MPA_App

You were entirely correct. Found out today I was admitted, officially!

Hey ya'll, hoping folks can give me some insight here. I'm applying for my Masters and yesterday got a letter via email from the LBJ School (my top choice) congratulating me and telling me that they are recommending me for conditional admission to the Masters of Public Affairs program. Awesome! I RSVPed to the accepted students day and filled out the form immediately telling them I intend to accept the offer and attend in Fall 2019. The conditional admission is because my GPA is below the Graduate School's cutoff of a 3.0 GPA, although they allow for applicants to submit supplemental essays explaining any extraordinary circumstances re: GPA. I submitted that essay -- I was sexually assaulted during my undergrad, which tanked my grades. In the 7 years since I graduated, I've accomplished a lot in my career. I did very well on the GRE (above the school's averages in all three sections), and felt really good about every other part of my application. I had three very strong LORs and am really proud of my SOP. The conditions of my admissions are that I keep my grades at or above 3.0 in my first semester, which I know I can do. This should all be good. Here's the thing: my admission is still pending sign off from the Dean of Graduate Studies. I'm TERRIFIED that the dean is going to see that my grades don't meet the cutoff and reject me out of hand. Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation? Any insights? How regular is it for the Dean to reject a student that's recommended and has a mostly very strong application?

My top choice this year is the LBJ School at the University of Texas in Austin. I've been waiting to hear back and checking my phone and email incessantly. Yesterday around 2pm ET I Slacked one of my coworkers that I just had to get over the fact that I wasn't going to hear back today or over the weekend obviously and just needed to find more things to do to fill my time so I stopped compulsively refreshing the page. I had just put an offer on a pair of boots on Poshmark (highly specific, I know), and when my phone buzzed I assumed it was a notification letting me know the offer was accepted. Instead I saw "The LBJ at University of Austin Admission Decision" and saw the preview of the body of the email that started, "Dear Amanda, we are delighted..." Any chill that I thought I had IMMEDIATELY left my body, I started laughing and crying at the same time as I read the email, then read it again, then double checked to make sure they didn't accidentally send it to me instead of someone else. I then called my mom and screamed "I GOT IN!" and she screamed back. I've been recommended for admission, so I do still need to wait on the official OK from the Graduate Internal Admissions Center, which is really stressing me out because I"m terrified that they will rescind the offer, but I already RSVPed to accepted students day and indicated on their form that I intend to accept the offer of admissions and start in the fall.

Oh, I totally understand. I am generally a fairly calm person, but I do well when I understand how processes work. The fact that I only have a general timeline and that I have zero control over the process is what's making me really crazy. Even having a concrete decision date would be helpful in that I could stop hitting refresh every fifteen minutes, just in case. I'm just trying to find ways to keep busy at work and am making myself go to the gym and yoga a lot more to keep me moving and focused on other things...maybe that can help, too? Good luck!

Can't speak to your specific program but my understanding is that admissions timelines are generally 6-8 weeks so I wouldn't expect anything right away! I would wait until mid-month (easier said than done!) and then shoot the coordinator an email asking about the general timeline for decisions. If you spoke to the coordinator and everything is fine with your transcript, then it's fine! Believe them!

My top program (MA program) sent an email that informed folks that people who applied before the 12/15 deadline would hear by mid-February which has led me to obsessively refreshing the page anywhere from seven to twenty times a day. I'm handling the stress fine...like talking to everyone around me about it incessantly and crying in yoga class this morning. Everything is fine.

I'm 6+ years out of undergrad, but my uGPA is terrible. Like, 2.78 terrible. I'm currently applying for my Masters, and I only applied to two programs, but really only want to attend my top choice, and the other one will be prohibitively expensive without significant funding. I had a really awful time in my undergrad and was able to use a supplemental essay to explain that (I was assaulted in college and struggled with PTSD), and I wound up getting a tutor to help me craft my SOP and (I hope) sell myself and why the program is the perfect fit for me -- and why I'm a great fit for the program. She helped me write the supplemental essay, too, to talk about my experience in a way that reflected how I've overcome it and accomplished a great deal in my field. I did well on the GRE (165V/162Q/5.5) and have three solid recommendations, plus a lot of very relevant work experience...but I can't move past my uGPA and am sure that I won't get in because of it. It's exhausting and disappointing to know that a terrible experience a decade ago is going to determine my academic future and that no matter how much I do, I won't be able to overcome it. This whole process and the anxiety is just draining.

MPAff! I love Austin generally and loved the campus a ton. Glad to hear you like it! I'm just stressed because my undergrad GPA is not great (I had some traumatic circumstances, which I wrote about in my supplemental essay), but my GRE scores were strong and I have 5+ years of professional political experience so...fingers crossed! Good luck with your PhD application!

I'm also waiting on UT Austin (well, LBJ at UT Austin). Haven't seen anything about people hearing back. I'm pulling my hair out with anxiety over it.

Oh boy. Worries: My undergrad GPA is low -- sub 3.0. I only applied to 2 programs, but I'm only really excited about my top school (the LBJ School for the MPAff program). They've sent an update letting folks who applied before the 12/15 deadline that they should hear by mid-February, and my anxiety is making the waiting that much worse. There's no interview, and I wasn't able to make an in-person visit to the school, although I talked to an admissions counselor for a while and interfaced with her via email fairly extensively about why LBJ is my top/only choice and what I want to go there. They also provided the opportunity to explain my GPA in a supplemental essay and I was able to talk about how a traumatic experience in undergrad impacted my grades, but I can't stop thinking about it even though the counselor told me that the admissions committee doesn't have GPA or GRE cutoffs and considers each application holistically. I'm absolutely convinced that my GPA is going to tank me. I also met someone this past year who is VERY smart and wound up studying in London, but he casually mentioned that the ONLY program he didn't get into was LBJ. Great. My other school is NYU Wagner, which is also a top school. Excitement: I'm very proud of my essays and think they make a compelling case for what I want to do AND why LBJ is the only place that will let me do it. The admissions counselor told me that the personal statement is the most important part of each application. I have three very strong letters of recommendation, and my GRE scores are pretty strong (165 Verbal, 162 Quant, 5.5 AW). I have 6 years of full time, relevant professional experience.