<p>I am currently looking to apply to a few lower T-14's (Georgetown in particular), UCLA Law, UC Davis/UC Hastings, and Loyola.</p>
<p>My overall gpa is a 3.6 from UC Berkeley in Political Science with a minor in Philosophy, just got my LSAT scores back, 170...HOWEVER...</p>
<p>My gpa does show an upward trend starting from the second-semester junior year, averaged around a 3.8 the last four semesters and two summers I spent at UC Berkeley. Yet three of my first four semesters were horrible grade-wise, averaging around a 3.0 each semester while having to have 3-4 pass/no pass classes to save my GPA AND withdrawing for an entire second semester sophomore year.</p>
<p>The reason for the initial bad grades was due to my manic depression. I won't go into the gory details, but it was a very devastating time in my life for about the first two years of college, combined with alcohol abuse and constant panic attacks. I finally recovered later in my college years and managed to receive much better grades once I got the right help and medication, and decided to take some time off to work as a paralegal for 2 years in the Sacramento area, as well as joining active minds during my last college years to mentor college students on how to deal with depression, which I still do to this day.</p>
<p>I have two questions related to this: One: will my terrible first few semesters be a huge or only slight detriment to my law school applications? Two: Should I explain in an addendum why I had a few bad semesters and a withdrawal (due to my depression), or should I simply leave it be for fear that they might see it as an "excuse" or fear that the manic depression will hinder my law school experience (which it won't, I've been mostly depression-free for about 4 years now)</p>
<p>Thanks for the help!</p>