GPA addendum for less-than-stellar reasons?
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 4:31 pm
Hi everyone. I'm just waiting for a mistakenly entered grade to be updated on my transcript and my LORs to be uploaded, then I'll be ready to apply for this cycle. I'm also wondering whether it's worth writing a GPA addendum, or whether it would be too likely to harm my application, considering how late into the cycle I am applying.
Relevant details:
My LSAT is 179, I wrote it once this most recent October.
Prior to this semester my GPA was terrible (below 3.3). It is still pretty terrible (3.4) but my past semester was a significant increase for me in terms of grades. I went from mediocre to pretty good (just under 3.9). It is my fifth semester out of the total six I will complete before my degree is awarded due to some advanced standing, so although I'll certainly be aiming to replicate my improved work ethic, I still won't come close to breaking many 25th percentiles
My school has also made it clear I must graduate at the end of this current semester so no extra classes to boost my grades.
I (of course) feel my most recent semester is a better idea of my potential. My first two years meant becoming adjusted to completely new situations, people, dealing with relationship issues, and different types and amounts of work. A large part was me being a poor worker and not dealing well with stress.
I feel that an addendum, to be advantageous, has to cover disadvantages which are both somewhat unique to the applicant, and which are not likely to present problems in law school. I think I am now in a position to make another school transition without suffering the same problems and could argue that effectively (this past semester my courses were harder and I did even more extracurriculars while still increasing my marks, and I'm 20 now so a bit less prone to the maturity faults), but I am also certain that it's not even close to unique for a GPA addendum to say "university was harder than I imagined for many reasons, and it took me two years to get used to it".
I do have a developmental disability which contributed to the problems, and though it underlies a good chunk of my PS, I do not talk about it as a mitigating factor for my grades.
TL;DR Is a significant (>0.55) increase in my past semester GPA on any previous semester, coupled with a developmental disability which amplified the difficulties I faced, significant enough for an addendum to be worthwhile? (Considering I am basically trying to explain away not doing enough to overcome it quicker, and would be framing it as "I wasn't up to the stress/work/everything before, but I've grown and matured and now I am, see my last semester GPA and LSAT and PS and (average) LORs".)
Thank you very much for any insight you can give! I tried to search past threads for similar questions but wasn't able to find any. If you have links to some I'll definitely read them. I'm blanketing schools CCN down (yay fee waivers) so school-specific advice is also quite helpful if you have any
Relevant details:
My LSAT is 179, I wrote it once this most recent October.
Prior to this semester my GPA was terrible (below 3.3). It is still pretty terrible (3.4) but my past semester was a significant increase for me in terms of grades. I went from mediocre to pretty good (just under 3.9). It is my fifth semester out of the total six I will complete before my degree is awarded due to some advanced standing, so although I'll certainly be aiming to replicate my improved work ethic, I still won't come close to breaking many 25th percentiles
My school has also made it clear I must graduate at the end of this current semester so no extra classes to boost my grades.I (of course) feel my most recent semester is a better idea of my potential. My first two years meant becoming adjusted to completely new situations, people, dealing with relationship issues, and different types and amounts of work. A large part was me being a poor worker and not dealing well with stress.
I feel that an addendum, to be advantageous, has to cover disadvantages which are both somewhat unique to the applicant, and which are not likely to present problems in law school. I think I am now in a position to make another school transition without suffering the same problems and could argue that effectively (this past semester my courses were harder and I did even more extracurriculars while still increasing my marks, and I'm 20 now so a bit less prone to the maturity faults), but I am also certain that it's not even close to unique for a GPA addendum to say "university was harder than I imagined for many reasons, and it took me two years to get used to it".
I do have a developmental disability which contributed to the problems, and though it underlies a good chunk of my PS, I do not talk about it as a mitigating factor for my grades.
TL;DR Is a significant (>0.55) increase in my past semester GPA on any previous semester, coupled with a developmental disability which amplified the difficulties I faced, significant enough for an addendum to be worthwhile? (Considering I am basically trying to explain away not doing enough to overcome it quicker, and would be framing it as "I wasn't up to the stress/work/everything before, but I've grown and matured and now I am, see my last semester GPA and LSAT and PS and (average) LORs".)
Thank you very much for any insight you can give! I tried to search past threads for similar questions but wasn't able to find any. If you have links to some I'll definitely read them. I'm blanketing schools CCN down (yay fee waivers) so school-specific advice is also quite helpful if you have any