Top Law Schools

My freshman fall semester GPA was 3.123.... I think I was really lost and really confused as to how to study in a college setting.

My grades definitely went up and I maintained a 3.98 average during my last two years of college, and ended up with 3.77 for my overall GPA.

I did not really include any addendum for my low GPA for my first semester because I thought it would be common among other applicants as well... but do you think an addendum would help?

imcool19 wrote:My freshman fall semester GPA was 3.123.... I think I was really lost and really confused as to how to study in a college setting.

My grades definitely went up and I maintained a 3.98 average during my last two years of college, and ended up with 3.77 for my overall GPA.

I did not really include any addendum for my low GPA for my first semester because I thought it would be common among other applicants as well... but do you think an addendum would help?

I was actually wondering this myself, since I'm in a very similar boat (except your GPA ended up being .15 higher than mine).

I've heard that upward grade trends can help if you end up being compared to an applicant with identical numbers + a downward trend. In other words, if another applicant had a 3.77 but his/her transcript showed that their grades got progressively worse, you would have the advantage. Can anyone corroborate this?

Dean Perez's thread kind of supports this claim, as he mentions trends factor in in transcript reviews. The way I interpreted is it counts as a minor soft, and really won't make or break you. See his thread and decide for yourselves - it's full of great info.

Writing an addendum may help draw attention to the thread and cast it in a positive light.

I had the same problem, except it was more due to transferring to a tougher school my sophomore year and not really getting it together until a year and a half in.

I had a 2.8 my first semester of college and eventually gradated with honors. I didn't include an addendum and was fine. An upward trend is pretty self-explanatory.

Upward trends are so common among applicants I doubt they make any difference whatsoever.

Better to show grades going up than grades going down.

Will it be a cure all? No.
Will it make you look better than not having it? Well, duh, yeah.

ChampagnePapi wrote:Upward trends are so common among applicants I doubt they make any difference whatsoever.

i disagree. i think it's very important if you want to outperform your numbers.

OP, your overall grades are very good regardless of your first semester GPA. An addendum would probably be overkill.

Don't write an addendum. It's extremely common for people's first semester in college to be their worst one. You ended up with a good GPA so it's not that big of a deal.