Major GPA vs Overall GPA Discrepancy

[joey]

hey everyone! I was hoping someone could shed some light on an issue I'm having. Basically, my major GPA is 4.0. However, due to the fact that during my freshman year I had not decided on a major yet, my overall GPA suffered (I took a wide range of classes) and is currently going to be on the lower side for a number of schools that I was hoping to apply to. I am a classic splitter.

Should I just come to terms that my GPA is going to be on the lower side, or should I consider an addendum to address this issue? Similarly, do law schools care at all about major GPA? Or is it simply the overall LSAC generated GPA that they consider.

Appreciate the help!!

[Jeremy Press]

Hi joey,

Given what you've described, there's no need for a GPA addendum. Unfortunately, schools don't put much weight on your major GPA. The number they report to US News for rankings purposes dictates everything, and that number is the GPA that LSAC calculates from your entire undergraduate record. Your major GPA might help a little in a tiebreak situation, but it's not going to be the number that dictates initial "in," "out," "waitlist" decisions.

The GPA addendum is, in your situation (taking a lot of different classes), unnecessary and likely to do more harm than good. If you had some non-academic issue driving your performance as a freshman, that could be worth an addendum. But variety of courses taken doesn't fall into that category. Get your LSAT as high as possible, craft a killer personal statement, get the best recommenders possible (from your major courses that you performed well in!), and make sure your application is overall tight and clean and error-free. That'll put you in the best position for a great cycle.

I hope this helps!