carrielynn

I received a call from Barry Goldman today as well. I've been accepted to the 2 year Health/Mental Health program at San Jose State. As excited as I am to be admitted, I don't plan to attend. I'll be pursuing a dual degree at University of Pittsburgh. So here's hoping someone else can use my spot!

Thanks, and I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. Good luck to you as well! I applied to the Management and Planning concentration.

Well, I got my email from Berkeley. Rejected. Not wholly unexpected, but still not fun to hear (especially on the same day I lost my job!). Good luck to everyone else!

Did anyone else get an email from SJSU about financial aid? I received an email this morning to check my to-do list on MySJSU, which gave me a financial aid form to fill out. But I haven't received notice of acceptance, and my application status still says "Referred to Grad Dept." Confusing!

Did everyone get this email? "Dear MSW applicant, I am writing to inform you that admission notifications for the MSW program will be sent via e-mail between March 18th-22nd. Thank you for your patience, -- Admissions Office" Frustrating! I just want to know already. Patience is not my strong suit

I actually did much better my freshman/sophomore year than later on, thanks to some mental health and family issues. I was on academic probation and eventually asked to leave. I reapplied the next year and came back, retook some classes to replace some failing grades, and graduated. with a 2.95 from that university, but overall (averaged with my GPA from the school I attended before transferring) it was a 3.2. Still, some schools only care about the last 60 credit hours. Anyway, I was worried that I would have no success because of my GPA, but so far I've received one acceptance! I even got a scholarship. I've had 3 years of work experience after graduation, so I'm sure that helped. (I also had a good GRE score, but Pittsburgh didn't require the GRE.) I also made sure to emphasize the progress that I've made in my personal statement.

I've actually never been to Pittsburgh myself, but I have very good friends who live there and have possible connections for a cheap room to rent. I was looking for a change from OK and it seemed prudent to apply to a school where I had some kind of support network. Plus, I'm interested in a dual MSW/MPA program, so I've also applied to the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at Pitt. My friends have told me that Pittsburgh is great. Very affordable cost of living (from what I can tell, studios around $500-600, one bedrooms $600 and up, obviously cheaper if you get a roomie) and lots to do and see. Also, it's closer to a lot of the job markets that I'm interested in, such as New York and DC. Hmm, that's odd that you haven't received your scholarship letter yet. I thought they were all supposed to be out by the 15th. I've found the admissions department to be pretty communicative if you contact them, so maybe call and ask what the holdup is? Thanks! I actually lived in Alameda for about a year. Worked in SF and Marin county. I'd love to go back, it's just a matter of whether or not I have a chance of getting into Berkeley (or SJSU for that matter, I've heard the CSUs are being veeeery selective recently).

Haha, that sounds...helpful. Thank you! I did receive a merit scholarship for $6000/year. Which means I could finance the rest of the tuition with federal loans, but as far as I can tell, not cost of living (I'd be moving there if I go). Pittsburgh is, by all accounts, very livable financially, but I'm assuming I'll need more than, uh, $0. I applied to my local state school as well, and I know it would be the best option financially if I get in (live at home, in-state tuition, stay on at my job part-time), but I'm struggling with the knowledge that I don't at all want to practice in Oklahoma after graduation and might want to get my education somewhere where I could get better contacts.

I live in OK and applied to the university here, but I most likely will be moving if I can swing the finances. Either to Pittsburgh or the SF Bay Area, depending on how the rest of my applications shake out.

I haven't applied for loans yet, but Pittsburgh offered me $6000 in scholarships per year. Which in no way covers tuition (out of state is around $26000) but is better than some offers I've seen.

I was under the impression that after the unsubsidized loans max out, you can then apply for Grad PLUS loans. Those are based on credit history, which is giving me no short amount of terror because mine is not the best. But apparently they're easily obtained if you don't have an adverse credit history and/or have a parent willing to cosign. I would talk to the financial aid office at your prospective school(s).

I just emailed admissions and got the "mid-March" response as well. Bummer, I was hoping to hear before then!

Yes, I received my scholarship info by mail earlier this week. Though funnily enough, it was addressed to me, but the salutation said "Dear Ms. [NotMyLastName]." So I had to call the office to confirm that it was actually mine! They had just made a copy-paste error.

Is anyone else applying to the MAP concentration? briefinterviews, I see that you're currently in that program. Do you know how many people they accept?

I graduated in 2009 with a Sociology degree, having worked as an undergraduate assistant - mostly tutoring students in statistics and quantitative research, using SPSS, etc. I also completed a summer internship at a foster care agency. Since then I have worked more or less continuously in direct services. I started out as a case manager for a juvenile behavioral health center, then I moved to California in 2010 and worked two jobs, one as a counselor at a homeless shelter and the other as an administrative assistant for a Social Security Disability attorney. Since November of 2011 I have worked as a call specialist at a branch of 211, a nationwide information and referral center for health and human services. When I started the application process, I felt like I did not have a ton of experience, but I'm starting to feel more confident about it.