When is it warranted to write gpa addendum? Forum

[RSolano]

Downward trend total of 0.3 difference between freshma and senior due to working increased hours... STEM major. Thank you!

[Platopus]

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[personofinterest]

Agree. It's not enough of a drop to warrant one.

[RSolano]

Thanks guys! When would it be suggested?

[Platopus]

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[cavalier1138]

Downward trend total of 0.3 difference between freshma and senior due to working increased hours... STEM major. Thank you!

That's certainly a big enough drop, but if the excuse is still "working more hours," it's not going to be that effective.

[RSolano]

You don't think they see a difference between a student focusing only on class and one working 30 hours a week while in school?

[cavalier1138]

You don't think they see a difference between a student focusing only on class and one working 30 hours a week while in school?

I'm sure they do, but you had control over your course load and schedule. Even if the addendum might help mitigate a single semester of bad performance, if you continued to slide and did nothing to adjust your academic or work schedule, the adcomm is likely to put that on you. It's not like a medical condition or something similar, which would have been outside your control. You chose to work 30 hours a week and take a full course load.

The general rule for addenda is that they're mostly useless, but the main situations where they can be helpful are ones in which the applicant was affected by a serious issue that was out of their hands.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Maybe (although they don't get to report your GPA with an addendum that you did better when you were working fewer hours), but they'll be able to tell from your resume that you were working while you were taking classes. An addendum isn't really about making at argument about info they already have, so much as it's a way to give them information they don't already have.

[Platopus]

,

[RSolano]

Ah okay, got it! Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone

[RSolano]

Listening to one of Ann Levines podcasts and she gives the opposite advice- calls low gpa due to working through school "the best possible explanation for low grades" and says that especially if you can point out which years you were working (lower gpa) and which you weren't (higher gpa) it's very persuasive and respectable... Ie to say here is a semester I worked abroad and didn't have to work so this gpa reflects my real abilities

[cavalier1138]

Listening to one of Ann Levines podcasts and she gives the opposite advice- calls low gpa due to working through school "the best possible explanation for low grades" and says that especially if you can point out which years you were working (lower gpa) and which you weren't (higher gpa) it's very persuasive and respectable... Ie to say here is a semester I worked abroad and didn't have to work so this gpa reflects my real abilities

Not to slam the self-proclaimed Law School Expert (seriously, that should be enough of a red flag), but that doesn't appear to play out in admissions. Also, you absolutely cannot use study abroad grades as evidence of your "real" GPA, because study abroad programs are generally fluff classes with easy grading policies.

If you're not convinced, feel free to ask Spivey and see if he says differently. But this reads like the opposite of "I was partying hard before I got my life together." You chose to work a heavy schedule in school and your grades suffered for it, which leads to the inevitable question of why you didn't change your work or class schedule to try and get some kind of balance in there.

[littlelibertine]

x

[HenryHankPalmer]

I'm writing a GPA addendum. In the fall semester of my last year of college, I suffered a grade three (severe) concussion which resulted in post-concussion syndrome that lingered into the summer of the next year. The cognitive symptoms I experienced (in particular, difficulties with memory and attention) contributed to academic struggles reflected in my final grades of the fall and spring semesters. Prior to my concussion, I had a 3.77 GPA. After that year, my GPA was (and remained, as I graduated that spring) 3.55. It's a significant enough difference with enough reason to merit an addendum, IMO.

This does seem like a good reason to write an addendum.

I ended up writing one because I had a big dip in my grades in the spring semester of my Freshman year (3.5 to 2.0) because of some pretty severe family problems. The only reason that I ended up writing it is because I have an upward trend and I wanted to highlight the fact that this semester was anomalous. I think most GPA addenda are pretty useless, but best case scenario an ad comm sees your poor performance in a new light.