Legitimate cause for GPA Addendum? Forum

nlee10 · Post by **nlee10** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:26 am

*edited*

Thanks for the input. I suppose acing the lsat is my last option now.

ilikebaseball · Post by **ilikebaseball** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:29 am

I feel like you just have sort of a different excuse for every single year. I mean, I understand (and relate) to the second year, but like the first year they might be like "oh so its the high school's fault?" idk, thats just me. I think its perfectly fine to make an addendum if someone's passing hit you hard because i know it had a huge effect on me, but everything else is just sorta like so what?

MistakenGenius · Post by **MistakenGenius** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:52 am

Post removed.

Ti Malice · Post by **Ti Malice** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 1:35 am

I agree with the previous posters. I absolutely would not write an addendum with all of the reasons you included, and I wouldn't even include one that only mentioned your grandmother's battle with cancer.

I don't mean to sound harsh or to try to minimize the emotional toll it took on you, but I wouldn't write an addendum attributing poor academic performance to a family member's illness and/or death unless that family member was a mother, father, or sibling (or the person who raised you/served as your guardian). I think some people will find it hard to believe that you weren't able to adjust and regain your academic footing during those 2.5 years solely due to this one cause, and if they believe it, I think they're likely to draw some negative conclusions about your ability to deal with adversity should something happen during law school (and bad life shit happens for a decent number of people at some point during the three years).

The GPA addenda that I've seen help people outperform their GPAs have all involved the applicant's own illness, but I'm talking cancer treated with chemo/radiation/surgery, not obesity. Don't go there.

In sum, I think there's very little potential upside and a fair amount of potential downside for you in writing an addendum. Just focus on mastering and destroying the LSAT.

Chrstgtr · Post by **Chrstgtr** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 1:45 am

Too many excuses-each of which many other people have had to manage.

I only think addendum are appropriate when you are forced to juggle something else full-time that will take away your ability to devote yourself to school i.e. became very sick after drop deadline and consequently have withdraws that count as 0s or parents passed away and you suddenly became the primary caregiver to your younger siblings.

ilikebaseball · Post by **ilikebaseball** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 3:47 pm

I've actually been thinking about one for mine recently. My freshman year I ended up with like a 2.6 GPA, completely abnormal from the rest of my transcript. I had to miss 2 months (including midterms) going back and forth to my bedridden grandma who was struggling with her life and needed assistance, and then the week of midterms I actually had to go to her funeral. Is that addendum worthy?

MistakenGenius · Post by **MistakenGenius** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 4:13 pm

Post removed.

ilikebaseball · Post by **ilikebaseball** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:08 pm

MistakenGenius wrote:
ilikebaseball wrote:I've actually been thinking about one for mine recently. My freshman year I ended up with like a 2.6 GPA, completely abnormal from the rest of my transcript. I had to miss 2 months (including midterms) going back and forth to my bedridden grandma who was struggling with her life and needed assistance, and then the week of midterms I actually had to go to her funeral. Is that addendum worthy?
I doubt it will make a huge difference since they seem to only care about personal illness, since family does eventually get sick or pass away and you can't let it ruin your own life, though I am sorry for your loss. I'd like to know your other years to see how abnormal your performance is, but if you have a 3.5+ the rest of the time, I definitely think you can use an addendum to put your lower GPA into context. This addendum couldn't hurt.

I got a 2.6 the first semester, and a 3.4 or above every other semester except one.

Chrstgtr · Post by **Chrstgtr** » Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:20 pm

ilikebaseball wrote:I've actually been thinking about one for mine recently. My freshman year I ended up with like a 2.6 GPA, completely abnormal from the rest of my transcript. I had to miss 2 months (including midterms) going back and forth to my bedridden grandma who was struggling with her life and needed assistance, and then the week of midterms I actually had to go to her funeral. Is that addendum worthy?

I think it is worth it to explain that significant outlier but also doubt it will move the needle much. At the very least it makes your first semester seem less of a "got to college and went crazy" than a situation that was beyond your control to some degree.