Sounds like I have a lot of paperwork to look forward to! Do you mind getting me the name of the recruiter you're having trouble getting a hold of? Or maybe at least letting me know your geographic location so I can figure it out myself from the website?
You guys will have to let me know how it goes for you!
It's good to see that you've gotten a head start in being proactive about the application process. Too often, I see students who are mere months away from the interview ask such important questions. Yes, you do have a lot of paperwork to look forward to
But trust me, it's a small price to pay. Your recruiter is going to be your main point of contact for the entire application process. I spent a solid year keeping in touch with mine (of course, I had the luxury of living nearby her office). We're personal friends to this day. Some recruiters are awesome, some are not. If you get a bad one, sometimes you can get ahold of a recruiter from a different region who is willing to pick you up (many of my classmates who had bad recruiters ended up being 'adopted' by mine
😀 ).
As far as GPA/GRE/hours go, the board members are looking for the total package. That doesn't mean you need a perfect GPA, a 1300 GRE, and 1000 hours, however. My class averages were:
1225 GRE
3.7 GPA
300-400 hours (I forget exactly).
Some of the applicants met the minimum standard for volunteer hours, some had 3.5 GPAs, and some had 1100 GREs. But more than likely, they were accepted due to being exemplary in others areas. I personally graduated college with a 4.0 and scored around the high 1300s or low 1400s on my GRE (I forget exactly) and put in around 400 hours in 4 different clinics (2 of which were military). One of my letters of recommendation was also written by a military PT who was once on faculty as well. But don't be discouraged. Once you're in, everybody's equal. There is no valedictorian here so the competition is over. If I graduate with a 3.0 or a 4.0, I'm still guaranteed a job and still get paid the same.
My advice to you? You have a solid year before the true deadline hits (but you didn't hear that from me). Begin building a personal rapport with the recruiter for your area. Obviously, the more volunteer hours you can get, the better. However, 400 hours from 4 clinics is better than 800 from just 1. They're looking for diversity (brownie points if you can get hours in a military clinic). You also have plenty of time to boost that GRE score. The most important aspect (according the the COL who wrote my letter of recommendation) is the verbal score. I bought 2 Kaplan study guides from Barnes and Noble at 30 bucks a pop (advanced quantitative and advanced verbal). The verbal portion's exponentially easier if you've learned all 3000 or so words in the study guide's "commonly-used" glossary. You could easily achieve that in a few months. The reason people typically have a hard time with the exam is that you just can't cram for it. I spent several months studying for the verbal portion (my verbal SATs were around 30 percentile - had a big vocabulary weakness to make up for). If I got bored with the study guide, I'd spend some time at freerice.com or gredic.com. In the end, I wound up in the mid 600s/90-something percentile and I'll admit it's just because I worked harder and longer than most. A year is plenty of time to put in hours and boost your GRE. But you can't let that year turn into a month by saying, "I'll start tomorrow..." Eyes on the prize. You can rest when you're in
👍
