Lifesaver

What's completely false for you may be completely true for me. It's all a matter of perspective.

I transferred twice. The first time, after my first semester as a freshman. The second time, as a rising junior beginning my third year of college. I've never had any negative repercussions from transferring. But I would suggest you stay were you are.

You can ask for an extension if you need more time to decide. They extended their app deadline like three times last year, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Weird considering nobody she knows is on any kind of repayment plan other than IBR. Perhaps she was having a brain fart that day, but it didn't sound like it.

If it makes anyone sleep easier at night, I applied with an undergrad GPA of 2.4 and a grad school GPA of 3.83 and got into all but one of the seven schools I applied to. Ivy included. I also managed to get pretty hefty scholarships at three of those schools. I didn't even send my [good] MAT scores, I probably would have, had I had more money. A strong application package and good interview skills go a long way in terms of MSW addmitance. Much more so than blah undergrad GPAs. Especially if a chunk of time has gone by since graduation.

She said it was hard to get to due to client population. She said that you have to be working for an agency that sees a certain percentage of medicaid enrollees. She didn't really get into much detail, she just said it's very hard to qualify and not to bank on it. I do agree that, according to the website at least, it seems very easy to qualify. I do know someone who qualified as a nurse anesthesiologist, so who knows. I don't know if he's enrolled yet or if it ever came to fruition.

Someone in my cohort is doing it - she did her first year of law school last year and is in her first year of the MSW program now. Beyond that, I can't really speak to it, other than I contemplated it myself, but was talked out of law by my attorney stepmother.

PSLF is very hard to get, apparently. One of my professors was talking about it in class this week and she said that nobody in her cohort was able to get it. Not saying that was she said is gospel, but do have a back up plan.

I have enountered a few people, professors and students alike, who are pretty closed when it comes to accepting the opinions of others. The "cheap shot" has happened as well. Since I tend to be a little more conservative than the average bear in the profession, I know that every time I open my mouth in class I'm exposing myself to being sniped by a classmate. Sometimes it's delivered with some tact, other times it's not. I've learned to pick my battles. I think you should participate enough to get your participation grade, but for your own sake, keep it less controversial if possible, since it seems to bother you. You've already approached the professor outside of class. I don't think emailing him to discuss the situation again would get you very far. Perhaps try to view this as an isolated incident and hope that your classmates will be less inclined to cheap shot you in the future. You do have the right to defend yourself if they do.

I am miserable. I really hope next semester is better than this one.

What is your prompt? Mine were all very generic. I'm sure someone can help you brain storm.

I think, in addition to all the BS going on in my life and the huge differences between the two programs, I finally figured out why I'm not enjoying this masters as much as I enjoyed the last. I'm in adrenaline withdrawal. As much as my job ran me ragged and made me crazy, I miss it now. Being stationary in class for so many hours and then spending countless hours sitting doing homework is boring the hell out of me. I have copious amounts of work that keeps me very occupied, but my brain isn't going through the adrenaline peaks and plateaus that it used to go through when I was working. I have no motivation to do anything right now. It's bad.

Hmm, perhaps I assumed too much. My writers knew me VERY well. They knew my academic history, where I was currently working/had been working, had hard copies of my resume, had a list of the schools I was applying to (obviously) and a list that clearly stated each school's LOR due date. I think it's fair to assume that the people who are writing on your behalf know what you're doing and what you're about. Why else would you select them? And obviously, if they ask for more in-depth information and some guidance with the letter writing process, give it to them. Now that I think back, I did have a brief chat with one of my writers about what my end-goal was so he could tailor my letter a little more, but given that I worked for the man, he basically knew what was going on before our conversation. I also applied to all generalist programs (certificates were selected after the fact). Perhaps I'm an exception to the rule and have been lucky. The folks I selected are intelligent people, so I trusted their abilities to write a letter that they were already extremely familiar with. I was in a small graduate program, so perhaps it was a more intimate setting? Who knows. Is having faith in their abilites the worst advice ever? Doubtful. Especially considering it's worked out for me quite well a few times now. Coming out of undergrad, or being out awhile, I suppose things could be different. Give them whatever info you think is pertinent, but just know you won't be given the prompt and therefore you can't totally coach them.

Follow the prompt. Write from the heart. Avoid writing about a lot of negitivity - focus on your strengths (work experience, life experiences, etc). Assuming they didn't change their prompt, they'll ask you to explain why your grades aren't fabulous, and if you have a good reason, I'd throw in a blurb about it. Give yourself time to write it. I re-wrote the first two paragraphs of my statement three times over the course of a week. Lastly, have several people proof read it for you. I'd stick to mainly academic folks, cause they're more likely to catch any weird grammatical errors you may have. I had a a handful of people read mine - all with a master's level of education or higher, including two PhD'ed professors. It was my aunt (who's a social worker, actually) who caught the last few tricky errors that everyone else missed, including myself and I read the damn thing nearly 100 times. If you have any Tulane or New Orleans specific questions, feel free to message me.

Call Gail Brown. She is fabulous and a wealth of information. She will be able to advise you whether or not it would behoove you to take the GRE. I know some people were admitted on academic probation due to low undergrad GPAs (with some sort of reason why), so I know they try to give some leeway when it comes to less than stellar grades. Have you taken the GRE and scored low? What's your hold-up with the GRE?

There's definitely more to the story, but I will spare you all the details. I mainly replied cause I was wondering why Edudoc thought I was talking to him. Caught me as a little defensive, lol.

No. I don't know you. Do you lie and cheat on your long term girlfriend?

Screw your lying ass and your new girlfriend, too.