CFochs

I know what you're saying with rankings, I currently got to UW-Madison and know how competitive it is here, believe me. There really isn't a thing as a not competitive school for SLP but the general feeling I get from this forum is that less people want to go to Midwest schools/relocate to the Midwest. I'm just saying that the less applications yours is going against, the more likely they'll take yours into consideration.

I was referring to compared to east and west coast schools. I have no idea how schools in the south are but from what I've seen on here, the coastal schools get many more applications. Some of the schools I applied to around here only got around 200 applications versus 700 that I've seen at schools in California. Statistically speaking a 1 in 200 chance is better than 1 in 700.

You can get into schools with a 3.3 overall, I did. You just have to research what schools you think would be a good fit for you. One's in the Midwest usually less competitive. Your letters of rec, personal statement, and GRE scores do play a big part and can help balance out a lower GPA. I'm pretty sure the University of South Dakota does spring admissions but I could be wrong. They're tuition rate isn't that bad either for out of state.

My one professor gave me some really great advice to start making connections at schools before you even apply. Even if it's just emailing them once or twice asking about the admissions process and any advice that the program has so that when it comes time to make a decision, they may recognize your name and know that you are actually really interested in attending there. Like other people said, there really isn't a not competitive program. I would look at what range of 'stats' schools have taken into the last few years and see if you're a good fit to those. And maybe take a shot at one or two 'reach' schools. Lots of programs look at your last 60 credits and can see you've been improving so you never really know.

I was waitlisted at ENMU. I was honest about my weaknesses and I think I put something like I tend to procrastinate a lot. As far as the island essay was, I wrote about how there wasn't enough information in the question for me to make a for sure decision. I wrote out a couple of different scenarios depending on what had happened in order to get to the island. I also said that there wasn't enough information on the physical condition of all the group members since that could play a big factor into what happens. I've taken a survival class before so I might have been a little biased on some things. My solution for the most part was to stay there and wait it out since one of the biggest rules of survival is stay where you are. Plus there was no way you were ever going to get off the island since it was apparently like 400 miles away from anything. It said some of the people had families so I said that the families would realize that we were missing and would have a relative idea as to where we would be based on where they knew we were traveling to.