Should I write an addendum explaining my GPA/LSAT?

[badarm]

Hi!

I'm almost ready to submit my applications but am unsure if I should include an addendum about my GPA/LSAT.

My GPA in college was crap, 2.8. I was pre-med because my family wanted me to be. It's tradition and a huge South Asian cultural thing. I was also eventually diagnosed with anxiety my senior year, symptoms of which I'd been showing my entire college career. Should I explain any of that?

I took the LSAT twice. The first time I got a 147 and the second time I got a 160. I could've done even better the second time but was fighting off a weeks-long sinus infection. Do I need to explain that or the huge gap between my two scores?

I'm unsure if I should include anything at all because I don't want to bring any more negative attention to my GPA. I also don't want it to sound like I'm making excuses and have them think I'm trying to convince them "poor me".

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!!

[Dave Killoran]

Hi!

I'm almost ready to submit my applications but am unsure if I should include an addendum about my GPA/LSAT.

My GPA in college was crap, 2.8. I was pre-med because my family wanted me to be. It's tradition and a huge South Asian cultural thing. I was also eventually diagnosed with anxiety my senior year, symptoms of which I'd been showing my entire college career. Should I explain any of that?

I took the LSAT twice. The first time I got a 147 and the second time I got a 160. I could've done even better the second time but was fighting off a weeks-long sinus infection. Do I need to explain that or the huge gap between my two scores?

I'm unsure if I should include anything at all because I don't want to bring any more negative attention to my GPA. I also don't want it to sound like I'm making excuses and have them think I'm trying to convince them "poor me".

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!!

Hi Badarm,

Good questions here! With your GPA, I would explain it, especially if you bailed on premed and saw a grade increase from that. Either way, the family expectations explanation is worth mentioning. I would also mention the anxiety issue, but only if you now have some degree of control over that (either through medication, therapy, etc). the typical law school doesn't worry about things like that as long as they know it won't be an issue in the future. So if you can explain that it won't be happening in law school, go for it.

With the LSAT, I wouldn't explain that jump. The reason is what you cite, that with the GPA explanation in place, I don't want it to seem like you are now full of excuses for every little thing. Especially because in this case, we have a positive increase (not just 13 points, but 13 hug points as far as percentiles are concerned!). If there was no GPA issue to contend with, I'd probably say yes, toss a brief LSAT statement in, but both together suggests a sort of profile that I'm not comfortable with for you as an applicant. Does that make sense?

Thanks!

[badarm]

Thanks for your response!

Kind of as a follow-up to that, I'm assigning my LORs on LSAC right now. I have 4 in total, 2 from professors and 1 from a former internship supervisor and 1 from a current job supervisor.

Some schools ask to submit 2 LORs only, but don't specify if they want them from profs, supervisors, or both. I know that one of the LORs from my profs and the LOR from my former internship advisor are probably my strongest.

However, bc of my awful GPA, would it be better to submit 2 LORs from profs?

[Dave Killoran]

Thanks for your response!

Kind of as a follow-up to that, I'm assigning my LORs on LSAC right now. I have 4 in total, 2 from professors and 1 from a former internship supervisor and 1 from a current job supervisor.

Some schools ask to submit 2 LORs only, but don't specify if they want them from profs, supervisors, or both. I know that one of the LORs from my profs and the LOR from my former internship advisor are probably my strongest.

However, bc of my awful GPA, would it be better to submit 2 LORs from profs?

No, go with the two strongest. A single extra LOR from a prof won't change perceptions about your GPA! If neither was from a prof I'd say you need at least one, but once that box is checked you are ok to select the remaining best LOR.

Thanks!

[badarm]

Thanks for all your help!!