lemondrop

Congratulations, Lilly! I hope the people waiting hear soon.

Just got an email! I have been waitlisted. The email said that they accept around 30% of the students off the waitlist each year, and to respond to say if I am interested in remaining on the list. At least now I know that they are considering me. The big wait is finally over! GOOD LUCK to everyone else and please keep us updated!

Nope, haven't heard anything. 2 days left to wait!

I'm not sure. The way I typed it out was exactly what it said on the handout we got at the info session. I assume it is overall GPA, but I really don't know.

Congratulations!! I think you're the first on this forum to get accepted at Berkeley.

March!!!! Big, big typo. March 4th, not April 4th!!! Thanks for pointing that out!

I called the School of Social Welfare and asked about statistics for this year. Here's an update: Q: How many people applied? A: Over 700. Q: When will we hear back about decisions? A: Everyone should hear back by the first week of April, by email. Should not be later than the 4th. Q: How many people applied for the Community Mental Health concentration? A: 180-190. Q: How many spots are there for people in this concentration? A: 24-26. So.. in other words, more than 100 more people applied this year compared to last year, and they are accepting fewer students. I think at the info session they said that they had 26-28 people in the CMH concentration last year. (If any Berkeley admissions people are reading this and something here is incorrect, please feel free to correct). Final thoughts: I'm not getting my hopes up.

Work experience is really important to them. At the info session, they had some current MSW students there to tell their stories and answer questions. One thing I noticed was that not one of them said "I went straight from undergrad to the MSW program." They all took a break from school and had work experience. On the other hand.. I just spoke to someone who works at the organization I work at, who was a Berkeley MSW grad. She DID go straight through from undergrad, but she was put on the wait list. She did not have much experience in the field, but she went to Cal for undergrad and had a 3.8 GPA. She was also accepted into UCLA. That was several years ago though, and I think Berkeley has gotten more selective so maybe they take experience into greater consideration now.

Yes, the main focus is on the verbal score. They do not even track the math scores. I specifically asked them this because my math skills are appalling. But... having said that, any school is going to look twice if it looks like you didn't even try, right?

When I was looking into MSW programs to apply to for 2011, I decided that UC Berkeley would be my first choice. I couldn't find any hard data about how competitive Cal's program was online, and tried to guess what kind of applicants they like by looking at old forum threads where people shared their GPA/scores/experience and whether they got accepted or declined. As it turns out, the School of Social Welfare has their own data, which they shared with prospective students at info sessions last year. If you're wondering what your chances are, especially since the application deadline has now passed and there's nothing left to do but wait, here are some useful statistics they gave us about last year's applicants: 2010 Applicant Info Medians: - GRE Verbal: 550/70% - GPA: 3.61 - Age: 26 Admission Statistics: 586 applications 99 admitted Also very important to them: "Knowledge of social welfare field and professional commitment to social work (1 year of experience)." That's at least one year's worth of experience at 40/hrs a week (full-time). I hope this is helpful to someone. Good luck to all applicants!