The Addendum Fix — Explain a Low GPA or LSAT Without Excuses
An addendum is the shortest, highest-risk piece of writing in your application. Two paragraphs, and most applicants use them to apologize, over-explain, or relitigate something the committee never asked about. A bad addendum does more damage than no addendum at all. This is a fixed-scope fix for exactly that document. We start with the real question: do you even need one? Plenty of applicants write an addendum that hurts them, for a number that would have spoken for itself. If that is your file, I will tell you, and we will not write one. If you do need one, we build it properly. What happened, in what order, what changed, and what the evidence is that it will not happen again. No excuses, no self-pity, no blaming a professor or a testing center. A committee should finish it with a cleaner picture of you than they started with, and no lingering questions. This covers GPA addenda, LSAT addenda including score jumps and multiple retakes, character-and-fitness explanations, and the situations that have no standard name but still need addressing. Two hours. You leave with a finished document, not notes toward one.
What's included
You send me the numbers and the story before we meet, so I arrive already knowing your file. We spend the session writing, not catching me up. I am blunt about this document specifically, because the failure mode is emotional rather than technical. If a draft sounds like an excuse, I will say so plainly and show you the version that does not.
- A finished GPA or LSAT addendum, edited to submission standard, not an outline
- A straight answer on whether you need an addendum at all, and what writing an unnecessary one costs you
- A second addendum drafted if your file needs more than one, such as character and fitness or a gap
- The rule set for what belongs in an addendum and what sinks it, so you can write the next one yourself
Meet your expert
Aviaé G.
3.4/150 → UVA Law. I get splitters in. Now a practicing litigator.
I'm a first-generation, low-income college grad who got into UVA Law — a top-14 school — with numbers below their medians (a 3.4 GPA and a 150 LSAT). I applied with no connections, no roadmap, and a stack of chance-calculators telling me I didn't have a shot. I did it anyway — and then I started helping other people do the same, first informally, then as an admissions counselor at Empowerly and as my law school's BLSA Membership Chair, working alongside admissions on recruiting. The applicants I've mentored have gone on to UVA Law, Duke, and Stanford. Today I'm a practicing commercial litigator at a boutique trial firm, working complex disputes hands-on — so unlike a coach who went through this years ago or never practiced law, I'm living the legal career you're working toward, and I can help you aim past the acceptance at the job you actually want. My focus is splitters and underdog applicants — first-generation, low-income, and non-traditional students who keep getting told their numbers aren't good enough. I'm here to show you they can be, with the right strategy.
