GPA Addendum for outlier semester?

[katlin]

Hello,

A school I am applying to is requesting an explanation of any semester grades that were significantly different than others. I am hoping for advice on whether my situation would be a reasonable GPA addendum topic, or just something annoying for an admissions team to read.

The semester in question was a semester GPA was .5 lower than my GPA at graduation. All five semesters after were quite solid GPA-wise.

The fall of my sophomore year was my first semester in a new major. I was determined to graduate within four years, and had to heavily load my courses. I was one credit away from needing overload approval. In order to graduate on time, my advisor approved me to take upper division courses in my new major out of sequence. Two of these UD classes had pre-requisites in terms of both specific courses completed as well as total number of hours within the department. Taking a near-maximum hour load, coupled with taking my new major's classes without the foundational courses made for an extremely challenging semester. I passed all of my classes, but the GPA was significantly lower than any semester after. University transcript shows how I excelled in the department beyond this initial semester.

Does this topic have legs or is it over-kill?

Thanks for taking the time,
-K

[Dave Killoran]

Hi K,

Given that the school specifically requested "an explanation of any semester grades that were significantly different than others," and you also have a very reasonable explanation, I'd go ahead and reply to them and explain it!

Thanks!