Post
by ad1988 » Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:59 am
Hi everyone,
I am new to this board and I was wondering if anyone could help me out with a question regarding writing an addendum. I'm from Canada but I will be applying to most of the T14 American schools for the September 2011 cycle. I will be writing an addendum to explain a couple of marks I received, but I was wondering if there is such a thing as 'too much' to include in an addendum?
During my 2nd year of university, my marks really suffered (I received a 2.7 GPA that year) because I had to take on 3 part-time jobs to support myself and I was also skating competitively 3 - 4 times/week (with about 5 hours dedicated to each practice/commute). I wanted to write an addendum to explain this, however, in the summer following this school year I took one course to lighten my course load for my 3rd year and my father became very ill and was hospitalized in the ICU for 4 weeks (right around the time of my midterm and final exam). Needless to say, I did horribly in this course as well, receiving a D-. If an admissions office was to look at my entire academic history, it is obvious that after 2nd year and the summer, there is an obvious upward trend, considering I received a 3.8 GPA in 3rd and 4th year (if I don't include that D- in my GPA calculation; if I do, I only have a 3.4 GPA in 3rd year).
My question is, would it be too much to explain this all in one addendum? I don't want to sound like I am making excuses, but I want an admissions office to know why these trends occurred. I'd appreciate any advice that you have to offer.
Thanks!