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Hi everyone -

I'm aiming for NYU. My GPA at a top public school is 3.765, and on diagnostic LSATs I've been scoring around 170. In high school, I was dually enrolled junior and senior year at a small, four-year liberal arts school. At that point I was informed by my guidance counselor that so long as I made a grade (pluses and minuses didn't matter) that would count solidly towards my GPA for college. In other words, A- = A. Because I paid little attention to small grade differences, those many minuses add up. Not to mention that spring semester senior year I made a C. I haven't received my official LSAC GPA but I'm pretty sure it'll be around a 3.732. Since I had no idea that those grades would one day count towards law school, I truly feel like this is unfair. Is it worth writing an addendum about, and how would I frame that without blaming it on my guidance counselor? That really isn't my intention. Please feel free to ask for more information!

Thanks.

cloying wrote:Hi everyone -

I'm aiming for NYU. My GPA at a top public school is 3.765, and on diagnostic LSATs I've been scoring around 170. In high school, I was dually enrolled junior and senior year at a small, four-year liberal arts school. At that point I was informed by my guidance counselor that so long as I made a grade (pluses and minuses didn't matter) that would count solidly towards my GPA for college. In other words, A- = A. Because I paid little attention to small grade differences, those many minuses add up. Not to mention that spring semester senior year I made a C. I haven't received my official LSAC GPA but I'm pretty sure it'll be around a 3.732. Since I had no idea that those grades would one day count towards law school, I truly feel like this is unfair. Is it worth writing an addendum about, and how would I frame that without blaming it on my guidance counselor? That really isn't my intention. Please feel free to ask for more information!

Thanks.

So you're thinking about writing an addendum for why your GPA is 3.73 instead of 3.76? This seems like a great way to make anyone reading your application think that you are a whiner. Do not write this addendum, just learn to live with that .03 difference in your GPA.

They don't care if you knew you were going to law school or not. That has nothing to do with what kind of a student you are. They care about the grades you got because it reflects on you as a student. Honestly you should have tried harder in the class you got a C in regardless of your future plans, but you didn't and that isn't the counselors fault.

The above post is correct too, if you write an addendum it will hurt you far more than it will help.

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Life's not fair. Even if the counselor outright lied to your face it is your responsibility to make sure you understand your university's grading policy.

Don't write an addendum, just funnel your rage into getting a high LSAT.

Picture this: adcomm reads a GPA addendum from an applicant who lost his mother during his second-year, then adcomm reads yours, then adcomm reads one from an applicant who grew up in the inner-city and had a tough first year in college. Relatively speaking, your situation is probably not suitable for an addendum.

The OP's situation is clearly not addendum worthy.