MPA Program Questions and Concerns

[mednat]

I actually had. Perfect world, I would definitely choose Arkansas. The problem I'm running into with most programs is the GPA requirement. Arkansas is looking for cumulative undergraduate GPA, if I remember correctly. That takes me out of the running. I made a lot of missteps in my seven year journey to a BA. While I've done better at COSC, I don't have enough good grades to qualify for "GPA in the last 30 or 60 hours", I'm pretty sure. That's why I said "openish admissions." If they just accept the graduating institution GPA, like UIS, I'll be fine. If they ask for all transcripts ever then I'm in trouble.

Thanks for thinking about it at least.

I missed the open admission part. It looks like the conditional admission gpa is 2.75 (cumulative). Unconditional is 3.0. Depending where yours sits, it may be worth taking some easier classes at community college to inflate yours to 2.75 (if you really like the program). Before doing that even, it may be worth a quick call to admissions to see if there can be an exception.

I don't think programmatic accreditation will matter much, but I'm not in the field. In most areas (other than the helping professions), programmatic accreditation is mostly interesting for academics, not hiring managers.