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Hey everybody!
Before I graduated from my university, my advisor suggested I write an addendum for my science grades. He has since changed professions and I cannot get a hold of him. His replacement is not very helpful. I completed 3 and a half years of premedical preparation before deciding to go to law school, and quite frankly, I decided in my last semester. There are two rather dramatic events that are described in my personal statement which caused the change. With science grades included, my GPA is a 3.43 and without them, it is boosted to around 3.7. Is there an eloquent way to write an addendum or should I avoid it completely?
Thank you!!!
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10 comments
Hi Kate, I'm in a similar situation as you are with the switch from pre-med to law (orgo ruined my gpa too lol). I was wondering if you ever ended up writing an addendum explaining why you switched?
I can only imagine.
@476.rizeq Orgo is such a bitch. Pardon my language, but seriously, it is the worst.
Lol, I remember all my STEM friends always having the worst time with Orgo. Glad I majored in History haha.
@gregoryalexanderdevine723 YAS!
http://i.giphy.com/YFis3URdQJ6qA.gif
@msami1010493 - nailed it! I started writing a response and then yours said the exact same thing basically.
Thank you guys so much for your advice! I didn't refer to my grades in my PR at all, I only explained the career change and tied it in with lifelong anxiety and how both those things make me a better JD rather than MD candidate. Grades were never referred to specifically. My major GPA was approximately a 3.85 if I remember correctly, it's the premed prerequisites like organic chemistry that brought the overall GPA down.
Won't matter much if you are explaining science grades. If you have other legitimate reasons to explain the GPA drop, or you are splitter candidate, then it would help to explain the low GPA, otherwise I don't really see why you would add an addendum for science grades.
I'd err on the side of not writing the addendum and not mentioning your grades in your personal statement. The general sense that I get, and David can add to this here, is to not use the valuable space in your personal statement to mention anything that seems to rationalize low grades/LSAT. You can certainly talk about changes that impacted you, where the reader can infer why your grades are what they are, but I've heard that this is one gap you do not want to make explicitly for your reader. As for the addendum, I'd only suggesting writing it if you can write it in a way without coming off defensive.
I don't have much knowledge on the matter, so I'll just pass on what little I know, and have heard.
If it's mentioned in your PS, I wouldn't bother mentioning it in an addendum - it's redundant.
Another thing to consider is the fact that law schools will often take your major into consideration, whether or not you write an addendum about it. So, if person "A" received a 3.4 in chemical engineering and person "B" received a 3.8 in liberal studies, I highly doubt the individual reviewing said applications will say "Person B must be more intelligent than person A."