Zimaleah501

You are absolutely correct - it is one of those artificial feelings of oldness, because a LOT of my friends from college who went straight to grad school are finishing up Doctorates, getting their first "real" lawyer and doctor jobs, etc. This feeling is the sister of the feeling one sometimes gets when every friend from high school they have gets married in one summer, and I am nowhere near ready. I am a little less worried about my age, but a lot more worried at how much time and money I will be throwing at this. If I don't get in next year's round, I am considering getting certified to teach special ed, working for a couple years, then trying again.

I am also one who did not get accepted anywhere, had a 2.67 undergrad gpa (also with a MUCH better postgrad gpa), and cannot be certified as an slpa. I am praying to find a speech internship, another job so I can actually support myself, more classes to hopefully raise my gpa even more, and retaking the gre. I am 26 in a couple weeks, and like you, I am really discouraged. I will be applying EVERYWHERE this fall. Seriously, everywhere that it looks like I could have a chance. I've already begun reworking my SOP and studying for the GRE. I don't know what I'll do if I am rejected twice, in all seriousness. If nothing else, you're not alone!

Thank you, I certainly hope it pays off. I also plan on applying EVERYWHERE I can afford to this next year (I don't care if it means 25 places - I don't know that I could handle all rejections AGAIN and still pick myself up and try again) to statistically increase the likelihood that SOMEWHERE would take a chance on me. I was thinking about cold-calling/emailing places that have speech pathologists and asking if they would take someone willing to file/answer phones in exchange for some extra observation time. With this fall looking like it will be truly insane, I am thinking I also might just take the old GRE in July before it changes. I have some time now to work on the SOP (anyone willing to help edit?! ) and GRE study, and then it will be overwith by the time I can submit new applications. Plus, there is always that chance that with the new GRE (as with any new test) the schools won't know how to compare them quite as well as the old one. And my undergrad gpa being a 2.7 (my gpa in my postbac speech courses is 3.5) puts me as a fairly shaky candidate...and my 1160 5W wasn't quite enough to convince them. But as I said, if I try the GRE again, and hopefully improve my gpa even more, I will have a better chance this fall. I suspect organization will be key, though, so making a schedule is distracting/comforting me right now!

Congrats to everyone making final decisions/receiving acceptances! It makes me glad to see other people do well, keeps me motivated to try again. Because today, I received another (and final) rejection, meaning I have to pick myself up, work on improving my overall application, and do this process again next fall. I am really bummed, but I also know a lot of ways I could do better. Retaking GRE, I'll have 7 more subject-specific classes (and hopefully good grades) under my belt, and I have begun looking for internships. Does anyone have any advice regarding good resources for GRE studying (I've already plowed through a few of the books) and/or finding an internship?

Nope, not yet. But this waiting is kind of killing me slowly lol.

I am hoping for just one school this year, partially because I am not 100% ready to move out of state, partially due to funds, and partially due to really shaky stats. I had a 2.7 undergrad gpa in Animal Behavior, but my postbac work (8 classes) was 3.1. 1160 GRE, 5.0W. Some volunteer experience and solid recs but clearly with stats like that I am far from a shoe-in. East Stroudsburg is a program I like in a location I love, and is most importantly in state. If I don't get in (which is clearly a reasonable scenario) I will be applying to WAY more next year, all over the country. 15-20 if I can manage it. But I will be done school then (and my GPA will be closer to 3.5 then), retaking the GRE, and trying to do more shadowing and volunteering. But my fingers are crossed!

I suppose I have been spoiled, as I have seen professors let students retake in class exams AND online things on many occasions when they had a reason the professor sympathized with. I have never missed a due date before this but I've known students who have taken make-up exams (for at least partial credit) for everything from oversleeping to illness (sans doctors note). This is particularly true when the end result is a grade that seriously misrepresents the quality of the other work the student has done. This is the first time I have had experience with this myself, but I have on more than a few occasions (at least 6 times in my undergraduate period) known specific professors that would say "well, turn in the next paper topic during the next paper time, I will grade this one on time" for little to no penalty for people in my classes. Some of this was at my original undergrad institution, once at the school I take speech prereqs at, and once in a different community college class. I really thought this was a fairly common practice, although at the discretion of the professor to use it and judge the validity of the reason the student gives. I'd like to remind anyone reading this that this is an anonymous online forum, and as a previous poster put, how I speak here does not necessarily mean I am speaking that way to my professor. In fact, I did not blame him for anything in my interactions with him. I did not ask him for a B in exchange for nothing. I did not ask him to just ignore my lack of exam grade. My overall interaction (which answers your question, risingstar) included me discovering my mistake, and emailing him. In this email I apologized for not coming to him sooner, but I had just discovered my mistake upon trying to complete the other exam. I described my situation, said that a C is very undesirable in my situation, and said that with this missed exam I had zero chance of getting anything above a middle-low C average in the class. And given this information, is there anything I could do (re:retaking, extra credit) to raise this to a B average, because I should very seriously consider dropping the class. His response email told me not to worry, that he does not allow retakes or extra credit, but that it would not make sense to drop the class because he can consider the rest of my body of work when he calculates final grades if my work is good enough. When I discovered my grade was a C, I sent him an email, and he gave me a one line email about 73% not being good enough to be lenient with and that if I wanted to, I should contest the grade and submit the form and we would work it out next semester when he gets back from the holidays. My work was A+/middle A afterwards. I did not drop the class because he advised me not to. I believed him when he implied that me not having to worry and advising me not to drop the class meant that if my grades stayed stellar, he would give me a B. While I am sure I sounded particularly complain-y in my posts, it's because I was (and am a little) very worried and very angry. Not that he didn't think my grade was a B, but that he ADVISED ME BADLY when I gave him all of the information he needed. I calculated my grade, I knew the highest average I could attain was a 74.5% if I got 100 on everything. I put this in my email. Since I did not get a 100% on my final exam, just a lowly A-, I had a 73% at the end. I understood the entire time that he did not owe me the B - I thought as a professor he did owe me good advice on ANYTHING regarding his class. I still do. Which is why I am petitioning for a W, not the B. And it is not just me who thinks this is justified, though I understand why some of you feel I am an entitled-feeling gradegrubber who needs to grow up. You don't know me, so I don't blame you or hold it against you.

Good for you for trusting your gut - "vibes" and the indescribable feelings are how we know who we like, don't like, or fear in a subconscious way. And even more than this, good for you for recognizing the need to get some input and think of ways to take care of this now, before it potentially does get worse! Even if it never would have gotten inappropriate, it would absolutely make you feel better knowing you made sure they knew you were married or something, if that made the vibes go away. And in the end, you are trying to solve a situation where you are feeling uncomfortable. And you never know, the person might be trying to flirt in a very subtle way because they do not know you, and you saying/doing these things to let them know you are taken in a subtle way might be just what they were looking for as well. I second the idea that a previous poster gave in asking some people you know within the department - I learned some pretty scary things about a guy who was giving me weird vibes in my undergrad department by doing so.

I would definitely find other reasons you like the place to discuss than just liking the area, though that to me is a pretty valid reason to give a place a go, particularly if you are unsure of whether or not you will get in the other places. But during that research, you might find that there is something about that department that really means that it is not a good fit for you! Doing the extra legwork can only help you. You will either grow to appreciate a place even more, or you will realize you are wasting time and money applying to that school. Good luck!!

I have an old supervisor (and dear friend) of mine writing a letter for me - she has not worked in over a year and a half at all. I do not think it will affect things, particularly since her reason is being at a stage in her Stage IV breast cancer that she is hurting and sick all of the time. She mentioned briefly in the letter that she no longer worked there and why, in the beginning and then just wrote a really great letter about the time (2 years) that we did work together, and when she trained me. Being sick now doesn't change what happened in the past for her, so I doubt your person's circumstances should change yours, and the efficacy of the letter she writes you!

I empathize with your situation, as that is exactly what I did myself. And I agree with the poster who said that your main problem is the fear at this point. It will be more difficult for you to study if you do so out of panic, (for me the information will magically not stick in my brain ) so you should make a serious effort to stay relaxed. This is also important during the test. You are more likely to rush and make mistakes if you are nervous during the exam. I was not able to fend off the nerves while studying, but was able to during the exam, and I turned out with average, but acceptable scores (for my program). Part of me really thinks that the test scores are only there to make sure you aren't completely incompetent, or can help if they are really stellar. But most people are in the middle, and that just means writing a great statement of purpose (and writing sample, if your program needs it), and getting great letters of rec! Try not to worry, you can do it!

Everything you say makes sense, though I do feel like I should remind (or tell, if I did not do so in an earlier post) that I did not forget to submit an exam. In a situation nearly entirely unique to online classes, I took Exam 3 and submitted it on time for Exam 2 by accident. There is a fair amount of material overlap so I figured it was just a tough exam. I did not realize my mistake until I went to take (and subsequently submit) the next exam (which would have been not just on time, but 5 days early) and realized that I had missed Exam 2. The most similar situation I can apply this to for an in-person class would be if a student completed the wrong paper topic by doing a future one, and turned it in on time. The only difference there is that a person grades those, and a computer grades my exams, so it was not caught sooner than 3 weeks later for the next exam.

I am in a similar situation, although I am seeking a Masters, not PhD. 2.6 in undergrad. Since then I have improved it with other undergrad classes, I have a 3.4 in those. But they overall average out to barely a 3.0. Unlike you I do not have stellar GREs, mine are more average with a 540Q, 580V, 5.0AW. I have some great LoRs. I think at this point, it is now a crapshoot. But make sure you spend a lot of time and effort on your statement of purpose, as it is one of the only things you can really control for amping up your overall application!

Due to a fairly rocky academic past I had contacted the graduate directors at my future schools and asked for advice as to how I could enhance my application. They recommended providing the minimum number of academic recommendations, but also adding one or two from job supervisors to give myself a bit more of a cheering section. Now, one of my professors has not submitted her recommendation, but I now at the very least fulfill the minimum requirement for # of LoRs. Maybe ask for one from a supervisor, cross your fingers, and hope that it ends up just being extra?

I second the other poster's idea, that maybe your stress and anxiety negatively affected you during the exam. Did you feel confident after? I felt panicked beforehand, but during the exam itself was able to calm down a lot and just take it question by question. My scores were extremely average, but pretty good, and I attribute a lot of that to being able to remain calm during the exam.

Thanks for the advice. And to clear up confusion, I meant to refer to the situation as a debacle, not the man himself. Do I think he is a very good person? No, because impressions are everything, and to me he was not a good person. I know he isn't evil, or has it out for me. I am mostly venting here, but this is a community college where I am taking random gen ed prerequisites that I never had to take for my undergraduate major. In this case, I really will never see him again. All of my recommendations and speech courses are through a larger university, not this community college. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose I am more surprised at the overall lack of respect towards me. I would normally NEVER think "I pay for __, give me what I want". But in this case, he made a mistake, and is now refusing to be accountable for it in any way. That is my argument for the committee to contest the grade. As you said, I am not so silly as to insist he give me what I pay for. But at least so far, the committee is leaning in my direction. The person I submitted this to already emailed me back saying that while they are not done investigating, and will finish doing so after break, it sounded like the professor made an error and they were going to communicate with him directly and see if they can "fix it" without having to use the whole petition process. For anyone who might be taking/retaking prerequisites at community colleges, it is worth remembering that colleges (particularly community colleges) are businesses. While the professor may (and probably rightly should) be insulted at being told their salaries are being paid by the students, in the case of community college, it literally is. He does no research, he has three online classes consisting of 75 students total, all in the one subject. Grading was finished over a month ago when we all turned in our last short essay since the exams are multiple choice and automatically graded by a computer. He has a pretty sweet arrangement set up for himself. And in the end, administrators at community colleges want to minimize the complaints. I asked one of my other professors, one from the larger university I attend, about this situation and they reminded me of this fact. Lucky for me, it seems to be working out that he is correct. I very much thank all of you for the advice, it was under that advisement that I waited until yesterday to send any complaint form, and had someone else read it for me before I sent it, to be sure I was firm but not disrespectful or unreasonable. Because while I am 99% certain I will never professionally run into this man, I would feel terrible being overtly rude to anyone, let alone a teacher I very much respected until this incident. And even now, I mostly just hope the administrators make him resolve his error in some sense, and he is more careful in the future. And even if he refuses, the school might allow me to take a belated W in the course, and I can retake it during the summer with a different professor. Either way, I am much less panicked.

Thank you for your input. He does not owe me the grade - I do feel it is sort of his job though to provide advice for his class. I pay for this advice, even if it is not immediately related to the material. I realize I very well might lose, but he clearly did not even take the two seconds to look at my grade when I initially emailed him, panicked and not sure what to do and say "yes, this situation is bad, take the withdraw option because even if you get 100s on everything you will have too low of a C for me to bump you". He told me it would be worth it for me to stay in his class, because he could consider the quality of my work when calculating final grades. And maybe it is me being spiteful, but I think that to then follow up by doing anything else is pretty horrible. And if nothing else, I will feel better knowing I got to argue my point and hopefully he will act in a more proper manner next time. Because I told him at the time where my situation had me, and reiterated just yesterday when I received the "woops no B for you" email. If he was going to do the decent thing, he would have then. I also happen to know there are many schools where they ARE, to an extent, required to give the benefit of the doubt in electronic situations like this one which was indisputably an error in a single mouse click. And in the end, I have absolutely nothing to lose by trying, only something to gain. My programs will not overlook online classes, as I am in a program geared for people who are currently working full time and going to school. There is no school close enough to me (except the community college this debacle is associated with) to take speech courses in person. I am currently working full time and I took one in person class, three online classes. As I said in my original post, I have a viable plan B if this application season does not work out the first time around - including retaking this class. With another (and hopefully better) professor. I am frustrated that people like this exist, because I honestly wasted a lot of time ensuring the A level work when I could have been studying for my other 3 classes, and I am frustrated that he closed his email with "Good luck in graduate school" as though I didn't state in the email I sent to him that this grade was going to be a moderately important factor in that whole process.

Yes, I am beginning the petition process. I decided that his behavior is not excusable, and he should at least have to answer for it if not change my grade. I spent a lot of time studying for that final and working on that last paper...time I could have spent raising my physics grade. And yes, I can erase the past (and I will, if I do not get accepted this spring) in this regard, I was thinking more for my bachelor's degree gpa...that 2.6-2.7 is never going to change. But I am staying as hopeful as I can. Thanks to everyone for the responses, I really appreciate it!

This is sort of a rate-my-profile kind of gig, but not quite so much, since I am well aware of the difficulties I will face getting accepted to grad school. Undergrad GPA: 2.6 in Animal Behavior. Worked at an animal hospital for 2 years, switched my interests to Speech Pathology, and for a year (and currently) I work/ed at a daycare center while going to school for the undergrad level speech prereqisites. GPA from the 6 classes I have taken so far: 3.6. Three random psychology classes taken at the local community college: B, B, and...C. They were online classes and I took an exam at a wrong time and ended up missing an exam. I contacted the professor as soon as I found the error, weeks ago, and he assured me he would take my overall grade without the missed test into consideration when he put in final grades. I ended up with a 91 in the class without the test, and a 73 with the test and he told me there was nothing he could do (I would have dropped the class and not risked it, but it was after the add/drop period). I know it is still my fault, but I can't help but be sort of upset with the professor as I got a 96 on my final paper and 91 on my final exam...there is very little room for much improvement. And now I am panicking because I was relying on my "I'm a changed student!" improvement for grad school, and this C looks terrible. In addition, I have very unimpressive GRE scores (580 Verbal, 540 Quant, 5 writing). It's worth noting that I have a Plan B should I not be accepted that is fairly acceptable to me - retake GREs after months of studying (but possibly before they utilize the new format - we will see), I will have 5 more Speech courses under my belt, I will retake the class I got a C in and get the old grade off the record, and hopefully shadow a Speech Pathologist to have an even more impressive letter of recommendation for the next round. All of this while getting another part time job since I wouldn't be in school full time anymore. But I can't erase the past. I have some solid letters of recommendation, and I was in communication with most of my prospective schools and they encouraged me to apply regardless of my circumstances. Has anyone else been in this situation? Any advice?

Let me begin by first stating I feel incredibly silly. I lost my GRE score sheet, and in a moment of insanity erased my confirmation/registration number, called the ETS number (figuring that I can plug in my SS# and birthdate and test date)...and they say there is no record of mine on file because I must have typed something in incorrectly. Now I am stressing, because we are getting pretty close to the wire (but I just saved up enough money to have these scores sent to all of the schools after the app fees), and I am calling tomorrow to hopefully talk to a human being. Has anyone else experienced difficulties like this?

I am so happy to have found this thread!! I am applying to 12 schools, a list that was cut down from an original 22. Most of my friends still think I am insane. But I am just hoping to get in somewhere moderately close to where I live now, hopefully to maintain residency in PA. All of them are reach schools because my undergrad GPA was 2.7 before I worked for 3 years and took Speech Pathology prerequs (bringing it up to 3.0ish overall). I can't guarantee on getting in anywhere. But I have a few schools off the East Coast that sound a bit less competitive that I plan to apply to next year if nowhere accepts me this time around!!