Low GPA addendum... wtf should i write about? help? Forum

[hereyago]

I went to HYPS for UG. Majored in math. My LSAC GPA should be around 3.4 (3.3 UG, 4.1 in community college classes that I took in high school). Fucking low GPA.
I went to see my school's psychiastrist during my junior year in college because I was procrastinating a lot and I thought a shrink could solve this problem. Diagnosed with chronic major depression. Been depressed for about 14 years actually. Started meds. Took a year off from school. Came back. Still got bad grades for my final year in UG . Starting to think I'm a bit bipolar as well.

WTF should I write about in my addendum? I don't know how well the depression for 14 year thing is going to play out since in high school, I got straight A's and graduated 1st in class, near perfect SAT scores all around.

Do you think the adcoms will give a fuck about my depression? I have some other things in mind that I could write about. Death of my very close grandmother during my sophomore year (my grades didn't suffer very much though. my grades were just consistently bad). Lack of goals (didn't know what I wanted to do after graduation).

I'll be working a couple of years before applying. Maybe I can talk about how I matured, gained a sense of direction / goal, started making great recovery from my depression?

P.S. I'm still depressed as fuck. Meds and therapy are helping a bit, but apparently it takes a long ass time to get over a long-term depression.



tl;dr - low gpa (3.4). diagnosed with depression. how to write a good addendum or PS to overcome my low gpa.

edit: apologies for my state school reference. i have removed it.

[$1.99]

lol you would have a lower gpa if you went to a state school douchebag. by the way i went to hyp so don't give me the "how would you know" excuse. i know because i experienced huge grade inflation at my school.

i would not write an addendum, it is not going to help you enough to give you a boost and will just make them see you as a lazy, depressed procrastinator.

[Kilpatrick]

I went to HYPS for UG. Majored in math. My LSAC GPA should be around 3.4 (3.3 UG, 4.1 in community college classes that I took in high school). Fucking low GPA. Kinda pissed since if I went to a state school, I prob would've gotten 4.0+.

I went to see my school's psychiastrist during my junior year in college because I was procrastinating a lot and I thought a shrink could solve this problem. Diagnosed with chronic major depression. Been depressed for about 14 years actually. Started meds. Took a year off from school. Came back. Still got bad grades for my final year in UG . Starting to think I'm a bit bipolar as well.

WTF should I write about in my addendum? I don't know how well the depression for 14 year thing is going to play out since in high school, I got straight A's and graduated 1st in class, near perfect SAT scores all around.

Do you think the adcoms will give a fuck about my depression? I have some other things in mind that I could write about. Death of my very close grandmother during my sophomore year (my grades didn't suffer very much though. my grades were just consistently bad). Lack of goals (didn't know what I wanted to do after graduation).

I'll be working a couple of years before applying. Maybe I can talk about how I matured, gained a sense of direction / goal, started making great recovery from my depression?

P.S. I'm still depressed as fuck. Meds and therapy are helping a bit, but apparently it takes a long ass time to get over a long-term depression.



tl;dr - low gpa (3.4). diagnosed with depression. how to write a good addendum or PS to overcome my low gpa.

What about a state school do you think would have cured your chronic depression?

[rinkrat19]

You can write about the depression causing bad grades, but I wouldn't apply until you are over it. Keep on with the meds and therapy and whatever else until you and your doctor agree that it is under control, and then wait another year or so before applying to demonstrate that you can hold a job and be self-sufficient without relapsing. Then write about your struggle and having learned something from it and how you are confident that you can deal with whatever life throws at you from now on. Otherwise they'll see you as a huge risk to continue getting bad grades or drop out.

The other option, which I actually think is the better idea, is to just ride with the 3.4 and not try to explain it. You won't get the (very, very small) bump from having explained the bad grades to some extent, but you also won't have the stigma of being 'that dude who was depressed for 14+ years and might still be, we don't know.' But I still would definitely wait until the depression is truly under control for a while before applying.

TL;DR: If you kill the LSAT, you can still get into perfectly good schools with a 3.4 and not have to mention depression at all.

[bk1]

1. Your PS should have nothing to do with your GPA.

2. Your addendum should be:

Diagnosed with chronic major depression. Been depressed for about 14 years actually. Started meds. Took a year off from school. Came back. Still got bad grades for my final year in UG

I'm still depressed as fuck. Meds and therapy are helping a bit, but apparently it takes a long ass time to get over a long-term depression.

[KibblesAndVick]

If you were depressed throughout all of high school and still managed to graduate first in the class then the idea that the same condition prevented you from getting A's in college is a tough sell.

Moreover, finishing with a 3.4 suggests that you did decently just not spectacularly. You obviously completed your assignments and put some effort into school or else you would have wound up with a much worse GPA. This would also take away from an addendum. It's not like you had one semester where you said "fuck it" and stopped going to class or turning in work and ended up with some F's. You're trying to explain an entire pattern not just an outlier.

Finally, if you're going to write an addendum you want to be able to talk about how you overcame the problem. If seeking help and starting medications didn't enable you to get good grades in college it seems like your grades in law school would also be affected by your condition.

[cinephile]

A 3.4 is not a low GPA. If your GPA remained fairly stable throughout school, then there's nothing to say -- if it was far below 3.4 one year/semester, then address those circumstances.

I'd be wary about talking about your depression and the effect on your grades. Particularly since it doesn't seem like much time has passed so it's not something you can say was true in the past, but you've conquered and don't anticipate being a problem in law school.

[hereyago]

I went to HYPS for UG. Majored in math. My LSAC GPA should be around 3.4 (3.3 UG, 4.1 in community college classes that I took in high school). Fucking low GPA. Kinda pissed since if I went to a state school, I prob would've gotten 4.0+.

I went to see my school's psychiastrist during my junior year in college because I was procrastinating a lot and I thought a shrink could solve this problem. Diagnosed with chronic major depression. Been depressed for about 14 years actually. Started meds. Took a year off from school. Came back. Still got bad grades for my final year in UG . Starting to think I'm a bit bipolar as well.

WTF should I write about in my addendum? I don't know how well the depression for 14 year thing is going to play out since in high school, I got straight A's and graduated 1st in class, near perfect SAT scores all around.

Do you think the adcoms will give a fuck about my depression? I have some other things in mind that I could write about. Death of my very close grandmother during my sophomore year (my grades didn't suffer very much though. my grades were just consistently bad). Lack of goals (didn't know what I wanted to do after graduation).

I'll be working a couple of years before applying. Maybe I can talk about how I matured, gained a sense of direction / goal, started making great recovery from my depression?

P.S. I'm still depressed as fuck. Meds and therapy are helping a bit, but apparently it takes a long ass time to get over a long-term depression.



tl;dr - low gpa (3.4). diagnosed with depression. how to write a good addendum or PS to overcome my low gpa.

What about a state school do you think would have cured your chronic depression?

sorry i generalized too much. a lot of my friends went to state school (they didn't really perform that great in high school. B+ average maybe). and the ones that i talk to got like 3.7+ smoking weed all day,. but thats just that school i guess.

[hereyago]

If you were depressed throughout all of high school and still managed to graduate first in the class then the idea that the same condition prevented you from getting A's in college is a tough sell.

Moreover, finishing with a 3.4 suggests that you did decently just not spectacularly. You obviously completed your assignments and put some effort into school or else you would have wound up with a much worse GPA. This would also take away from an addendum. It's not like you had one semester where you said "fuck it" and stopped going to class or turning in work and ended up with some F's. You're trying to explain an entire pattern not just an outlier.

Finally, if you're going to write an addendum you want to be able to talk about how you overcame the problem. If seeking help and starting medications didn't enable you to get good grades in college it seems like your grades in law school would also be affected by your condition.

So if I do a good job at my work and get a good lor from them, you think it'd help me out to write an addendum about overcoming the problem?

or do you think they're still going to think of me as a risky student (getting depressed and then dropping out)?

[hereyago]

You can write about the depression causing bad grades, but I wouldn't apply until you are over it. Keep on with the meds and therapy and whatever else until you and your doctor agree that it is under control, and then wait another year or so before applying to demonstrate that you can hold a job and be self-sufficient without relapsing. Then write about your struggle and having learned something from it and how you are confident that you can deal with whatever life throws at you from now on. Otherwise they'll see you as a huge risk to continue getting bad grades or drop out.

The other option, which I actually think is the better idea, is to just ride with the 3.4 and not try to explain it. You won't get the (very, very small) bump from having explained the bad grades to some extent, but you also won't have the stigma of being 'that dude who was depressed for 14+ years and might still be, we don't know.' But I still would definitely wait until the depression is truly under control for a while before applying.

TL;DR: If you kill the LSAT, you can still get into perfectly good schools with a 3.4 and not have to mention depression at all.

So if I do a good job at my work and get a good lor from them, you think it'd help me out to write an addendum about overcoming the problem?

or do you think they're still going to think of me as a risky student (getting depressed and then dropping out)?

[beachbum]

Go work for a couple years, deal with your depression, and then worry about what you're going to put in your law school apps. You're still struggling with this thing, and you need to prove to the adcoms (and to yourself) that you can move past your problems to achieve success. Because right now you have a mediocre (though not bad) GPA and no "happy ending" (i.e. upward trend, successful few years in the work force, etc.) to make for a compelling addendum.

Also, you're gonna want to make sure that you can perform at a high academic level before you jump into law school. This means getting in the right state of mind.

[rinkrat19]

You can write about the depression causing bad grades, but I wouldn't apply until you are over it. Keep on with the meds and therapy and whatever else until you and your doctor agree that it is under control, and then wait another year or so before applying to demonstrate that you can hold a job and be self-sufficient without relapsing. Then write about your struggle and having learned something from it and how you are confident that you can deal with whatever life throws at you from now on. Otherwise they'll see you as a huge risk to continue getting bad grades or drop out.

The other option, which I actually think is the better idea, is to just ride with the 3.4 and not try to explain it. You won't get the (very, very small) bump from having explained the bad grades to some extent, but you also won't have the stigma of being 'that dude who was depressed for 14+ years and might still be, we don't know.' But I still would definitely wait until the depression is truly under control for a while before applying.

TL;DR: If you kill the LSAT, you can still get into perfectly good schools with a 3.4 and not have to mention depression at all.

So if I do a good job at my work and get a good lor from them, you think it'd help me out to write an addendum about overcoming the problem?

or do you think they're still going to think of me as a risky student (getting depressed and then dropping out)?

If you are determined to bring up your depression, then good work LORs are a must. You would NEED to show that you've moved beyond it and will be able to stand up to the rigors of law school without crumbling again. But I tend to agree with most of the other commenters that it's probably better to not bring it up at all. 3.4 isn't that bad. You obviously weren't utterly crippled by the depression to the point of flunking out of school.

With a 3.4, your LSAT will determine where you can go, from Tier 4 to lower T14, and there's no reason to risk revealing your depression. At best, it could offset maybe like .1 or so of your GPA (that's a wild guess, but the effect would be minor). At worst, it could get you rejected at schools where your numbers should have been auto-admit.

[hereyago]

lol you would have a lower gpa if you went to a state school douchebag. by the way i went to hyp so don't give me the "how would you know" excuse. i know because i experienced huge grade inflation at my school.

i would not write an addendum, it is not going to help you enough to give you a boost and will just make them see you as a lazy, depressed procrastinator.

i know you didn't go to HYP but i do apologize for the state school reference.

[hereyago]

You can write about the depression causing bad grades, but I wouldn't apply until you are over it. Keep on with the meds and therapy and whatever else until you and your doctor agree that it is under control, and then wait another year or so before applying to demonstrate that you can hold a job and be self-sufficient without relapsing. Then write about your struggle and having learned something from it and how you are confident that you can deal with whatever life throws at you from now on. Otherwise they'll see you as a huge risk to continue getting bad grades or drop out.

The other option, which I actually think is the better idea, is to just ride with the 3.4 and not try to explain it. You won't get the (very, very small) bump from having explained the bad grades to some extent, but you also won't have the stigma of being 'that dude who was depressed for 14+ years and might still be, we don't know.' But I still would definitely wait until the depression is truly under control for a while before applying.

TL;DR: If you kill the LSAT, you can still get into perfectly good schools with a 3.4 and not have to mention depression at all.

So if I do a good job at my work and get a good lor from them, you think it'd help me out to write an addendum about overcoming the problem?

or do you think they're still going to think of me as a risky student (getting depressed and then dropping out)?

If you are determined to bring up your depression, then good work LORs are a must. You would NEED to show that you've moved beyond it and will be able to stand up to the rigors of law school without crumbling again. But I tend to agree with most of the other commenters that it's probably better to not bring it up at all. 3.4 isn't that bad. You obviously weren't utterly crippled by the depression to the point of flunking out of school.

With a 3.4, your LSAT will determine where you can go, from Tier 4 to lower T14, and there's no reason to risk revealing your depression. At best, it could offset maybe like .1 or so of your GPA (that's a wild guess, but the effect would be minor). At worst, it could get you rejected at schools where your numbers should have been auto-admit.

i will be back on this forum after my lsats i guess.