I was looking in the online system and it looks like I was rejected outright for the LMFT Master's program at TWU. I'm rather baffled as my stats were, I thought, good enough to place me high up on the acceptance list. I'm trying to sort out what happened so I can shore up application deficiencies for such time when I reapply and for applications to other institutions.
I have a B.S. from UTD, a double major in psychology and child learning and development. I graduated magna cum laude (top 10%) with a cumulative GPA of 3.895. I have a year of experience as a research assistant for the behavioral and brain PhD. program head, and two semesters of teaching internship for another professor so my letters of recommendation ought to be solid (TBH though, I haven't viewed them as I've heard that's a no-no). I have over a year volunteer experience for a crisis line, hundreds of hours of volunteer with animal rescue, homeless shelters, and student organizations -- including a service award from UTD for amount of volunteer hours served. I even took a Master's level class for undergraduate credit in my final semester in order to demonstrate I could handle the material. The only item I'm lacking is a GRE score, which this program didn't require. I'd initially geared my application to be competitive for UTSW's Clinical/Counseling PhD. program as it has the most demanding cutoff point in the area. At this point I'm a little terrified there's some glaring problem in my application that caused me to get an interview, but then be rejected outright. I did my first two years at a community college and got an A.S. before I transferred to UTD, I don't think that would have counted against me though?
I did get an invitation to interview for another similar program in the same department, the LPC program. I'm not certain if that means anything at all as I applied to both.
The requirements for the program were:
3.25 GPA on last 60 hours
Letter of intent
Participation in Interview Day
There were only four candidates for the Master's program on TWU's interview day. It seems like lack of space wouldn't have been the issue. I'm curious if my age had something to do with it? I'm 40, which is older than traditional students, but I don't know if that had anything to do with my rejection. Perhaps I really bombed the interview or written essay portion after the interview?
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as this is causing a bit of an existential crisis.
I have a B.S. from UTD, a double major in psychology and child learning and development. I graduated magna cum laude (top 10%) with a cumulative GPA of 3.895. I have a year of experience as a research assistant for the behavioral and brain PhD. program head, and two semesters of teaching internship for another professor so my letters of recommendation ought to be solid (TBH though, I haven't viewed them as I've heard that's a no-no). I have over a year volunteer experience for a crisis line, hundreds of hours of volunteer with animal rescue, homeless shelters, and student organizations -- including a service award from UTD for amount of volunteer hours served. I even took a Master's level class for undergraduate credit in my final semester in order to demonstrate I could handle the material. The only item I'm lacking is a GRE score, which this program didn't require. I'd initially geared my application to be competitive for UTSW's Clinical/Counseling PhD. program as it has the most demanding cutoff point in the area. At this point I'm a little terrified there's some glaring problem in my application that caused me to get an interview, but then be rejected outright. I did my first two years at a community college and got an A.S. before I transferred to UTD, I don't think that would have counted against me though?
I did get an invitation to interview for another similar program in the same department, the LPC program. I'm not certain if that means anything at all as I applied to both.
The requirements for the program were:
3.25 GPA on last 60 hours
Letter of intent
Participation in Interview Day
There were only four candidates for the Master's program on TWU's interview day. It seems like lack of space wouldn't have been the issue. I'm curious if my age had something to do with it? I'm 40, which is older than traditional students, but I don't know if that had anything to do with my rejection. Perhaps I really bombed the interview or written essay portion after the interview?
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as this is causing a bit of an existential crisis.
