't made up my mind about the new topic. I'm devoting my time right now to LSAT prep, and should have one written in October. I feel as though I can tweak my current PS a little bit and submit that if all else fails. The law "connection" that I made in my PS was how I was almost sued by a manufacturer because I was undercutting the market with his supplies by selling them for so cheap (I could afford to do so since I was a one man team!). I add that it sparked an interest in intellectual property law because I looked up all the laws about it and yadda yadda yadda.

I think that sounds like a pretty good connection between your business and sparking interest in law. If you can strengthen the connection, then it sounds like it would be good if you tweaked your old PS. Also, back to your original question about the addendum... Try to concisely describe your situation without repeating too much of what you might say in the PS.

[jdhopeful11]

Well I've always wanted to go to law school because of my interest in studying law. Besides that, I've never had a full grasp as to why exactly I want to go to law school, but also never thought of it as a problem. I look at it as I'm keeping an open mind until I find something that really interests me. I interned at an AG office too, and it only strengthened my desire.

As far as my PS is concerned, I haven't made up my mind about the new topic. I'm devoting my time right now to LSAT prep, and should have one written in October. I feel as though I can tweak my current PS a little bit and submit that if all else fails. The law "connection" that I made in my PS was how I was almost sued by a manufacturer because I was undercutting the market with his supplies by selling them for so cheap (I could afford to do so since I was a one man team!). I add that it sparked an interest in intellectual property law because I looked up all the laws about it and yadda yadda yadda.

I think that sounds like a pretty good connection between your business and sparking interest in law. If you can strengthen the connection, then it sounds like it would be good if you tweaked your old PS. Also, back to your original question about the addendum... Try to concisely describe your situation without repeating too much of what you might say in the PS.

I think I will tweak my PS and submit it to one of those online revision websites to see what they have to say about it.

[Barbie]

Well I've always wanted to go to law school because of my interest in studying law. Besides that, I've never had a full grasp as to why exactly I want to go to law school, but also never thought of it as a problem. I look at it as I'm keeping an open mind until I find something that really interests me. I interned at an AG office too, and it only strengthened my desire.

As far as my PS is concerned, I haven't made up my mind about the new topic. I'm devoting my time right now to LSAT prep, and should have one written in October. I feel as though I can tweak my current PS a little bit and submit that if all else fails. The law "connection" that I made in my PS was how I was almost sued by a manufacturer because I was undercutting the market with his supplies by selling them for so cheap (I could afford to do so since I was a one man team!). I add that it sparked an interest in intellectual property law because I looked up all the laws about it and yadda yadda yadda.

I think that sounds like a pretty good connection between your business and sparking interest in law. If you can strengthen the connection, then it sounds like it would be good if you tweaked your old PS. Also, back to your original question about the addendum... Try to concisely describe your situation without repeating too much of what you might say in the PS.

I think I will tweak my PS and submit it to one of those online revision websites to see what they have to say about it.

Whaaat? What ist that? I thought about taking mine to the writing center... but it'll probably be a bunch of kids from my classes (I'm a writing major) who aren't any more educated in it than I am

[Nom Sawyer]

It took me 5 years to complete my UG with a cumulative LSDAS GPA of 3.05. I am consistently scoring in the 165-170 range on my PTs and am afraid that my horrific GPA will hurt my chances at a T20 (preferably Gtown ED and PT if necessary).

So, I have been exploring the idea of attaching a GPA addendum to my app, but in the same token, I don't want to come off like a whiny bitch. Therefore, I've decided to elaborate on my situation to you fine folks, and see what amazing advice you have to offer.

First things first, I did not attend an Ivy.

My GPA after my first two years was a cumulative 2.52,
after three years it was a 2.67

My last 2 years since, it has seen significant improvement, and I have gotten straight A's my last 2 semesters, leaving me with my 3.05.


So what caused my improvement? This is where the addendum could be key.

My first two and a half semesters at college I was running an online hookah business from my home. I would live at school during the week, and come home on the weekends to ship out all of the orders. I handled all of the customer relations and company operations by myself. After I convinced myself that I could no longer balance the workload of school and my business, I closed down shop to focus more on my grades. That's when you see a noticeable improvement in my grades, which is more indicative of my intelligence.

Also relevant is that I have a consistent upward grade trend from literally every semester since my freshman year.

Do these facts help write off my poor GPA to some degree? If so, what degree do you all think that is?

I think a GPA addendum is a good idea in your case because there is a sharp change in your grades. You basically went from averaging a 2.5 to a 3.5+ which is substantial. Also your average GPA went up by over .5 which is a large change too.


Best way to do it would just be to write a short and to the point addendum briefly stating how you found a better work/ schoo balance or something a long those lines. (You don't have to give a name to what you were doing at all, just say you were spending a substanital time working/ earning money).

[jdhopeful11]

Two sites that TLS endorses are:

http://www.revisionediting.com/

http://www.essayedge.com/law


Expect to pay at the very minimum a hundo for a proofread.

[Nom Sawyer]

Two sites that TLS endorses are:

http://www.revisionediting.com/

http://www.essayedge.com/law


Expect to pay at the very minimum a hundo for a proofread.

I wouldn't pay for those services... you can get really good feedback for free on here

[Barbie]

Two sites that TLS endorses are:

http://www.revisionediting.com/

http://www.essayedge.com/law


Expect to pay at the very minimum a hundo for a proofread.

I wouldn't pay for those services... you can get really good feedback for free on here

Yeah I did mine on here. I wouldn't pay that much for someone to read my PS :\.