Hello! I recently got feedback on my application from 7sage's mock admissions committee. I had 5 readers of my application and one of them said an explanation would be helpful to explain 2 Cs I have on my transcript. For context, the 2 Cs are really for one class, it was just such a high workload class that the credit allocation was split across 2 classes (so it shows up as a 4 credit class and a 2 credit class, but it was just one 6 credit class in actuality).
There weren't extenuating circumstances, it was just a difficult class, so I'm not sure if it's worth writing an addenda for, especially if it draws attention to the grades in a negative way.
Does anyone have advice for whether I should write an addenda or not?
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Adding a potential sixth 7Sage AdComm voice to the mix :-)
My general advice is that you should use an addenda to explain things that are outside the norm. In this case, those Cs are going to stick out like sore thumbs on your transcripts and CAS Report. Even if the explanation is "I tried my best and it was just a hard class," I'd rather hear that rather than wonder "was this a lack of effort? does the class have a nasty grade curve? did she miss some tests or something?" Might as well control the narrative!
And a quick note back to "the C will stick out"! Our review committee process here at 7Sage differs from a real life review in the sense that we don't get your real CAS Report. On the CAS Report, there will be a table that shows us your undergrad record broken down by year - how many credit hours did you take, what was your GPA for the year, how did that affect your cumulative GPA, etc. If there's an uncharacteristically low mark, it'll be clear as day on that table. Meaning, you aren't "drawing attention" to the grade because we're going to see it. So that's potentially why only one person commented on the addenda - if we don't have the CAS Report, we may miss that "sore thumb" in our review.