Hi! I am taking my second LSAT this August and am planning on applying to law schools this coming fall. I am (really really) hoping my score will increase significantly this second time around. I heard some people suggest that if a score increases by a certain percentage, we have to explain why in the addendum.
If someone has any extra information on if this is true, and if so, what we should put, I would really appreciate it!
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Speaking from the AdComm perspective, I think it's worth saying something if we're talking about a 5-6+ point jump increase from your lowest to highest score. Although I know what happened (it's either a) you tried a new study program and found the one that worked, b) something negative happened to you on the lower test, like you were sick, or c) all of the above), it's still good for you to just say it out loud. This mitigates anyone reviewing your app who asks "Gosh, I wonder if they just didn't take the LSAT seriously the first time around."
And as far as content, one paragraph that tells me about the improvement is just fine (noting that I know it's the a, b, or c options I noted above)!
@JacobBaska Thank you so much for your advice! For me, the reason was that the first time I took it I was a full time student with 2 part time jobs and several clubs, so I didnt have much time to study. This summer I decided to devote a majority of my time to studying. Is that okay to put in the addendum, or would they think that this translates to "I didnt care about it the first time around"?
@MichelleGukhman I think that falls into Category A from above - you tried a new study program and found that it worked!
This might be too much of an speicifc question for you to answer but I'm a nontraditional applicant. I started studying in July 25, took it twice (once in November - 160 and second in January - 164), applied in March, was accepted into a school, and opted to push off for a cycle to get a better lsat score and apply earlier in the cycle (aiming for late October/early November).
My new personal statement is going to highlight the process of not going to law school this year and instead next year as me not pushing it off but instead knowing that I was more capable and could do better. It's being interwoven with a quote about values and also the right "when" being important.
Do you think I should also have an addendum to note my improvement even with it being an aspect of my personal statement? My assumption is that I'm able to hit at least 168 or higher, especially since I'm taking it next week with that being a reasonable score and again I'm October when I'll be even sharper.
@Adam So, I’m remotely diagnosing things and I don’t want you to read into this if it’s not relevant!
However….
What I want to learn from the personal statement is why you want to go to law school and be a lawyer. Even as a reapplicant to my school who probably wrote about Why Law last time, I want to know why you want to go law school on the personal statement. I get what you’re going for with your new topic! But the fact remains - I don’t want to learn about why you didn’t go to law school, I don’t want to know about the process of applying to law school, I want to learn about Why Law.
The addenda is where you’d talk about what you’ve improved since last time, ie, your LSAT.
Again, apologies if it’s not relevant, if I’m overstepping, raining on any parades, etc!
But now taking your question straight up, no, you don’t have to also have an addenda if the matters at hand are clearly identified in your PS.
I hope that helps!
@JacobBaska Thank you so much!!
Thanks! This is really helpful. That's what my original personal statement was entirely. I suppose my concern was that I had already been accepted last cycle to a school and almost felt like I needed to note that. And as I'm writing that, I know that's silly since obviously it's not a unique thing to do and the schools I'm applying would know that happened anyway.
Last quick question, should I be concerned about reusing my personal statement as long as I'm editing it rather than just resubmitting it? I don't want it to seem lazy to the schools I'm reapplying to.
The only school I can think of off the top of my head that does this is Michigan. If it's something a school wants, they'll definitely say so on their application pages.
The general vibe that I've gotten from these addendums is that they should be short and factual. Something like "I tried a new study program" or something like that is probably fine.
It’s dependent on the schools. Some may want it if there’s a 5+ point jump and others want it if there’s a 10+ point jump. You can ask them during info sessions they host or send an email. 🙂