belljar

LIS Hopeful: Thank you for your response. I was very worried about my transcript so until they ask, I think that I will avoid writing about my problems since it does show that I have gotten better throughout the year. I will also take you up on the personal statement advice. Once again, thank you. I appreciate that you took your time to respond. jordtas: You are very right that it's useless to fret over invariable factors. I guess I was overly worried that my scores alone will lead to my application being ignored. Dumb thinking, but as you are aware of, application time = crazy time! Very good advice and I will take it to heart. I am passionate about the schools I am applying to, particularly because of their course work. Crossing my fingers for the best and I hope to come back here with good news next year!

Stats: -GRE: V- 156, Q-154, Essay-4 -GPA: 3.2 -Undergrad: Top 15 liberal arts college -Work experience related to the field: Summer internships every year that lasted from a month to 3 months. Most of the work was research and cataloguing. -Recent grad My grades are an absolute roller coaster due to mental health problems that I had to deal with throughout college. It's been a year that I got it sorted and my senior grades are significantly higher than grades from any other year. I don't know if I should submit an explanation because I am afraid that the schools will see me as unreliable when they find out that I had such problems during my undergrad years. Top choices are UCLA and UTexas for their archive program and I'm applying to UNC, UW, and Simmons. I do have solid recommendation letters but I am worried about my personal statement and intent. I know what I want to do in life and why I want to attend these programs, but I always wonder how people find a way to make their essays sparkle. I've always felt insecure about my writing and there are tons of others who have stats that are significantly better than mine so what do I have to offer that others can't? Would you say that a statement of intent that is very focused would be the best way for me to go? My inkling is that I barely qualify to even apply to these programs, especially UTexas. Any advice and thoughts would be much appreciated. Thank in advance.