.png)
A law school GPA addendum is worth writing only when a specific, external and finished circumstance explains a specific stretch of grades, and most applicants should not write one. Of the schools whose essay instructions we hold verified, 4 name an addendum at all. Verified July 2026.
A short optional attachment explaining a gap between your transcript and your ability. It is an explanation of a fact the committee can already see, not an argument that the fact should count less; The committee has your transcript and your CAS report before they read anything you write about them. Verified July 2026.
The addendum's only job is to supply the context they cannot see.
That framing decides almost every question people ask about addenda. If the information is already visible, the addendum adds nothing.
It is also not a second personal statement. An addendum that turns into a narrative about growth has changed genre and lost its purpose.
Fewer than applicants assume. Of the schools whose supplemental essay instructions we hold verified, 4 name an addendum in their own published materials, and only one of those states a length; American publishes an addendum of one page or less alongside its optional Community Impact Statement, from its own requirements page, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
SchoolWhat the school publishes about addendaSourceAmericanOptional Community Impact Statement (~1 page); addendum (1 page or less)https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/requirements.cfmCatholicNo required supplemental essay; a brief addendum is permittedhttps://www.law.edu/admissions/overview/apply-now/index.htmlGeorgetownOptional 250-word short response (1 of 5 prompts, or 1-minute video); optional perspectivehttps://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/jd-admissions/first-year-applicants/apply-early-decision/NYUOptional additional-information statement; addenda; scholarship-program essayshttps://www.law.nyu.edu/jdadmissions/applicants/applications
Catholic publishes that no supplemental essay is required and that a brief addendum is permitted, from its own apply-now page (https://www.law.edu/admissions/overview/apply-now/index.html), retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
This table covers only the schools whose instructions we have read on their own sites, not every ABA school. Where we hold nothing, this page names the absence rather than filling it, retrieved July 31, 2026. Verified July 2026.
When an external circumstance affected a defined period, that period is visibly worse than the rest of your transcript, and the circumstance has ended. All three conditions, not one of them; External means it happened to you rather than being a description of your habits. Verified July 2026.
A documented disruption qualifies; finding first year harder than expected does not.
Defined means the reader can match your explanation to a stretch of the transcript. An explanation covering four years explains nothing.
Ended matters most, because an unresolved circumstance reads as a live risk to the committee rather than as context for an old grade.
When it explains a GPA that needs no explanation, blames somebody else, or reads as an excuse for a pattern rather than context for an interruption. Each of those makes the file worse than silence; An addendum on a 3.7 tells the committee you think a 3.7 is a problem. Verified July 2026.
That is new, unflattering information you volunteered.
Blame is the fastest way to lose a reader. A sentence naming a professor, a roommate or an employer converts context into grievance.
Our position is that most applicants who are unsure should not write one, because the downside of an unnecessary addendum is larger than the upside of a marginal one.
As short as the facts allow, and no longer than the school's published cap where it sets one. The only cap we hold verified is American's one page or less; In practice a good addendum runs three to six sentences. Verified July 2026.
American publishes the one page or less limit on its own requirements page (https://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/requirements.cfm), retrieved July 31, 2026, and Catholic asks only for a brief addendum without a stated length. Verified July 2026.
Length signals defensiveness in this genre in a way it does not in a personal statement.
Where a school publishes no limit, treat half a page as the working ceiling and spend the space on facts rather than on framing.
Four things and nothing else: what happened, when it happened, which grades it touched, and what changed afterwards. State them flatly and stop; An addendum that sounds composed reads as someone who has processed the event, which is exactly the impression that helps you. Verified July 2026.
The flat register is deliberate.
The what-changed sentence is the one applicants leave out and the one committees care about, because it converts an explanation into evidence.
Do not restate the grades themselves. The transcript already did that and repeating it spends your only paragraph on information they hold.
No, your CAS GPA is computed from the transcripts LSAC receives and no addendum changes that number by any mechanism at all. The addendum explains the figure to an admissions committee reading it rather than adjusting the figure they are reading. Verified July 2026.
LSAC's Credential Assembly Service assembles transcripts and produces the report each school receives (https://www.lsac.org/applying-law-school/jd-application-process/cas), retrieved July 31, 2026, and the schools read your addendum beside that report rather than instead of it. Verified July 2026.
This is the most common misunderstanding about addenda and it is worth being blunt about. There is no mechanism by which an explanation edits a computed figure.
It matters practically, because it means the addendum is competing for attention with the rest of your file rather than fixing the underlying number.
The addendum, almost always. A personal statement that spends its space explaining grades has given up the one document where you get to choose the subject; The two documents answer different questions; The statement answers who you are; the addendum answers a factual question the file raises. Verified July 2026.
The two documents answer different questions.
Mixing them costs you twice. The explanation gets less room than it needs and the statement loses the space that made it worth reading.
The exception is where a school's own prompt invites it, and prompts differ. Read the instruction on your own school's page, retrieved July 31, 2026, rather than applying a general rule. Verified July 2026.
Addendum policies at schools outside the 4 in our verified set. Requirements also change between cycles, so a July 2026 reading is a dated snapshot rather than a standing fact; Every entry in the table above was read on that school's own admissions or application page, retrieved July 31, 2026, and carries its own source link. Verified July 2026.
One school in our sheet carries an addendum-adjacent note marked as an estimate from a prep site. This page does not publish it, because an estimate is not a policy.
Read your own school's instructions before you attach anything. That takes two minutes and it beats every list, including this one.
Every figure on this GPA addenda page carries a Verified July 2026 stamp because a dated stamp is the only honest way to publish a number that moves. Each source below was retrieved in July 2026 and is linked in full rather than named vaguely, so nothing here is modelled, averaged or inferred.
What it supportsSourceAmerican JD application requirementshttps://www.american.edu/wcl/school/admissions/jd/apply/first-year/requirements.cfmCatholic apply-now page and FAQhttps://www.law.edu/admissions/overview/apply-now/index.htmlGeorgetown JD application instructionshttps://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions-aid/jd-admissions/first-year-applicants/apply-early-decision/NYU JD application instructionshttps://www.law.nyu.edu/jdadmissions/applicants/applicationsLSAC on the Credential Assembly Servicehttps://www.lsac.org/applying-law-school/jd-application-process/cas
Only if an external circumstance affected a defined period, that period is visibly worse than the rest of your transcript, and the circumstance has ended. All three. Verified July 2026.
Three to six sentences. American publishes the only length cap we hold verified, one page or less; Catholic asks for a brief addendum with no stated limit. Verified July 2026.
What happened, when, which grades it touched, and what changed afterwards. Stated flatly, with no blame and no restatement of the grades themselves. Verified July 2026.
No. The CAS GPA is computed from the transcripts LSAC receives.
An addendum explains the number to a committee; it does not adjust it. Verified July 2026.
Yes, if it explains a GPA that needs no explanation, blames somebody, or covers a pattern rather than an interruption. When unsure, do not write one. Verified July 2026.
Before you draft anything, check whether your school names an addendum at all. At most of the ones we hold verified, it does not. The Lovare Diagnostic takes about fifteen minutes and returns your own numbers against published school data rather than a single probability, and it is free.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
August 5, 2026
August 5, 2026