The law school addendum
An addendum states a fact the rest of the file raises: a semester of low grades, a score that does not match the record, a gap in the timeline, a disclosure. A paragraph or two, plainly written, no argument. It is the shortest thing you will write in the application and the one most often written as if it were the longest.
When to write one, and when not to
Write one
- A reader will stop on something and have a question.
- The answer is facts, and it fits in a paragraph.
- The school asks for it, as several do for disclosures.
Do not
- Nothing in the file actually prompts the question.
- The real content is an argument about how to read the file.
- It would be a second personal statement wearing another name.
An addendum nobody needed spends a reader’s attention on your weakest material, at the moment they were about to move on.
What the read judges
An addendum is scored on four things, not the six a personal statement gets, and every one of them pushes in the same direction: fewer words, more facts.
- Factual and Brief
- States what happened (the grade, the score, the incident) plainly and in order, in as few words as the facts need.
- Takes Responsibility
- Owns the writer's part without minimizing it; context is given as context, not as defense.
- No Excuses
- Does not argue, plead or editorialize. An addendum that argues instead of stating facts lowers it.
- Economy
- A paragraph or two. Anything longer reads as an essay about the problem, which is worse than the problem.
What each school states about length
Each line is the school’s own wording for the 2026-27 cycle, copied from its admissions page. All 11 were last read on September 9, 2026. Most state no limit at all, and that is worth reading correctly: a school declining to cap a document it expects to be a paragraph is not offering you a page.
| School | What it states | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Law | 350 word maximum, 11 point font, double-spaced, with 1 inch margins (academic potential addendum); no limit for character and fitness addendum | Own page |
| Chicago Law | one page or less | Own page |
| Columbia Law | brief; no limit stated | Own page |
| Duke Law | no limit stated | Own page |
| Georgetown Law | no limit stated | Own page |
| Harvard Law | brief; no limit stated | Own page |
| Michigan Law | no limit stated | Own page |
| NYU Law | no limit stated | Own page |
| Penn Carey Law | no limit stated | Own page |
| UVA Law | no limit stated | Own page |
| Yale Law | no limit stated | Own page |
Not the same as a perspective statement
A perspective or diversity statement is a separate document, and the two are read for opposite qualities. The addendum wants facts with no argument. The perspective statement wants an experience told with detail only you would have, and what it taught you about how you see, work or argue. Sending one where the other belongs is the most common way both land badly.
- Specificity of Experience
- The experience or perspective is told with the detail only this writer would have, not as a category.
- Insight
- What the experience taught the writer about how they see, work or argue, earned on the page.
- Contribution to the Class
- A reader can picture what this perspective adds to a seminar room or a study group, in specifics.
- Economy
- Short and tight; this statement is read alongside the personal statement, not instead of it.
- Voice
- Sounds like a specific working adult, and this one. Category language and generic diversity phrasing lower it.
Each school page carries its own wording for every piece of writing it asks for, including which of these two it wants and whether it is optional.
Paste your addendum
Pick the school and the piece of writing, and the read uses that school’s own wording and the bands above. Short pieces are fine: the floor is 30 words. The first look is free.
Program
Applying to college instead?
Common questions
- What is a law school addendum?
- A short, factual note that explains something a reader will notice in the file: a semester of low grades, a score that does not match the rest of the record, a gap in the timeline, a disciplinary or character-and-fitness disclosure. It is not an essay and it is not a second personal statement.
- Should I write one?
- Write one when a reader will stop on something and have a question you can answer in a paragraph of facts. Do not write one to explain ordinary difficulty, to pre-empt a weakness nobody flagged, or to make an argument about how the rest of the file should be read. An addendum nobody needed spends a reader’s attention on your weakest material.
- How long should an addendum be?
- A paragraph or two. Most schools state no limit, which is not an invitation to write a page; where a school does state one, it is short, and those are in the table on this page in each school’s own words. Anything longer starts reading as an essay about the problem, which lands worse than the problem.
- Is the addendum the same as a diversity or perspective statement?
- No, and treating them as one is the common mistake. A perspective statement is judged on the specificity of an experience, the insight drawn from it and what it adds to a class. An addendum is judged on being factual, brief and free of argument. The two are read for opposite qualities.
- Should I apologise in an addendum?
- Own your part in one sentence and move on. The read marks an addendum down when it minimises and also when it performs regret: both push the writing away from the facts, which are the only thing the document is for.
The personal statement is the long one, and what its six bands judge is on the law school personal statement review page. Its length is answered at how long a law school personal statement should be, and the prompts by school start at law.