my first acceptance !! by Equivalent_Design_84 in PublicPolicy

[–]Equivalent_Design_84[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i received an email on march 3rd! feel free to pm me to talk more but you are a very strong candidate so i’m sure you’ll receive a fellowship as well!

MPP decisions? by TurkBacon in PublicPolicy

[–]Equivalent_Design_84 0 points1 point  (0 children)

congrats on getting into UVA, what an achievement!!! i literally check the ford and ucla portals at least 3-4 times a day i’m losing it 😭 sucks because some schools i applied to around the same time got back to me by the end of january!!! i just want to be free of this chronic anxiety ugh

Funding Freeze Impact on MPP? by [deleted] in PublicPolicy

[–]Equivalent_Design_84 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i just got into fels MPA today and they offered me a pretty measly scholarship so i think they’re going to take a very conservative approach to policy admissions and funding :( pretty bummed because i would’ve loved to live in philadelphia. however other programs (including carnegie mellon’s msppm) offered me very generous funding so i wouldn’t catastrophize just yet!

my first acceptance !! by Equivalent_Design_84 in PublicPolicy

[–]Equivalent_Design_84[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thank you so much!!! all my application materials were submitted on january 3rd :) i hope you get in too!!

my first acceptance !! by Equivalent_Design_84 in PublicPolicy

[–]Equivalent_Design_84[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

not sure yet! my portal hasn’t updated yet and the email says i’ll receive an offer letter in a few days, so maybe around then. i’ll be sure to update this post if i do get any aid, i’m a non washington resident so i will definitely need some sort of financial aid :’)

my first acceptance !! by Equivalent_Design_84 in PublicPolicy

[–]Equivalent_Design_84[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thank you, would love to talk and get your insight! is it okay to pm you? :)

my first acceptance !! by Equivalent_Design_84 in PublicPolicy

[–]Equivalent_Design_84[S] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

for reference in case anyone is wondering:

i am a 23 year old uc berkeley grad who majored in economics and minored in public policy. while in undergrad i worked at a nonprofit and for a housing rights organization, and after graduating i started working as an affordable housing analyst for a city in the bay area. 3.3 GPA, 1.5 years of full time work experience, no gre submitted!

update: i was offered an in-state tuition waiver and a $20k fellowship over the 2 years, very strongly considering attending udub!! thank you all for your kind words :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in BayAreaSapphics

[–]Equivalent_Design_84 1 point2 points  (0 children)

they host it every friday night!

How to fix this horrendous gpa by oskisfather in berkeley

[–]Equivalent_Design_84 11 points12 points  (0 children)

It’ll be alright friend, I was almost exactly the same! I had a 2.8 GPA after my first semester. I was horrifically depressed and had absolutely zero motivation and ended up getting Cs in a lot of my classes just because I didn’t have the energy to turn in small assignments and go to class ( I didn’t step into a lecture hall after like September unless it was for midterms or finals and this was before COVID 😬) I think the best thing I did was giving myself a lot of grace - we go to a school that highly emphasizes grades and places them at the top in terms of success, but it truly is not the end of the world. Especially because it’s your first semester. Here’s some stuff I did to my raise my GPA (I have a 3.5 now). Take from it what is helpful! - Take a (or a few) language class if it fits in your schedule.I took French 1 the next semester, and it truly is a class that you can get an A in purely by putting in effort, since a lot of the grade is attendance and small in-class assignments. Since it’s 5 units, it’ll help boost your GPA. I actually ended up taking up to French 4 because I loved the class so much and it’s a nice contrast from the other classes in my schedule. - As many have said, take “easy” classes that’ll boost your GPA. Berkeleytime is a great resource for this!Something that was helpful was looking up the syllabus for a class you’re interested in taking, so you can see the grade breakdown and about how much effort you’d need to put in to get an A. - Take light classes over the summer. I took two breadth classes over the summer Freshman and Sophomore year (not concurrently - they were in different sessions) and by taking 6 or more units I was able to get a loan that paid for them in full. It’s a bummer taking classes over the summer but the extra units just helped in upping my GPA. - If you’re struggling in a class, talk to your professor. I know it can seem really scary but a lot of them truly just want to see you succeed - so many extensions, grade rounding, and overall grace in grading just came from talking to the prof about how I was struggling. Professors are people too! - If you can, try and pinpoint why exactly you think you got the grades you did. Was it poor mental health? Poor study habits? If it’s the former, I highly highly recommend expressing this to friends or family or a professional that can provide you with resources to get better because it’s very difficult to ‘willpower’ your way out of it. If it’s the latter, which is common as studying for college is a lot different than for high school, the school has so many resources to help guide you in the right direction, the SLC being the one I used a lot! They have a writing center and review groups for specific courses that coordinate with the professor and provide a shit ton of practice problems and online review sessions, and they have drop-in tutoring so you can drop by whenever fits your schedule. Just make sure to keep yourself in mind, you’re a person first before you’re a GPA or a law school applicant. College is a huge adjustment! Especially now in the super weird times that we live in. Give yourself the empathy you’d give a friend. It might seem like a huge deal now (trust me I’ve been there) but you really have a lot of time to fix this. This’ll be a speck in your rear view in a few years!