MSW11

I don't know much about UCLA or USC but UC Berkeley admits by concentration, so depending on what concentration you will apply for it may make a difference. In general, I think they have about a 25% admittance rate for all concentrations. They also consider the GRE. So...if they admit about 25% of the applicants and the GPA cut off is 3.0. With all things considered, you would need to be in the top 25 - 30% of applicants. Since USC is a private school and more costly, I am guessing that it is easier to get into because there will likely be more admitted students who will choose to go elsewhere due to the high tuition, which means that even if you are waitlisted you might have a good chance at getting off the waitlist. I really don't know much about UCLA, but I suspect it's easier than UC Berkeley, but maybe more difficult than USC. What is you concentration and what state are you in? I would suggest doing some research on schools that are geared towards what you are interested in and also find schools who admit a larger amount of applicants. If you are worried about your GPA, my opinion is that finding a school that will be a really good match for you will be to your advantage. Spend a lot of time on your personal statement and really work hard at gearing it towards the school(s) you are applying for - don't make it generic. The extra time spent on your personal statement will pay off. AND make sure to get some feedback on your POS. I personally found an objective perspective to be more helpful because it's hard to take criticism from people who are close to you.

I think it depends on where you apply. Some CSU's may consider applicants who live locally over out of state applicants. I think UC's consider more out of state students than CSU's, but are likely to favor local applicants over out of state applicants in a group of equally qualified applicants (local student may be more likely to actually enroll than out of state students). As for private schools, I don't think they really weigh your location in the application process. I think a lot of programs like to have some out of state student so that the incoming cohort is more diverse. It's all going to depend on your qualifications and concentration. If you are more qualified than the average applicant than you shouldn't have any problem. What schools are you thinking about?

I'm just not surprised because of how competitive it is. My GPA is close to a 4.0 for all upper division/major courses completed in the last two years. Plenty of professional work experience (not human service related though), lots of volunteer experience, some research experience, awards....I think it just wasn't a good fit for me and perhaps I slacked off on the essay prompts. I wouldn't have gone there anyway. I think this really needs to come across in an application by working very hard on your essay and matching it to their prompt. Being a good fit for the program and this coming across is another plus. I got into my top schools with funding, but waitlisted and rejected at the schools I would have been more hesitant about attending. My essays were all written for my top schools and tweaked for the others. Best advice for next year's applicants - work very hard on the essays for your top schools, as it will pay off!

As suspected, rejected by SFSU. It appears decisions are up. I will be mailed a letter, but I logged on to check my graduate admissions status and noticed the decision was just posted...

Based on your experience, if your GPA and personal statement are strong, I would think you might have a good chance at getting into a program. It really just depends on the program you are applying to. CSUs aren’t exactly as easy to get into as a lot of people seem to think they are. This is mainly because of the budget crisis right now. You should find out how many people they are admitting and how many applied. This will give you a much better idea of where you stand. I applied to SFSU and honestly don’t expect to get in. They cut a couple of concentrations, and are now only admitting about 25 students this year and get several hundred applications. Although you may be qualified to get into the program, they’ll be making some tough decisions, and you may be competing with some people who many have a little bit more experience or even 10+ years experience in a human service related field. I believe the CSUs that you mentioned may even be some of the stronger MSW programs in the CSU system. Ironically, you might have a better chance at getting into University of Washington because they’ll be admitting several hundred students…the tough part is paying for the tuition. If you don’t get in this round, consider applying to some of the programs that are known for offering some scholarships and are larger programs (out of state?) – might help offset some of the costs of living and tuition. That’s just my opinion and was sort of my thought process before I started applying to programs. Best of luck!

Call and ask. When I was looking into programs, I must have called just about every one of them with the same questions. I had no problem getting this information over the phone from the person who picked up. I think a lot of programs are open to sharing a lot of these statistics. I also asked about diversity, whether they admit by concentration, competitiveness for scholarships, etc. They seemed willing to share. The majority of the larger programs that I called seemed close to 50% acceptance from what I remember.

Congratulations! I know the feeling. I got waitlisted at Cal, but got into my other top choices. I just declined at offer, and am narrowing it down to Boston University. Will be visiting the school soon. When did you submit your application for BU?

I know many people are still waiting on a decision, but for those of you who have had multiple offers and are debating between accepting/declining offers, just curious to know how this process is going. I just declined an acceptance offer today and it was one of my top choices with a nice scholarship. Felt kind of crappy. All this hard work, I kind of want to take up all the offers. Deciding on a school seems to be one of the more challenging parts of the application process...

Congratulations!! That's such awesome news!

Congratulations to all the people who were recently admitted! I applied to 7 schools and have heard from my top four. I think all of the excitement is over for me. I plan to visit University of Michigan and Boston University in March to narrow it down. I'm leaning towards Boston University at the moment because the funding will make it comparable to in-state tuition for me.

I didn't apply for Advanced Standing, but I did find out recently that I got in. They offered a decent scholarship, but I was offered more elsewhere, so I don't think I'll be putting a deposit down. Good luck! I'm sure you don't have anything to worry about!

Just posted on the other thread. I just got an email and have been waitlisted. I applied for the gerontology concentration, which apparently had 6/7 slots available, so I'm not all that surprised. I guess many of us will be hearing soon...

Just notified by Cal - waitlisted. Applied for the gerontology concentration. This does not surprise me, as it sounds like the acceptance rate was 80-85% for this particular concentration. I'm kind of OK with this. I had a feeling this would happen in-state, so it will only give me that push I need to HAVE to go out of state...

I'm pretty sure the GPA should be for the last 60. This is what I was told when I went to an info session, but I went to the info session the year before. I even asked for clarification after the info session because I have 120+. I was told that they generally calculate the last 60, but do whatever they can to caluclate and get the highest GPA possible...so perhaps they will calculate both and use whichever is higher. smgirl2010, Congratulations on your acceptance!!

I went to an info session over a year ago for Fall 2010, and they were previously accepting about 10 out of the 40 applicants that applied. 6-7 - that's much less than I thought. This is exactly why I applied out of state. SFSU is only accepting a handful of people too...budget cuts...such a shame... Good luck to you too!