Addendum Questions!! Requesting any insight! Forum

[mailtojunkr]

I am planning to submit soon today and had a few quick questions. Thank you so much in advance to whoever answers!!

1. I am submitting a lot later than I wanted to. I got my LSAT score in September and my recommendations were in by November. I worked on my essays throughout the fall and was planning to submit mid-Jan at the end of winter break. But in December, an extremely close family member suddenly pass away and had to travel for 2 weeks for the funeral. I wasn't in a state to work on my apps for a few weeks after, and have just recently finished them. I have been planning for years to go to law school now and it is clear through my essays/resume that this has been my goal for a while (I'm KJD). I don't want admissions officers questioning my genuine interest in law school if they see that I'm applying so close to the Feb 15 deadline. Should I write an addendum about the extenuating circumstances that delayed my submission?

2. My transcript shows I only took 2 classes as opposed to 3 during one quarter because I was working 20 hours part-time at a law firm during that time. I mention the dates for this job on my resume, but do I need to include an addendum about this since 2 classes is technically part-time student?

3. I took 4 community college classes in my freshman year of college (2020) because all my classes were online and I had a lot of extra time living at home. They were all business/law classes and I took them for purely enrichment (I did not transfer any credits from them to my full-time institution because I didn't need to/ I wanted to take a regular amount of units there). I got good grades in them and sent the transcript from this CC to LSAC. One of my additional recommenders is actually a professor and the law department chair of this college (he knows me very well). Do I need to explain why I took these classes and why they weren't transferred?

[TTTTorbust]

The answer to all of these questions is no.

1. There’s never any reason to submit an addendum for why you didn’t apply earlier. Adcoms don’t care about that in the slightest, and while I’m not an adcom, I can’t imagine a “woe is me, I wanted to apply sooner but life got in the way, please give me special consideration!” is actually doing you any favors.

2. Tons of us worked more with higher course loads. This comes off as really out of touch. Also, adcoms don’t care.

3. I’m not going to bother with this one, still no.

I thought about leaving just a no with no further clarification, but the fact you even thought for a second about writing addenda for any of this indicates you could use the helping hand. Addenda here give no benefit, and might hurt you.

[talons2250]

I am planning to submit soon today and had a few quick questions. Thank you so much in advance to whoever answers!!

1. I am submitting a lot later than I wanted to. I got my LSAT score in September and my recommendations were in by November. I worked on my essays throughout the fall and was planning to submit mid-Jan at the end of winter break. But in December, an extremely close family member suddenly pass away and had to travel for 2 weeks for the funeral. I wasn't in a state to work on my apps for a few weeks after, and have just recently finished them. I have been planning for years to go to law school now and it is clear through my essays/resume that this has been my goal for a while (I'm KJD). I don't want admissions officers questioning my genuine interest in law school if they see that I'm applying so close to the Feb 15 deadline. Should I write an addendum about the extenuating circumstances that delayed my submission?

2. My transcript shows I only took 2 classes as opposed to 3 during one quarter because I was working 20 hours part-time at a law firm during that time. I mention the dates for this job on my resume, but do I need to include an addendum about this since 2 classes is technically part-time student?

3. I took 4 community college classes in my freshman year of college (2020) because all my classes were online and I had a lot of extra time living at home. They were all business/law classes and I took them for purely enrichment (I did not transfer any credits from them to my full-time institution because I didn't need to/ I wanted to take a regular amount of units there). I got good grades in them and sent the transcript from this CC to LSAC. One of my additional recommenders is actually a professor and the law department chair of this college (he knows me very well). Do I need to explain why I took these classes and why they weren't transferred?

Don't write addenda for #1 and #2. I don't think writing an addendum for #3 would hurt you, so if you really want to write that one, then you should do it. You definitely don't need to though.

The sad reality is that law school admissions is mostly about your LSAT score and undergraduate LSAC GPA with everything else just being a tiebreaker unless you have a truly extraordinary backstory (in which case the soft factors could help you) or if your application essay(s) and/or recommendations are truly terrible (in which case the soft factors could hurt you).