28-year-old Black Male admitted to MSW programs at University of Pennsylvania, Washington University, and University of Chicago
David was a first-generation college student who had success in college at Loyola and in his first job out of college in Washington, D.C., but needed something more “next level” than his usual support system of peers when he decided to apply to MSW programs. He turned to The Art of Applying® to craft his story and for help with preparing his applications.
He was accepted by three different programs offering varying levels of support, and opted for Washington University in St. Louis, which presented him a full scholarship to aid him in pursuing his dreams.
Service: Application Accelerator®
Start Date: April 2018 | End Date: May 2019
Demographics
- Age: 28
- First-time applicant
- Public Policy & International Affairs (PPIA) alum
Application Stats
- School: Loyola University of Chicago
- Major: Sociology and International Studies
- GPA: 3.46
- Work experience: Six years
Acceptances
- Washington University (St. Louis)
- University of Chicago
- University of Pennsylvania
Scholarships
- Washington University in St. Louis with full ride scholarship
- University of Chicago with 75% scholarship
- University of Pennsylvania with over 55% scholarship
Attending
- Washington University
Notable Quotes
“In my background, I had a lot of success, I was doing a lot on my own. I had fellowships in undergrad. I had fellowships after, which is what brought me to my job in D.C. I had communities of people who were giving me a lot of good advice. But it was different to think about my own process, to really have someone … responsive to my internal personal questions, really thinking about how I build my own personal profile, with my set of goals, not influenced by the advice I was getting, which was very much cookie cutter to whatever process that they had either for their law schools or their Ph.Ds or their own degrees.”
“I think it was an investment in myself to think about what profile do I really want to develop, not just for this application, but for my future … knowing that I had that sounding board, knowing I had a community of people who are also asking those questions.”
“Having a community of people … who make it their job to counsel and coach other people, [who] have a perspective about how people will discern through these things that … might be really helpful for you. So if you have these really tough questions about where you want to go in life or how a certain school or a certain degree might fit into your plan, then you might want to consider, do you have those folks in your community to help you answer those questions? Do you have peers who are also going through that and you want to be able to suss that out with them? Or do you also have some questions that you feel you really need to go to the next level, and get professional help [to get answers]? … When you want to become a better writer, you’re going to hire a writing coach. Same thing here: How do you think about putting your best profile together and think about setting the best set of goals that are going to get you really what you genuinely want and need?
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