Value of Addendum

Avisron
Sun, 26 Dec 2010 01:05:22 +0000

I have a sort of an open ended question regarding how much of a difference an addendum can make on an application.

It seems like all the questions on here about addendums (or addenda?) are from people who have like 2.4 GPA’s and want to get into the University of Virginia. That’s not me.

Basically, I have a pretty good GPA at my undergraduate institution. It’s right at a 3.5 now, and should be around or above a 3.6 by the time I graduate. While I don’t have an actual LSAT score yet, every indication is that I’ll make in the low 160’s on it, so bear with me on that.

Likewise, I’m not applying to the T14 schools. I’m realistic. I LOVE the University of Richmond School of Law, which is just inside the top 100. The best school, in terms of ranking, that I think I have a shot at is UNC Law. I’m also very interested in Wake Forest. All of these schools, with some slight variation, have median GPA’s between 3.4 and 3.6 with average LSATs in the low 160s. UNC and Wake should be more selective than Richmond, but not significantly so.

Now, here’s where things get complicated. Like is the case of many people wondering about addendums, I took some dual enrollment courses in high school. I made A’s and B’s in all of them except for two Pre Calculus classes, where I got D’s. In a total of 36 credit hours, my GPA is a 3.0. That’ll be considered in the LSDAS GPA, and should pull it down to like, a 3.42-3.5. Which is just SLIGHTLY below the averages for these schools.

However, I have an honest reason for doing poorly. I’m from an impoverished Appalachian family. We live on less than the official poverty level, and I’m a first generation college student. During the year that I made those poor grades, my father’s kidneys had failed and, though he lived, we thought he was a goner at the time.

On soft factors, I feel like I have an advantage. I’ve interned for a United States Senator AND had a part time job during college. Not to mention I’m going to be in two, or three honor societies in addition to our Pre Law society. So I’m not slacking there, either.

As you can see, I’m not looking for an addendum to account for a full point of GPA-disaster. I’d just feel confident if I knew it could make up for a tenth or two tenths of equivalent on my GPA, or maybe a point on my LSAT. I feel like I have a shot at these schools, but I have anxiety issues and tend to worry about it.

So, CC’ers, what’s your take on this? Should I feel halfway confident about these schools? Can an addendum really help in a situation such as mine, in which there’s a legitimate reason behind a slightly lower GPA, and the student already has pretty competitive grades, could an addendum help to put the application “over the line,” so to speak? It’s always seemed to me that that was the intended purpose of the addendum.

I just want to stop worrying.