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Hey friends,

I was wondering about whether or not I should write an addendum in regards to my abysmal GPA (3.18). I started off as a biology major freshman year and seriously slacked off for 3 semesters. As you might know, slacking off and biology don't go well together. My GPA sat at around 2.5 after 3 semesters. Needless to say I do have a stark upward trend throughout my years, as I changed my major after those 3 semesters to political science and got it up to around 3.5-3.7 each semester. My full scholarship was in jeopardy after those first three semesters and I was placed on probation. I was able to get back on track, and avoid any penalties, however.

It has come to my attention that this might just make me look like I need an excuse, as if biology was too hard for me so I needed to change majors. So it could be detrimental. But I feel as if in comparison to those who majored in "easier" majors like communications or other humanities, it is a disadvantage to have suffered through biology that I need to offset somehow. Thoughts? Thanks!

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I'd skip the addendum. I sympathize with your situation, but an addendum is not for situations like yours. They are more for people who had a legitimate reason for poor grades. The upward trend will help some and schools will be able to see that by glancing at your transcript. Good luck.

If you are going to write an addendum which i don't recommend, be careful to not sound like you chose political science over biology just because you thought that you would get a higher GPA. Most GPA addenda are for severe illness or family emergency that caused you to severely under perform certain semesters and that an adcomm wouldn't be able to assume from your application. When they see your GPA trend, they will probably be able to assume that biology was just not your thing and you switched to something else. Unfortunately, all you can focus on is the ultimate LSAC GPA.

Hat.trick wrote:Most GPA addenda are for severe illness or family emergency that caused you to severely under perform certain semesters and that an adcomm wouldn't be able to assume from your application.

I agree with this - I think an addendum is generally only helpful if it explains some kind of outside factor outside your control that legitimately affected your performance for a specific period of time - e.g. "my sophomore year my family lost our house and I was living in a car" or "my second semester freshman year I was diagnosed with and underwent treatment for cancer." Choosing the wrong major/slacking off, though totally human and understandable, aren't outside your control.

(But of course if the school wants an addendum about probation then write one, obviously.)

I'll probably skip the addendum, then. Thanks for all your input- I don't want to seem as if I'm making petty excuses is all. Let's hope they find a silver lining in the upward trend!