Bad Freshman Year Forum

[AveryTolar]

I'm currently entering my 3rd year at A&M and I'm on pace to graduate in December of 2016. I currently hold a 3.5 GPA, a pretty big climb considering at the end of my freshman year, it was hovering around a 2.0 as the result of me being a stupid 18-19 year old. To bluntly explain what happened (not in the way I would phrase it to an adcomm) in the fall of my freshmen year I was pledging a fraternity, celebrating beating Bama and dropping freshmen biology but I still turned up alright with 3.0. In the spring I decided I should celebrate being initiated into said fraternity by partying way too much and letting my grades slip even further, dropping another class, and to add the icing to the cake getting an MIC. After a Hallelujah come to Jesus meeting with my parents and barely being allowed to come back to school I got a 4.0 taking 32 hours my sophomore year , took 6 more online this summer while working at a Boutique firm in Dallas and got a 4.0 again. If I can continue working hard and climbing that GPA up to where I want it to be (3.7+) and hopefully get the LSAT score that I have started preparing for how does my poor freshmen year play to an admissions council? Considering I haven't taken my LSAT yet I don't mean to make this into a "What are my chances thread" but I am hoping for Texas, SMU, Houston, or Baylor and was hoping for some insight for someone who has been through the ringer.

[BaberhamLincoln]

If you end up with a 3.7, congrats!!
Write an addendum explaining. But you'll have to do a better job of explaining than you did here (beating bama and getting initiated will get your app tossed out lol)

[AveryTolar]

If you end up with a 3.7, congrats!!
Write an addendum explaining. But you'll have to do a better job of explaining than you did here (beating bama and getting initiated will get your app tossed out lol)

Of course, I'll definitely paint a more contrite and eloquent portrait.

[Nova]

lgpa is what matters

trends generally don't

i vote no addendum since u don't have a good reason

pretty much everyone is a shortsighted carless teenager during their first couple years of college

[ymmv]

lgpa is what matters

trends generally don't

i vote no addendum since u don't have a good reason

pretty much everyone is a shortsighted carless teenager during their first couple years of college life

[Nova]

I am hoping for Texas, SMU, Houston, or Baylor and was hoping for some insight for someone who has been through the ringer.

i applied to all those schools except baylor

generally, if u score at or above their lsat median u should get in with some money

http://www.lawschoolnumbers.com

http://www.mylsn.info

[ilikebaseball]

No no no no absolutely do not write an addendum saying that you partied as a freshman and blew your 1st year (as did like 90% of the rest of us). There is no eloquent way to put that without lying. They probably see so many addendum's that they can say to themselves "oh a frat 1st year student at a big school. Booze." without you even having mentioned alcohol once.

You could probably find tons of threads similar to this, but usually its the people who fought cancer/illness, or who suffered a tragic loss who make the biggest impact on the addendum. Even that is just an explanation... I don't even know how much of an impact it makes on their view of your GPA. A school gets thousands of apps and a lot of addendums. If the excuse is that you partied too much its not gonna help, especially when that's gonna likely be 50% of the other excuses as well.

What you do have going for you is an uphill GPA trend from your freshman year, which a lot of law schools like. You learned from your mistakes, and you are committed to not doing them again. I think that's more important than anything your addendum would say regarding partying

[AveryTolar]

No no no no absolutely do not write an addendum saying that you partied as a freshman and blew your 1st year (as did like 90% of the rest of us). There is no eloquent way to put that without lying. They probably see so many addendum's that they can say to themselves "oh a frat 1st year student at a big school. Booze." without you even having mentioned alcohol once.

You could probably find tons of threads similar to this, but usually its the people who fought cancer/illness, or who suffered a tragic loss who make the biggest impact on the addendum. Even that is just an explanation... I don't even know how much of an impact it makes on their view of your GPA. A school gets thousands of apps and a lot of addendums. If the excuse is that you partied too much its not gonna help, especially when that's gonna likely be 50% of the other excuses as well.

What you do have going for you is an uphill GPA trend from your freshman year, which a lot of law schools like. You learned from your mistakes, and you are committed to not doing them again. I think that's more important than anything your addendum would say regarding partying

Hadn't thought of it like that, it sounds like in my case addendum is a waste of paper.

[ilikebaseball]

No no no no absolutely do not write an addendum saying that you partied as a freshman and blew your 1st year (as did like 90% of the rest of us). There is no eloquent way to put that without lying. They probably see so many addendum's that they can say to themselves "oh a frat 1st year student at a big school. Booze." without you even having mentioned alcohol once.

You could probably find tons of threads similar to this, but usually its the people who fought cancer/illness, or who suffered a tragic loss who make the biggest impact on the addendum. Even that is just an explanation... I don't even know how much of an impact it makes on their view of your GPA. A school gets thousands of apps and a lot of addendums. If the excuse is that you partied too much its not gonna help, especially when that's gonna likely be 50% of the other excuses as well.

What you do have going for you is an uphill GPA trend from your freshman year, which a lot of law schools like. You learned from your mistakes, and you are committed to not doing them again. I think that's more important than anything your addendum would say regarding partying

Hadn't thought of it like that, it sounds like in my case addendum is a waste of paper.

FWIW, I'm thinking about the same schools (besides baylor but thats just because I've heard horror stories) and I have a low GPA, but I'm shooting for UT. Even taking a visit 2 days ago. So ya, I wouldn't make an addendum to bring the problem to light.

[Nova]

yeah baylor sucks compared to smu/uhlc

only apply for the sake of scholly negotiation

[Nova]

y baylor sucks:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=224879

[ilikebaseball]

yeah baylor sucks compared to smu/uhlc

only apply for the sake of scholly negotiation

the law school building (from the outside) is gorgeous, and its right on the river. But the cons far outweigh the pros

[AveryTolar]

y baylor sucks:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=224879

This forum and my general distaste for Baylor and it's people have sufficiently widened the gap between my top 3 and Baylol. I can put any rivalry aside for UT Law though.

[theincredibleTM]

no addendum needed. i also did terribly for two years, my story was a little different. i worked very hard my first 2 years..4.0 almost..ruined it by partying too much...2.8 average the next 2 years. didnt have a good excuse except to have fun, and just let the averages do its work.

[AveryTolar]

Sorry to rehash my own old thread but what about an addendum for my MIC? I don't know how that process works is it better to just gloss over it and hope they don't think anything of it or to address and show that it was a common mistake by a dumb 19 year old?

[Attax]

yeah baylor sucks compared to smu/uhlc

only apply for the sake of scholly negotiation

THey didn't even have any bar or booze events for ASW so I didn't attend. And they lowballed me until I actually negotiated.