mikess23

I am sorry that I did not respond earlier, but I wanted to thank both of you for responding to my post. I was unable to regain entry to the site for a while, but I am just seeing your feedback now for the first time! I am so grateful that you were willing to take the time out of your day to help a stranger. Thank you!

Hi all, I am currently in the process of applying to a variety of schools with hopes of getting my MSW. I have somewhat of a unique situation in that I began my college experience at one school where my studies suffered tremendously as a result of a heavy opiate addiction. My GPA went from a respectable mid 3.0 to literal failing grades during my first two years at college, and I left school after my first to years with an abysmal 2.4 GPA. I bring up my struggles with substance abuse only because it has played a significant role in my desire to enter the Social Work field. My final two years at school, which came at an entirely different university after I had spent time getting my health back in order, getting sober, and finding the program of AA/NA, went quite well, as I finished my final two years with straight A's and a 4.0 GPA. It renders a resume that essentially includes two GPA's--the 2.4 for the first half, and the 4.0 at a separate school for the second half. Both of these schools are similar in how rigorous and respected their academics are, so its not as if I went to a school of significantly lesser quality for the second half of my undergrad. In addition to my GPA, I have some volunteer experience and a job experience that included working for the psychology lab on various projects following my graduation that has some value with regards to the social work field. My personal statement has provided me the opportunity to give some explanation as to what happened during my undergrad years and I have taken it as an opportunity to suggest that my life experience and struggles with addiction have been perhaps my greatest asset in my quest to become a social worker. I have used it as an opportunity to explain that my GPA during the beginning of my college experience versus my GPA during the last two years of my undergrad studies is exemplary of the change that I have made and that I am simply a different person (obviously said in different words). I guess my question here is one that comes from great worry. I am wondering if anybody knows of or has had an experience in which their GPA suffered greatly and they still found success. I am applying only to schools in Chicago (UIC, Loyola, University of Chicago, DePaul) because I need to be close to my sober network, but I am particularly interested in going to the first three schools mentioned. The dream school, U of C, is obviously a major stretch, but I am wondering if anybody has heard of anybody whose GPA was subpar and was still able to get into U of C. If so, is there something you recommend doing in to explain your weak GPA? I am also unsure of how much of my struggle with heroin addiction to expose. While I am sober and have been for a while, I know that there is often a stigma attached to it. My reasoning for wanting to share it is that my struggles with heroin addiction brought me to this field and I would like to work in the substance abuse field moving forward. I just don't want to overexpose myself and take myself out of contention by disclosing personal information. I guess a part of me feels like if there is a field that would be understanding of this, the social work field is it! Anyway, if anybody has any insight into what I might be able to do moving forward it would be greatly appreciated! To anybody that responds, thank you!