esimanon

hiclub2, there's really no reason to lose hope. The reality is, you seem to have applied to a lot of really selective schools who probably reject plenty of quality candidates. My advice is this: 1. consider broadening your search. Maybe apply to some schools that are a little less selective and accept a greater variety of students. 2. If you have your heart set on a more difficult school, take some time to improve your application. If your GPA is weak, take more undergrad classes, or try to gain some more experience and volunteer or research to try and makeup for a lower GPA. Don't spend your time staring at a closed door when you can spend it looking for an open window. Best of luck! 

I got rejected too. You are not alone. Just have faith that the right "door" for our lives will open up.  THIS FEELING is temporary.

Thank you @luv2bootscoot. I appreciate your support! 

Sorry to hear that Was this your first time applying? Fingers crossed for UCLA. The weather's better there anyway! (Says the former Angelino, current Bay Area resident who's always cold)

@Jordanna - Congrats! I think your admittance to a great program really speaks to the field of social work - excelling in the face of adversity (adversity as defined by a society that expects perfection even though being a human means a yin and yang of experience) - that's what it's all about! rock on!

Hey, Someone may have replied to your post, but I wanted to let you know that you have a wonderful chance. 
My CGPA is 2.83 when I applied to Columbia Social Work (however my GPA in my fourth year was a 4.0 cuz i worked my ass off) & I GOT IN!  So in terms of marks, don't even hesitate! 
 
However, I did numerous internships internationally, and have many research experience and publications and awards. I just really fucked up in my first two years of undergrad so my CGPA suffered. 
 
Those with low GPA's don't lose hope y'all! 

I just saw your response as well, socialworkphd. Didn't you post something regarding admission tips and/or private "prestige" institutions vs. public ones a while back? I recognize your name and if I remember correctly, I found your posts to be greatly informative. You make a good point about UW.  I didn't accept their offer as the financial aid was basically no-existent and I really don't have any interest living in Seattle. Portland is already bustling and costly enough for my taste. Also its prestige wasn't worth 60k in loans when I already have 16 from undergrad. The pragmatist in me can't justify such a heavy financial burden for a MSW.
 
Most importantly, you are absolutely right that your education is what you make of it. My experience will largely be shaped by what I put into it and the connections I make in my program and field placements. Thanks for that reminder

Turn up the anxiety guys because  I have some knowledge to drop about UCLA.
 
Just got off the phone with Lance and after a couple of questions...
 
he told me that of the 550 applicants that applied for an MSW, theyre almost done reviewing everyone and almost every admissions decision should be out in 10-15 days...
 
 
 
Applied: USC, UCLA, CSULA, CSULB
Accepted: USC (4/10)
Denied:
Going: 

@esimanon, I think your intention with the google docs is very good, but your repeated and cross post reminders are getting spam-ey. I do not feel comfortable entering my personally identifiable information into the spreadsheet. Your messages have been seen. People will enter their data if they wish. Thank you for understanding!

I'm just excited about the admissions process.. no need to share your information if you don't want to participate 

Hey HopefulMSW- You're welcome! You're going to be so much happier/feel justified/and comfortable during grad school with a scholarship. Congrats on your admission! I don't have any info for Simmons as I didn't apply there.

HopefulMSW - USC is a very expensive program and - because they are a private school - they do not offer as many scholarship opportunities as most other schools do. Unless you've got a lot of dough (a.k.a. money) I would give BU a try.. have you heard from Simmons yet? I hear that's a good program too. ALSO there are some professionals who talk about private grad schools like USC that accept so many students that the individual experience may be compromised. I hope this helps, good luck with your decision!

We have different definitions of what facts are.
 
Just sayin.

While I want to agree with the sentiment, as it seems it would give hope to many people on this forum, I can't help but wonder If you have ever experienced the research environment at a top tier university AND the research environment at a lower ranked university? I certainly have, and going from an IVY league to a lower ranked public institution was night and day. Prestige itself does not get your paper published in nature, that prestige often brings money to conduct an experiment or project that is of higher quality than ones at lesser universities. Obviously, I am speaking in generalities.
 
With regards to applications, there is a larger point; Does doing better on the GRE make you any less likely to conduct great research? If there is no correlation between research and GRE, which I think there probably is a stronger one than many would like to admit, because there is a large correlation between competency and GRE scores. Why should a grad school take someone with a lower GRE score ? Is that person with a lower GRE score really that much more special? How can someone call them self a scientist yet not be able to do high school level math ?  Maybe you can get through graduate classes if you did poorly on the GRE, as many people in my program did, but graduate level classes aren't supposed to be hard or take up a lot of time. Research is. And if you have to struggle with high school level math in your classes, it's going to eat up all your research time.
 
Graduate Schools want students to be healthy. If you have to work 80 hours a week to get all your work done, you aren't going to be healthy. There will be weeks where you work a ton, but if every week you are not sleeping and every week you are working all the time you will not be happy. I would bet my left nut that there is a correlation between strong research and happiness.
 
With poor stats, there is a case to be made. I had barley above a 3.0 GPA in physics with a few conference presentations / REUs and found myself in a fully funded masters program. But don't kid yourself and think that prestigious schools are all smoke and mirrors; Funding can deliver stability, along with many other things. Fusion needs lasers to heat up atoms. It is difficult to find out we are not who we someone think we are; We all can't be great. Somewhat depressing, to confront yourself.