katiemk1230

I picture the process of the ad.com sorting through competing apps like the judging table on "Chopped": "Well I loved your SOP, and your LORs were perfectly seasoned. But your GPA is undercooked, and it's detracting from your overall dish. Applicant John/Jane Doe, you have been chopped."

Just got my first acceptance - my treat to myself is a long hot bath, and the best F-ing brownie on the face of the planet, from the bakery I work at. I'm cutting, serving, and drooling over them day in and day out, never giving in. Tomorrow I'm giving in and enjoying every freaking second of it.

Just got accepted to University of Denver! No $$ info yet...not even an official acceptance letter or email yet either. I went on the website and though the decision still said "unavailable", there are now two buttons at the bottom of the page saying "Accept Offer of Admission" and "Decline offer of admission". According to the survey results, several other posters have experienced this, and it always means they're accepted. Hopefully I'll get official notice and some info about money soon too!

1) go on gradcafe and/or return to checking facebook ten times a day, instead 2) www.animalstalkinginallcaps.tumblr.com 3) Harass my cats 4) Bake goodies for my references 5) Go to work! 6) Clean all the things? 7) Sleeeeeeeep 8) work out sit in front of the t.v. eating baked goods that were intended for references 9) Give up and check admissions status ten times a day anyways

hahaha I love #3...

Do it! I live in the Northeast, and though my Sorels were a gift, if I had bought them they'd have been the best investment ever. 4 or 5 years later and they're still just as warm as the day I got them. They can withstand up to I'd say -15 or so, with normal socks...add some thick socks and replace the liners and you could probably climb Everest in those beasts.

Oh, don't worry! It definitley is beautiful and liberal and stylish...it's just that I lived there for 20+ years and after awhile I started to feel suffocated. It's a small town, and everyone refers to it as "the Northampton bubble" or the "happy valley bubble". It's not a bad thing - like I said, if I had moved here in my 20's, I would've loved it. Everyone holds similar values and tend to be very tolerant and accepting and peaceful. The biggest things that got to me were 1) it is relatively small. You can only do the same things over and over again throughout your childhood and adult life before you start to crave more, and it's also a bit of a drive to get anywhere else. (of course, now I live in the Berkshires where it's even worse, haha, but that's a whole other story), and 2)it's been getting increasingly expensive to do stuff there. However, if I was just discovering the town now and it wasn't worn out to me, I would love it - there are so many unique little stores and shops and restaurants and cafes (Try Cafe Evolution in Florence - a vegan cafe with the best damn desserts in town!), and the people you will meet are open minded and funky. From what I gathered working downtown and meeting a lot of smithies, they have a supportive, peaceful, funky, awesome culture there too. Not to mention the campus is f'ing beautiful!! I had a college class (not through Smith) that met in one of their classrooms, and the campus and classrooms were just great.

Congrats on Simmons - it's perfect that it's your next choice and that you're in! I didn't realize you'd gone to Smith for undergrad - Sorry to have badmouthed Noho, haha. I think it would be the type of place I would've liked, had I not gotten sick of it living there my whole life. You definitely have the advantage of having more to do in Boston though! I imagine that no matter where you end up, the whole process (learning you are going to go to school x, live in City Y - just starting the next chapter of your life!) is really fun and exciting.

LCP = LMHC (licensed mental health counselor), yes? I was debating the same thing for quite awhile. I was told by both my father ( a LICSW) and a social work professor that an MSW gives you more options. You can always do therapy/counseling with an MSW, but with an MHC degree, you can *only* do counseling. From what I understand, MSW's are more "professionally and academically respected" (though personally I think that's BS, the best therapist I ever saw, even better than PsyD, was an LMHC). Ultimately the translation there = more job opportunities, more opportunities for advancement in your career, and better pay - better, of course, being a relative term. I hardly think Social Workers are living the good life I originally was planning to apply to mostly MSW programs, and one mental health counseling program...I never ended up applying for the MHC one because I felt pulled more concretely to social work, but you might want to consider aapplying to both types of programs.

MissH, I'm sorry about Smith. What is your second choice? I applied (not early decision though) too, but I just have this incredibly strong feeling I won't get in (that's not intended as self deprecation - I do think I have a decent shot at a couple of the schools I applied to, but Smith is more of my "reach" school). Well, on the bright side - wherever you go will be more exciting than Northampton! I grew up there, it's extremely over-rated.

I like all these ideas. My question is *when* should I give them a token of my gratitude? I'd do it now but it seems like every week, one of my schools is "missing" (read: they lost it) one reference or another and I have to bug my references yet again. I want to give them something when I know everything is done, but should I wait until I get all my decisions? With at least one of my schools, that could be quite awhile...

On bad days: "Great GPA, graduated top honors, pretty decent LORs...wait, is this a SOP or a high school diary entry? And what's this? She worked menial sh***y jobs through college instead of doing internships, volunteering, research, or other related extracurriculars?! Oh, *and* she went to a crappy state university?! Unacceptable. No experience in a human services setting? Why the hell does she think she even stands a chance?! Experience is - ya know, only the single most important aspect of an applicant we look at." On good days: Great GPA, graduated top honors, good LORs, SOP lacking some focus but overall her goals and reasons for wanting to pursue the degree come across well. Oh, she doesn't have experience? Well, looks like that's because she's had to work to put herself through school, and judging from her SOP, she knows a lot about the field from personal experience, that counts for something. Hey, actually, since she IS so broke, lets judge her mostly on her academic abilities and therefore give her tons of money!!

You are the second person I've heard mention the micro-brews as a huge plus to living in/near Denver!

Yay!! Not sure if anyone is still reading/following this thread, but I'm super psyched to hear this. I'm from the Northeast, and I hate our winters with a passion (though this year has been very mild and tolerable). I originally wanted to move to FL for school, but I think I would miss the mountains, trees, nature... and the spring/summer/fall seasons. I know Denver gets snow, and winter, but you're one more person who has given me hope that the winters there aren't quite as bad as they are here. Someone mentioned they might be shorter, too, though I don't necessarily believe that. Here, it doesn't start to get up to the mid 40's until probably late march, and we've been known to have snow through early-mid march to. How does Denver compare in this sense?

Maybe venting them will help release a little stress? I had my first today. I applied to a huge university(finished/submitted the app about a month ago) and thought everything was relatively under control. My status was "missing transcript" which I had re-sent. Today, I emailed them to make sure they got the transcript. Not only had they still not received or processed it (apparently they're so big that even when things are received, they don't even begin to be put into your file until almost a month after they arrive), but apparently they "hadn't received" my reference letters. Don't even get me started on the lack of communication between grad. admissions and the department I'm applying to...suffice it to say, I had originally been told to go ahead and send everything, including my LORs to one dept, and now its turning out that these get lost between the two and everyone is telling me contradictory things about the status of these items. Oh but it gets better. Now, apparently I'm supposed to have completed a separate "departmental application" - which I swear was mentioned nowhere, at any point during my application. Apparently I filled out the graduate school's general application, and even though I selected my program and submitted an essay about it, that's not enough. Now, since I was supposed to know through ESP, I have to do an entire new application, plus another essay, and the best part? I get to have my references write ALL NEW LETTERS to conform to the specific questions for this application. Oh yeah, and this is all due there by mail, in 5 days. I live in MA, the school is in FL, and my references (who have to recieve the form asap to fill it out plus write the letters and physically mail all this in) are about 1 1/2 hours away from me. ::cries:: I know this is my fault - I should have been scouring every possible page of every possible link of every possible site. But for a school that made me create a username, get a user ID, and wait 24 hours just to set up an account in order to set up *another* account that then made me create new usernames and IDs and wait 3 days before I could even pay for my application to be submitted, I think it's obvious that they don't exactly make the process user friendly. I suppose they're weeding people like me out...but this was my last application and I was so burned out, and I really thought I had everything in!!! Thanks for listening. I'd like to hear from the cafe community - what are some of your "FML" moments of the grad school application process?? Has anyone had any that defeated them (hopefully not!) ? How did you overcome them?

Smith, U.Denver, WashU, U.South Florida, and Westfield State (where I went for undergrad, I know no one's ever heard of it for MSW programs...they just started one two years ago). MissH, I see you're from Mass too - did you want to stay in state specifically, or did it just happen to end up that the schools you wanted to go to were all in the area? When did you apply for Smith? I'm wondering what the average rate of response is...

Is anyone else here applying to the MSW program at USF?? I searched the admissions results list from years past and only saw *one* person who had posted about it, back in 2010. There have to be more of us out there...? If you've applied, is it your first choice, second, etc? What do you like about it?

I too applied to a state school, my undergrad institution. Not my first choice at all, but it's cheap, and I'm guessing I'm likely to get in. Best program out there? Definitely not, but that doesn't mean it's bad. I think internships and field placements leading to job recruitment are probably more important than the reputation of your school's name. I do agree, if you can afford private/ivy league, by all means go for it - it can definitely give you an edge, and a great education. In addition to my state school, I also applied to Smith, and to two out-of-state state universities, because if I do get funding or if my family is able to help, awesome. But, you are right - social work is not a high paying field, and since I already have undergrad loans, I don't want to break the bank. I completely agree!! It seems absurd to charge the same or very close to the same tuition for an MSW as to say, I don't know...nursing, or engineering, or something like that. Granted, we are going into the field because of the work, not for the pay (obviously!), so on one hand you could argue that to measure a program's worth based on financial return to the student after landing a job isn't necessarily the best thing to do. However, we have to be realistic, and acknowledge that even though we aren't working in the field to make money, that doesn't mean money is no issue.

Congrats Rivka and Kristi!! The waiting game has paid off Does anyone know where the thread is for the concerns about financing an MSW education? Man, first we worry about getting in, then when we have to worry about paying for it. On the one hand, you only live once. On the other, how much living can you do when you have a gazillion dollars worth of loans? I believe I have heard that the Obama administration has set it up so that if after 25 years, if you've paid back at least the minimum required monthly payment religiously and you still owe money, the rest of your loan will be forgiven (Of course, ideally you wouldn't have that hanging over your head for 25 years!). Not sure if that is something that really exists or not, I didn't follow up on this. I'm really not sure if it's better to pay more for a more "reputable" school, or not - I guess it's more of a question of what the school offers in terms of internships/field placements to job opportunities, rather than name recognition. What are your opinions?

Thank you!! this actually did the trick...I have successfully been sucked into this for the past half hour instead of cycling through my apps over and over again. Also, one of the best cat sites I've seen online, haha.

So apparently checking your app. status 60 times a day *does* help because earlier this afternoon there was no box that said "decision" on one of my apps, and this evening, there was! Granted, it says "Decision unavailable. That makes it seem like they've made a decision though,...why must they torture us with vague updates like this - can't they just post the decision, if they've made it?! Has anyone else experienced something like this? If so, how long did it take before you actually found out what the decision was?

Thanks for the input, Kristin! So, on the weather topic - you said it was pretty sunny, which is awesome. I don't know if you're familiar with the northeast's climate at all, but do you know how winter would compare? I hate winter here (cold and snow), but love the program at DU, and from what I hear from a friend who grew up there, it's an awesome area. My other concern is cost...this is definitely one of the more expensive out of state schools I've seen, and it's not like SW is a fantastic paying field.... :-/ But I'm getting ahead of myself. On the note of getting ahead of myself though I may have a potential update on my app(?): In typical neurotic fashion, I just checked my app status *again* and suddenly there is a box for "decision". That wasn't there this afternoon! Granted, it says "Decision unavailable" - but I'm assuming that means they've made one. It's pretty soon! I only submitted my app a month ago. Not sure if a decision this soon is a good thing or a bad thing....I guess I won't know until I know, right? Has anyone else had this on their app? If so, for how long?

I had the same question, but for the opposite reason. Great GPA, almost zero experience :-/ Has anyone gotten in anywhere without much experience? Any guesses on my likelihood of getting in if everything else (letters, essays, grades, GPA) is great but I have no real experience?

I'm applying to DU! Not sure how I feel about moving to Denver, but the program itself is probably my top choice - because of the animal assisted social work option. Does anyone have any idea when they might start sending decisions out? How early did you guys apply? I'm getting nervous now...I have great grades, GPA, letters, SOP essays, etc....but almost zero experience (as far as sw itself goes...though I was a vet tech for awhile, so that might help me with the the animal assisted concentration). Now that I'm seeing how many people with similar stats as mine PLUS experience aren't getting into various MSW programs, I'm starting to highly doubt I'll get in anywhere

Wow, everyone is hearing back so early! Did you submit apps early? I didn't get mine in until a few weeks before the deadline, or in one case, the week before. And, still, 3 (out of 4) of them are missing either one of my reference letters, or my undergrad trasncripts. Both of which I have been bugging the respective parties about for weeks. As of yesterday, they have "definitley re-sent" them. ? I wish I had gotten things in sooner. Are there specific forums for specific schools? The one school I applied to early and which is officially reviewing my application is University of Denver, and I'm dying to know if anyone has heard from them yet Also...I'm getting really concerned, going through everyone's stats...I have a good GPA (3.87 cum., 3.91 major/psych), but little to no experience. I had to work constantly to put myself through school, so I never really got to do internships...I did volunteer with meals on wheels in highschool, which I tried to play up, but that's not really social work. Is there any way I might get in based on my grades, letters, and personal statements/essays alone? Is experience an absolute requirement? (If it makes a difference depending on the school, I've applied to: University of Denver, Smith College, WashU, Westfield State University - my undergrad, and backup/safety grad school, I hope - and University of South Florida.) Lastly...I know alot about 3 of the schools I've applied to...but not USF. Does anyone have any input on it?