doctormelody

Thank you! I actually managed to speak to my professor in-person and it seems my email just got lost in the shuffle. Idk how she missed the phone call, but I guess maybe she just doesn't check her messages that often? Idk. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. She apologized and didn't seem mad or anything, and told me to remind her as many times as necessary. I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't DRIVEN TO NEW YORK, but all's well that ends well, I suppose? Is that premature? I don't care, actually, I'm still relishing in the thrill of accomplishing what I set out to do/not dying on the Pennsylvania turnpike. I am actually just applying to Pitt this year - I applied to the other schools last year. Sorry for the confusion! As for your application, are you saying you have four recommendations total for Columbia? I would definitely go ahead and submit it either way, anything you can do to expedite the process at Columbia is a good idea. I don't know if their admissions process will be as much of a disaster this year as it was last year, but better safe than sorry.

I’m currently sitting outside her office. Every time I hear footsteps I nearly have a heart attack, lol. How are everyone else’s applications coming?? I mean that sincerely. I feel so guilty for taking over this thread. ? If anyone has any questions about the application process at Columbia, Tulane, Simmons, Boston University or Boston College, PLEASE feel free to ask me!

You make a good point. I’m also just so frustrated because I asked her if she would mind writing me another letter in JUNE and she said yes. I then sent her the link in September. She had plenty of time to tell me if she couldn’t do it for whatever reason. I’m also a second-cycle applicant, and she wrote me a rec last year that was good enough for Columbia, so Idk. The more I think about it, the more confused I become. I guess part of me is hoping that this is somehow all a misunderstanding, that she either forgot or I offended her in some small way that could be smoothed over with a personal apology. I did end up sending my other prof an email. Idk. I don’t feel good about it. Thank you so much for your kind words.

Thank you so much for responding!! That’s a good point. I know it would be unprofessional and kind of insane, but I also feel like her not responding to my emails or calls is unprofessional? Even if she is so annoyed that she doesn’t want to write me the recommendation anymore, the decent thing to do would be to at least tell me that, I think. I honestly did not do well in my Plan B’s class senior year. I took two of his classes before and he loved me, but senior year I was in the midst of the worst depressive episode of my life and ending up taking an incomplete, finally finishing my final paper for a fall semester course in the beginning of February. He still gave me an A, which I absolutely did not deserve. I still feel bad about it.

Okay, friends. I am deeply sorry for spamming this board, but I need advice/maybe some talking down from the ledge here. I called the office again just now and the front desk guy said she is definitely teaching this semester. I drafted a very sad email to the other professor this morning which if she doesn’t respond by 2 pm I am planning to send. HOWEVER - another idea just occurred to me, and I need to know if it’s insane or if it just might work. Just how crazy and stalkerish would it be if I went to the office to try and see her? I live in PA and I could theoretically drive to NY tonight because I have tomorrow off, stay with friends, and then go to the school tomorrow morning and essentially just wait for her to show up. I realize that this sounds a bit crazy, BUT of course I would say that I just happened to be in the city visiting friends (which will technically be true). If she doesn’t show up/says she doesn’t want to do the recommendation for me anymore for some reason, I can always go ask the other guy in person, which might be nicer than sending an email asking for a favor after not speaking to him in three and a half years? HELP. I know this sounds insane, but this is my entire future. I’ve worked so hard for this. If I lived in NY I wouldn’t hesitate to stop by. Gahhhh. I keep envisioning myself being escorted out by security. Then again, I also keep envisioning myself not getting to go to grad school next year and being heartbroken. Ugh. I just don’t know what to do.

Thank you, I think so too. I'm honestly just so confused because I didn't think she was this type of person. But you're right, it's time to move on. I haven't, I called the office that she works in and they put me through to her direct phone line, which is how I left the message. This led me to assume that she is not on sabbatical or anything, but I don't know for sure. I also don't know of anyone that works with her besides fellow faculty members (both of whom are professors that I'm considering asking for the recommendation now, yikes). I'm considering calling the front desk again tomorrow and seeing if they'll tell me if she is out sick or something, but they might not want to give me, a random stranger, that info on the phone. It's bothering me SO much that if she never responds I may never know what happened, if she hates me, etc. I know I need to get over it and ask someone else (which I will do tomorrow, no point now since it's after 5) but I can't help but be hurt in the absence of an explanation.

Called her today. No response, left a voicemail. Totally at my wit's end. I wanna give her one last chance to respond but I fear that by doing so my chances of getting someone else to do the recommendation by the deadline will implode. Also, the other people that I would ask work in the same department and might find out what happened. It's difficult to imagine how this could be more of a disaster. I honestly just want to cry.

Okay! Overall it was a really good presentation, I'd say it even bordered on slick. They're trying to sell their school to people though, so that makes sense and I didn't mind. I'll try not to repeat info that can be found on the website, but there were a lot of things that the info session helped clarify for me that I think other people might be similarly confused by, and some other info that I just found reassuring and/or important. Firstly, they really emphasized that if you do not apply by December 31st, you will not be considered for a merit scholarship, point blank. They were very serious about this, even going so far as to say that if you have everything else in by the deadline but a professor submits a rec on Jan. 3rd, for instance, you will NOT be considered for scholarship assistance. Of course this didn't help with my anxiety in my current predicament but I still thought it was extremely important. I overheard the director of admissions and financial aid that if they have extra money they *MIGHT* occasionally give out need-based scholarships later, but this is definitely not something you can count on. The standout parts of the presentation for me were when they talked about their field education office and their in-house career services office. They emphasized that all the field instructors have at least two years of experience in the social work field and they are really committed to matching students with placements that are a good fit for both the student and the agency, saying that they are willing to send students on up to three interviews if the first one doesn't seem like a good match, which I appreciated. As for career services, they were really proud of what they have to offer, and I think rightly so. They mentioned that they offer workshops on topics like salary negotiation and long-distance job searches, individual consultations, and even filmed mock interviews and a professional photo day. I haven't been to info sessions at other schools so I don't know if there are comparable resources elsewhere, but I was really impressed by this portion of the program. I don't know if anyone else would have this problem, but when I was looking at the website I had a really hard time understanding what Integrated Healthcare even was, and now that I attended this info session, I feel like I have a better understanding of it as the practice of working as part of a team of individuals helping patients, usually in a hospital setting. Maybe that's basic info but it certainly helped me to learn that. If you're interested in that certificate program, there's also a $10,000 stipend called the Edith Baker Fellowship that students with a GPA of 3.5 are eligible for. Another program that they spoke about in-depth was the certificate in Gerontology. A statistic I found interesting was that while apparently only 12% of social workers start out wanting to work with older adults, 75% of them end up working with them within the first five years of their career. I honestly am not interested in working with older adults myself but they made it sound so appealing that I would almost reconsider! The same is true of the Integrated Healthcare certificate. Other fields they wanted people to know that they were strong in were Child Welfare and Race and Social Problems. They also talked about COSA (their macro concentration) at length but I kind of tuned that out because it was a long presentation and I'm interested in Direct Practice. Whew, that was a lot of typing! I hope this helps someone. If you're able to attend an info session in the coming months (I think they have two more scheduled) I highly recommend it, there was food and helpful info and the members of the administration were all very down-to-earth and friendly.

I just called my professor who still hasn't submitted my recommendation or replied to my email asking if she got the link. No answer, so I left an incredibly long and meandering message on her office phone. I genuinely just want to cry at this point.

I think @JonoDuncan may be referring to the ones listed here under competitive scholarships: https://socialwork.columbia.edu/the-student-experience/costs-financial-aid/ They also emailed us in mid-January about something called the Honjo Scholarship, more info about which can be found here: https://sipa.columbia.edu/faculty-research/libraries-resources/japanese-american-association-new-york-honjo-scholarship Peterson's appears to have changed their website and now I can't find the acceptance rate for Columbia on there, but last year, I think it was listed as being around 52%, and I'd believe that. It's definitely infinitely less selective than their undergraduate schools, but 70% does seem high. Anecdotally, on the thread from last year Advanced Standing applicants seemed to have a harder time than traditional two-year applicants, and many people with high GPA's were rejected. Also, a lot of people were treated like garbage by the school. I'd highly recommend reading through that thread if you have time - it's extremely long, but will probably provide valuable info. I really hope this was helpful. Edit: accidentally posted the same link twice.

So you registered for the bar but did not take it? I'm sorry, I still feel like I need more context. And what do you mean by medical reasons for the application? Also, what was your undergrad degree in? And what law school did you attend? They may be more sympathetic to the lower GPA if it was a highly-ranked university. I still think your best bet is to write a strong statement of purpose explaining why you want to make the transition to social work so soon after graduating from law school and hope for the best. I sympathize with your anxiety, believe me, I do, but the only way you can know is to apply. I was admitted to Columbia last year with a 3.5 undergraduate GPA in an unrelated field and absolutely no social work experience. You can't know unless you try. No MSW program is graded on a forced curve, to my knowledge.

Did anyone attend the info session today? I thought it was very informative! I can type up a summary of my notes later if anyone is interested.

How long have you been out of school? Did you take the bar exam? Did you try to practice law and decide it wasn't for you? An admissions committee is gonna look at both things and wonder why you made all that effort to finish a degree that you clearly didn't enjoy and didn't do well in. I think you should worry less about your GPA and more about your personal statement, tbh. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but especially because law degrees are SO expensive, my first question as an ad com would be why on earth you gave up on the profession so easily. Unless I'm missing something that you could clarify here? Also, if you have extenuating circumstances that are the reason for your poor performance, I would mention that as well.

Hey, thanks for the reply! I went to an info session today and got lots of good material for the "why Pitt" section of the essay. It's only guaranteed before a certain date if your GPA is above 3.4, and it seems like they're really strict about the cutoff. I think they can get away with it because most admission deadlines are later and so not too many people are prepared to apply this early. Could be wrong, though.

I'm sure it will be fine! I was worried about my transcripts too because I sent them by mail and their address is so ridiculously long that I couldn't fit it all in the forms provided by my colleges, but it now says that they're been received on the website, so I can at least check that off my to-do list.

@CherryDecaf @catatap Thank you both very much. I just called the office and they directed me straight to her phone line, so I think she is probably just very busy and not taking time off from teaching. I think I'm gonna give her a little more time and then try her office phone again on Monday. I know that would be cutting it really close in terms of asking someone else, but I trust her not to renege on her commitment to me or let it affect her recommendation for me strongly, even if she is annoyed that I sent her the email about the link.

Makes sense. I'm still waiting on a recommender who isn't responding to emails and now I've become convinced that my entire future is ruined. Fun times.

Okay, maybe you guys can help me, because right now I am absolutely freaking out. As I mentioned earlier, I am a second cycle applicant. I asked all of my professors from last year if they would mind writing me another recommendation, and they all said it would be no problem. I'm only applying to one school, and I sent out the link to the recommendation form two months ago. Two of my professors completed it relatively promptly. I'm still waiting on the third. The school's website mentioned that the link might get sent to a spam folder, so a couple of weeks ago, I started to worry that my professor had not received the link. Last Friday, I sent her an email politely and apologetically asking if she ever received it. I have not received a response. The deadline is coming up (December 31st) and I feel like at this point I don't have time to ask anyone else. I'm going to call her office tomorrow and ask for her. I don't want to harass her, but I don't know what else to do. I know it's a busy time of year and maybe she's annoyed with me for not sending that reminder email sooner - or for sending it at all! - but I felt like I had no choice. I'm also extremely concerned that she may have become seriously ill. She had a bout with something serious (probably cancer, but she never specified) a couple years ago and had to take the semester off from teaching. My boyfriend pointed out that if that had happened she would probably have some automated email response notifying people of her absence, but I'm not sure she did last time. I care about her as a person - she was my thesis adviser and she was always very patient and understanding with me - but I'm also terrified that it will be too late to get anyone else to write me a recommendation if she is indeed taking a leave of absence. If anyone has any words of wisdom to offer, I'd be eternally grateful. I'm making myself sick with worry over this.

@bloome No problem! I assume you haven't heard anything yet?

Yeah, you're probably right. I overthink things sometimes. Thank you.

YIKES, just found this fun little addendum to the guaranteed admission policy at the bottom of an email from the Director of Admissions: *only declined admission because of poor written statement or poor recommendations. I assume it would have to be like, REALLY bad, but now I'm extra nervous. Great.

Hey all! I'm applying to the University of Pittsburgh. This is my second cycle applying. Last year, I was accepted at Columbia, Tulane, Simmons and waitlisted before ultimately being accepted to Boston College. I was also rejected by BU. I had to decline all of my acceptances due to lack of funding. Really hoping for a better outcome this year. If anyone has any questions about the application process at any of those schools, feel free to PM me (or just ask here) and I will answer to the best of my ability.

Hey guys, just wondering if you think it's bad to reuse my essay from last year and just change the parts that are school specific? Last year, I used basically the same essay for every school and just edited it to reflect the phrasing used in their prompts since they all ask basically the same things. The only thing I'm worried about is a large part of my essay is about an event that happened in the summer of 2017 and was therefore much more relevant (at least to me personally) this past year. I'm applying to only one school and I didn't apply there last year. I'm not worried about getting in because my GPA is above the threshold for guaranteed admission. I'm a little worried that it could affect my chances of getting a decent scholarship if my essay isn't up to snuff. Then again, I've also heard that for this particular school, they base scholarship awards on GPA, in which case it seems pointless to even try for more than the minimum since my GPA is only 3.5 (the cutoff is 3.4). Any thoughts? Any second cycle applicants having similar problems? Talk to me! I have less than a month to complete this application and I'm kind of freaking out since I also start a new job this week and my time management skills are admittedly awful (something I had hoped to improve before grad school, welp).

Hi @bloome. I think the turnaround for admission decisions is fairly quick, or at least it was last year. It seems like everyone had to wait until almost spring to hear about scholarships, though, which sucks. He're the thread from last year if you want to get a better idea of the timeline:

Hey, thanks for the responses, everyone. I finally worked up the courage to email her today. I debated on just resending the link as a reminder, but I was worried it might get sent to the spam folder again (if that is indeed what happened the first time). I really hope she isn't annoyed with me... I explained the situation and apologized in the email (couldn't help myself), but I still worry.