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During the fall semester of my freshman year in 2008 I had a 1.31 GPA. I think that this was because I was not used to a classroom environment. This semester was my first time back in school since I left high school in the 11th grade. Also, I had no transportation and had to bicycle 10 miles to school every day. However, my GPA during my sophomore and junior years was a 3.75. I feel that this is more representative of my ability to succeed in law school.


My LSDAS GPA is a 3.28, should i include a addendum?

A 1.31 semester GPA should definitely be explained. Try to focus on the one or two main reasons for why your GPA was that low. Adcomms don't want to hear addendums that sound like you are just cherry picking excuses. Also, that upward trend will be a nice plus.

Why weren't you in school senior year? Maybe that could be useful for an addendum if your circumstances continued from high school into UG...

I would avoid the "bike to school" excuse. I don't see how that would affect your GPA, unless you went to school somewhere that was icy half the year and it actually prevented you from safely getting to class.

I would be explicit about how long you were out of school -- don't make them flip back to your transcripts / application to see how much time passed between 11th grade and freshman year.

Yes i live in the NE so it was often impossible to get to school. I will clarify that it was a year and a half.

any other opinions? Should i include the fact that i had to bike, since i live in NY

john1990 wrote:During the fall semester of my freshman year in 2008 I had a 1.31 GPA. I think that this was because I was not used to a classroom environment. This semester was my first time back in school since I left high school in the 11th grade. Also, I had no transportation and had to bicycle 10 miles to school every day. However, my GPA during my sophomore and junior years was a 3.75. I feel that this is more representative of my ability to succeed in law school.


My LSDAS GPA is a 3.28, should i include a addendum?

Why is your senior year from UG excluded? Is it bad? If it is, you're pretty much sunk.

Kabuo wrote:

john1990 wrote:During the fall semester of my freshman year in 2008 I had a 1.31 GPA. I think that this was because I was not used to a classroom environment. This semester was my first time back in school since I left high school in the 11th grade. Also, I had no transportation and had to bicycle 10 miles to school every day. However, my GPA during my sophomore and junior years was a 3.75. I feel that this is more representative of my ability to succeed in law school.


My LSDAS GPA is a 3.28, should i include a addendum?

Why is your senior year from UG excluded? Is it bad? If it is, you're pretty much sunk.

I have around a 3.66 this semester, which is not great compared to my curve. But senior year classes hand out less A's. Im excluding senior year because grades aren't in yet

Kabuo wrote:

john1990 wrote:During the fall semester of my freshman year in 2008 I had a 1.31 GPA. I think that this was because I was not used to a classroom environment. This semester was my first time back in school since I left high school in the 11th grade. Also, I had no transportation and had to bicycle 10 miles to school every day. However, my GPA during my sophomore and junior years was a 3.75. I feel that this is more representative of my ability to succeed in law school.


My LSDAS GPA is a 3.28, should i include a addendum?

Why is your senior year from UG excluded? Is it bad? If it is, you're pretty much sunk.

I'm assuming he is a senior now.

OP: don't say "I think," just give the reason. And I agree with the above poster that you should explain why you left HS in 11th grade. If there was a good reason for that it would make everything else tie together nicely.

Tiago Splitter wrote:

Kabuo wrote:

john1990 wrote:During the fall semester of my freshman year in 2008 I had a 1.31 GPA. I think that this was because I was not used to a classroom environment. This semester was my first time back in school since I left high school in the 11th grade. Also, I had no transportation and had to bicycle 10 miles to school every day. However, my GPA during my sophomore and junior years was a 3.75. I feel that this is more representative of my ability to succeed in law school.


My LSDAS GPA is a 3.28, should i include a addendum?

Why is your senior year from UG excluded? Is it bad? If it is, you're pretty much sunk.

I'm assuming he is a senior now.

OP: don't say "I think," just give the reason. And I agree with the above poster that you should explain why you left HS in 11th grade. If there was a good reason for that it would make everything else tie together nicely.

I have that in my personal statement, should i still include it hear also?

What is the real reason you did badly? Missing school? Not studying adequately?
Being out of school for a year and a half may not seem long enough to say you weren't used to a classroom enviroment.

You could just say something like: due to transportation issues, I was unable to attend my classes regularly. This drastically affected my performance. As soon as those issues were resolved, I was able to work at my full potential.

sunynp wrote:What is the real reason you did badly? Missing school? Not studying adequately?
Being out of school for a year and a half may not seem long enough to say you weren't used to a classroom enviroment.

You could just say something like: due to transportation issues, I was unable to attend my classes regularly. This drastically affected my performance. As soon as those issues were resolved, I was able to work at my full potential.

thanks for the tip, i don't like the way that sounds now that i think about it.

You really need to revise the addendum.

During the fall semester of my freshman year in 2008 I had a 1.31 GPA."I think that this was because I was not used to a classroom environment. This The semester was my first time back in school since I left high school in the 11th grade.". Also, I had no transportation and had to bicycle 10 miles to school every day (relevancy?). However, my GPA during my sophomore and junior years was a 3.75. I feel that this is more representative of my ability to succeed in law school.

89vision wrote:You really need to revise the addendum.

During the fall semester of my freshman year in 2008 I had a 1.31 GPA."I think that this was because I was not used to a classroom environment. This The semester was my first time back in school since I left high school in the 11th grade.". Also, I had no transportation and had to bicycle 10 miles to school every day (relevancy?). However, my GPA during my sophomore and junior years was a 3.75. I feel that this is more representative of my ability to succeed in law school.

During the fall semester of my freshman year in 2008 I had a 1.31 GPA. I was returning to school for the first time since leaving high school in the eleventh grade and was just regaining my focus. Also, I had no transportation and had to bicycle 10 miles to school every day in upstate New York. This was often impossible because of the distance and weather. Therefore, I do not believe that my current GPA is reflective of my abilities. However, my GPA from sophomore year forward was a 3.75 and my cumulative GPA without that semester is a 3.61. This is more representative of my ability to succeed in law school.

What do you think of that? From my perspective having to bike to school was a big part of the reason that i wasn't able to focus. I was always tired in class. Other times i couldn't get to school at all because of snow