Kristenza

Thanks for the advice! I feel more confident now

Hello! This is my first post- I'm starting to get a little anxious about applying to grad school (obviously), and I am oh so selfishly searching for advice! Hopefully there are others in a similar situation to me that will also find my questions beneficial!! I finished my undergrad in linguistics/English last year with a somewhat lackluster performance- 3.4 GPA (*cue slow clap*). I kind of faltered in my academic/career direction and got waylaid by some serious depression and anxiety issues. But that has all been resolved now and I'm looking to get back on the wagon. I'm taking post-baccalaureate courses for CSD (current GPA is 3.8...ish) which will be completed by August 2015. I've taken my GRE and have a verbal 163, quant 151 and AW of 4.5. My major issue is: I have no sources for stellar letters of recommendation (like, I said, I kind of faltered and probably irritated a lot of profs that would have previously given me very good letters). My postbacc is all distance learning, so I don't actually ever get to *talk* to the professors. Should I seek out some of my undergrad professors to write my letters after having shown up late, unprepared, and/or disheveled? (I still did good work and completed assignments, I just was sort of unprofessional about it ) Should I attempt to ask one of these mysterious distance learning professors? I also seem to be severely lacking in experience and volunteer service. Any advice there? I have some experience teaching English to speakers of other languages (refugee populations), as a German tutor, and as a writing tutor. I was in German club (again, *slow clap*) but was not an officer. I also went to a lot of Ling club meetings and helped with fundraisers, but again- I was not an officer. My mother is a special ed. teacher and I have volunteered in her classroom a few times and am kind of familiar with special ed practice (she talks about work a lot). She does work with a SLP who I have job shadowed once. So- if all that was too long for you to get through comfortably- here are my questions in a nutshell: Are my stats competitive for some graduate schools? How can I beef up my resume? Are there ways to make my current experiences seem more relevant? Thank you so so so so much in advance for any advice or consideration you offer! I wasn't even considering grad school until about 5 months ago so I feel like I have a lot to catch up on!