Do I need an addendum for bad semester (last semester) Forum

[shwaz41]

from freshman year i had a gpa of 3.81 with my lowest grade being a b+

however, second semester of junior year i had a 2.9, lowering my gpa to a 3.71. this was partially due to a dying family friend , and i was constantly going back and forth to school to visit him. i feel this gpa does not reflect my work, but is this enough to warrant addendum?

[SPerez]

from freshman year i had a gpa of 3.81 with my lowest grade being a b+

however, second semester of junior year i had a 2.9, lowering my gpa to a 3.71. this was partially due to a dying family friend , and i was constantly going back and forth to school to visit him. i feel this gpa does not reflect my work, but is this enough to warrant addendum?

"Need" an addendum? No.

But SHOULD you do one? I say absolutely. Otherwise, you leave the door open to an adcom making unfavorable assumptions as to what happened that semester. Better to provide the answer, which most human beings with emotions and such would understand, than to let them think you are just a flake or are hiding something.

It's no big deal, really. It happens all the time and as long as your following semesters went back up then that's proof enough that it was an anomaly. These explanations ring hollow without that, when for example they argue "That 2.5 semester was an aberration" yet their other semesters were never higher than 3.0.

Dean Perez

[shwaz41]

@ Dean Perez- thank you for that advice, much appreciated!