GPA Addendum - Please Critique Forum

[URMdan]

Dear Sir or Madam:


I am writing to you to explain why my grades for my first five semesters do not compare favorably to the rest of my transcript.

I started an online business to assist my family with economic hardship at the beginning of my college career, and I believe this negatively impacted my grades during that time . I do not anticipate the same obligation in law school, which is why I believe my LSDAS GPA from the spring 2008 semester on is more indicative of my ability.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

[BlueDiamond]

the first sentence is worded poorly

what kind of business? out of curiosity

[joebloe]

You might need to give a little more detail or information, like why running this online business killed your grades (e.g., you had to devote 40+ hours/wk to it to stay ahead of your competition, had to stay up at unusual hours, were constantly flying out on sales calls and missing classes, etc).

Reading "I believe this negatively impacted" makes me think you might know of or suspect another reason why your grades were poor that you just aren't sharing. If you're confident running the business killed your grades, come out and say it.

Also, I think you should be more firm that your later grades are a better measure of your potential. Something like, "From Spring 2008 onwards, I no longer needed to run the business and was able to devote my full attention to my studies, thus improving my grades substantially. I will be able to carry this trend into the law school environment with no difficulty, and am confident that these later grades provide a more accurate picture of my abilities."

[URMdan]

I discuss in detail why I had to run the business in my PS, but I leave the addenda-ish stuff out. I took numbers out of my addendum as well because I figured my transcript would should the upward trend. Should I throw them back in?

[JenDarby]

I would definitely try to delve into greater detail about WHY helping with this business would have had an adverse affect on your grades. I worked 40+ hrs/week throughout UG, which I feel is fairly common, and not a very good excuse for lower grades. My GPA suffered because I had perhaps too much fun, and somehow didn't realize down the road that it would be such a numbers game. If I blamed it on my work, I would just be making what I think is a typical excuse....

[URMdan]

I would definitely try to delve into greater detail about WHY helping with this business would have had an adverse affect on your grades. I worked 40+ hrs/week throughout UG, which I feel is fairly common, and not a very good excuse for lower grades. My GPA suffered because I had perhaps too much fun, and somehow didn't realize down the road that it would be such a numbers game. If I blamed it on my work, I would just be making what I think is a typical excuse....

I discuss in detail why I had to run the business in my PS, but I leave the addenda-ish stuff out. I took numbers out of my addendum as well because I figured my transcript would should the upward trend.

[JenDarby]

My point is, if you think your PS speaks for itself and describes your situation, you may not want to include a GPA addendum. If you do choose to include an addendum, I do not think you should so simply state, "I had to work, my grades suffered. I stopped working, and they improved." Unless of course they were drastically brought down by your working, then I recommend giving an idea of why, as someone previously stated, in the addendum itself.

[4for44]

How many total semesters were you enrolled?

[BlueDiamond]

also.. why post incomplete information? how would we have known that you have the info in your PS?

you posted asking for help.. people have tried to help with good suggestions and you've shot them all down immediately.. you clearly like where it is at so send it the way you have it

[URMdan]

My point is, if you think your PS speaks for itself and describes your situation, you may not want to include a GPA addendum. If you do choose to include an addendum, I do not think you should so simply state, "I had to work, my grades suffered. I stopped working, and they improved." Unless of course they were drastically brought down by your working, then I recommend giving an idea of why, as someone previously stated, in the addendum itself.

I see

[URMdan]

How many total semesters were you enrolled?

11

[4for44]

How many total semesters were you enrolled?

11

Okay, you have more of an argument than I thought. Personally, I feel upward trends speak for themselves if the work is evident elsewhere in your app. That being said, I dont think it will hurt you to write an addendum, but like posters have already said, a reason why you couldnt balance would be more compelling (ie worked 60 hrs a week, went home every weekend to help out, etc). Best of luck

[JenDarby]

How many total semesters were you enrolled?

11

Okay, you have more of an argument than I thought. Personally, I feel upward trends speak for themselves if the work is evident elsewhere in your app. That being said, I dont think it will hurt you to write an addendum, but like posters have already said, a reason why you couldnt balance would be more compelling (ie worked 60 hrs a week, went home every weekend to help out, etc). Best of luck

+1

I think if the work is evidenced elsewhere, which it seems it strongly is, then your upward trend will speak for itself.

[URMdan]

Here's round 2:

Dear Sir or Madam:


I am writing to you to explain why my grades my first five semesters do not compare favorably to the rest of my transcript. (I agree that this sounds funky but I got the idea out of Anne Ivey's book)

I started an online business to assist my family with economic hardship at the beginning of my college career and this negatively impacted my grades during that time. I devoted over 40 hours per week to keep the business running while being enrolled full-time. From Spring 2008 onwards, I shut down the business and found part-time work which allowed me to devote more attention to my studies. I will not be working while attending law school, which is why I am confident that these later grades provide a more accurate indicator of my abilities to succeed in law school.

Please let me know if you have any questions.


(I talk about coming home every weekend in my PS, so I left that out)

[JenDarby]

I think that if you want to submit this, it won't hurt you, but I don't know that it will really help you either.

IMHO, I think that your personal statement, and grade trend will reflect this on their own. Also, so many applications specifically ask and have sections about whether you worked during undergrad/how much/what nature of work, so that aspect would also already be covered. It seems this might just rehash things that are already represented in your application, and draw more attention to your initial lower gpa.

I considered writing an addendum for essentially the same reason. I had to work full time throughout undergrad for financial reasons. In the end, I decided against it. I personally decided that since I didn't have any especially compelling reason that wasn't covered in my app, there was no need to include an addendum.

[URMdan]

Does everyone else agree that an addendum is not needed for my situation?

[joebloe]

I certainly agree that an addendum may be redundant given you're covering things in your PS. You can probably increase coverage in your PS if you want to address things more thoroughly.

[krad]

I think that if you want to submit this, it won't hurt you, but I don't know that it will really help you either.

IMHO, I think that your personal statement, and grade trend will reflect this on their own. Also, so many applications specifically ask and have sections about whether you worked during undergrad/how much/what nature of work, so that aspect would also already be covered. It seems this might just rehash things that are already represented in your application, and draw more attention to your initial lower gpa.

I considered writing an addendum for essentially the same reason. I had to work full time throughout undergrad for financial reasons. In the end, I decided against it. I personally decided that since I didn't have any especially compelling reason that wasn't covered in my app, there was no need to include an addendum.

This is why I decided against my GPA addendum as well. I didn't think that it really brought anything to the table and it would just be something else for the adcoms to sift through... (Jen are we twins for real here or what? )

OP, I agree that I don't think this addendum will hurt you, but I don't think it will really help much either based on the other info ITT.

[JenDarby]

This is why I decided against my GPA addendum as well. I didn't think that it really brought anything to the table and it would just be something else for the adcoms to sift through... (Jen are we twins for real here or what? )

OP, I agree that I don't think this addendum will hurt you, but I don't think it will really help much either based on the other info ITT.

It's certainly starting to feel that way...I think I read you post somewhere that you are about 3 some years out of UG, I don't think I commented, but that's exactly where I'm at as well!