arcoventry

No, unfortunately I am not keeping my employment. I currently work in finance and I am completely cutting ties with the field. I work part time at a restaurant nights and weekends, which is where I intend to contue to get income from when I am in school. However, because it is a small company, they charge more for a much worse plan. I also have to be employed for a year for them to help offset the costs, so it is not an option for me, at least until next winter.

I am single, with no dependents. I plan on working part-time while getting my degree - my income will be around $1500 a month, which covers rent, and maybe food/cat food. I need health insurance, but the options I have seen are out of control expensive. I don't qualify for a lot of the low income programs because I 1) am a sole proprietorship / file schedule C income taxes and 2) my income for 2011-2012 is very high because I am currently working in my full-time job before classes start in August. Anyone find any workable options? I will be attending Hunter College and their insurance for students is also on the high side.

One of the hardest decisions I made personally was choosing the 2-year full time program over the extended program. When I weighed the facts and realities, I knew it would be almost impossible to commit to both. My (non-social work related) job is high-impact, deals with unpredictable clients, and includes a small but mandatory amount of travel, often without warning. I can't speak for how your responsibilities at your full-time job compare, but the decision I came to was that rather than stress and suffer for 3 years, I would bite the bullet - quit my full time job and get my degree in 2 years. It sounds like your boss was not very confident you would get in to grad school - or that you would decide against it once you got accepted. It is easy for them to be politically correct and tell you they support you no matter what, but when your team and your boss's reputation faces damage because you're distracted or otherwise unavailable, it is going to create conflicts of interest between the two of you.

I am giving my notice on July 15th, and my last day will be August 10th. I am not allowing myself too much time off because that last pay check will pay my moving costs/down payment on my new apartment, etc. No one knows I am leaving, they are going to be shocked and disappointed in me. But I don't care if I don't make this change now I will regret it!!!!

To see what your email address is, go to the portal, then to the place where you registered for classes (ESIMS) and on the left hand side there should be an option that just says "email". Clicking on that will give you your email address. You can go to http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/icit/webmail to get information about email login, and on that page is also the link for Hunter Webmail. To be confusing, there are 2 IDs: One for Hunter, and another for CUNY. The difference is explained here: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/icit/help-docs/netid-vs.-portal-id Logging into email requires a different ID than the one you use to log into the portal, the two aren't really related. The page I linked to above contains a bunch of links and information on how to get your email log in and password reset if you need it.

MarielMSW, not trying to hijack the thread but I just wanted to make a comment that I would be very cautious of online programs. A lot of them do not provide the required field work component and thus are not CSWE accredited! Also check the licensing requirements in your state To be on-topic, I would suggest to citychild to come to NYC and check out Columbia, as well as NYU, Fordham, Hunter, and Yeshiva. They are all top schools, and carry a ton of weight in the area. There is no better place (other than maybe San Francisco) to help the homeless as our homeless population seems to soar higher every year, and our outreach programs are always lacking. Best of luck in your application process!

I graduated in 2008, and am coming into a social work degree from a corporate IT sales position - if I can get accepted anyone can!! My biggest ally in this process was the one year of volunteering at a 24-hour crisis center, working with suicidal and depressed individuals. I was working about 50 hours a week at my IT job at the time I began the volunteer work, but the crisis work was inspiring for me, and the schedule was flexible. I volunteered for one 5-hour shift a week, plus an overnight shift once a month. It felt like nothing, once I got used to the emotional toll it took on me. After I completed my year of service and was accepted to a few schools, I did end my commitment there. I miss the work, but I needed to free up some time to get a second paid job to save up for school. Everyone who has the calling to apply to a school of social work must have some part of them that is cut out for the task. If you didn't, you would be like 99% of the rest of the population who say "are you crazy!? I could never do that kind of work!!". Figure out why you want this so bad and be honest about it! Your essay is so important, so don't downplay why you might not have as much experience as everyone else - talk about how hard you've worked in your current career and what it has taught you about your inner social worker!!

Hi Ellie! I am a non-traditional student in the sense that I have been in the work-force for 5 years also since graduation. I am also coming from a non social work field. I currently work as a network design engineer, doing IT sales and implementations for financial companies. I have been planning my transition to clinical social work for a long time, but now that the time has come for me to make the leap I am terrified. I have been saving as much money as humanly possible, both at my full time job, and also at the job waiting tables I picked up nights and weekends. I also have been trying to read more to get used to information retention and concentrating for long periods of time. I also will miss having my own office, and of course that paycheck...but I don't get fulfillment from my current work so I am looking forward and trying to remember what made me decide to make this crazy leap of faith in the first place - a chance at building a career I get more than just a paycheck from!!!

I got an email back saying "We ask that all newly admitted student not register until after pre-orientation."

When I log onto my Cuny portal page it is telling me my class registration appointment is tomorrow at 9:10 AM. This can't be correct, right? I am not attending a pre-orientation until June 19th as per the email they sent me last week.

I got in, mailed in my paperwork and check on March 4 (check was cashed a week later). I have not heard anything about an orientation or registration. My paper letter was also lost in the mail. I have yet to be impressed by this school's administration.

Congrats on everyone who got interviews, and good luck to those waiting For those of you who were already accepted, and sent in your place holder deposit and paperwork: When are you planning on figuring out your finances with the school? I am afraid to do it too early because then wouldn't I have to pay interest starting now on the loans? Also, their hours for the financial aid and bursar office are 9-5, and it's really challenging for people who work. I'm hoping to go there when I have a vacation at the end of April, does anyone think this is too late, or too early? Thanks!

Yes, that's an important detail x) My parents paid for my high school and then cut me loose. I was fortunate to get undergrad grants and scholarships, and I am fortunate enough to have worked a job for the past few years that allowed me to save enough money to pay tuition out of pocket without loans. This is all a perfect combination of hard work, luck, and circumstance. So if you know personally you can take out the loans, by all means, go to that dream school! I won't say I'm not a little jealous Hey Solar, I don't know anything about Canadian Universities, social work programs or otherwise, sorry!

Just to play devil's advocate, I would take a moment to do some thorough calculations on what you pay now monthly, and how much of a difference doubling or tripling your principal loan amount will make, both in monthly payments as well as total amount of accumulated interest over the years. I'll share some of my information to make the example concrete: I personally have $25,000 of under graduate loans. With my current repayment option, I am paying $350 a month. If I were to take out a loan to cover NYU tuition, not even counting living expenses, I would be tripling my total principal I owe in student loans. For the sake of example, knowing there are less aggressive loan-repayment plans available to us, I triple my monthly payments, causing me to owe $1050 a month. Add that to rent, food, etc. Even if I land a job paying $50,000 right out of grad-school (a long shot in our field), after taxes (assuming 25% bracket) I am only bringing home 3 grand a month. A very large portion of that is going to loans. As for the dual-degree, I am not inclined to believe a dual degree in public policy is worth spending an extra tuition on. Everyone in social work I have spoken to has said that if you graduate from a clinical focus school, you will have what you need to make the eventual transition to policy and administration. There is no better way to learn about policy than work in the systems for a while. Once you get real life experience in the field, working with populations, you will gain opportunities to work in a policy-focused job. It seems to be the natural progression of things, and since you mentioned not being interested in that work immediately, it might save you the money to get real life experience and find your way to policy gradually.

Hi Solar, welcome to the forums If you haven't already seen it, there is an amazing post written by an MSW/professor regarding the importance of graduating from a "big name" school. Their opinion is, obviously, just an opinion, but he/she has experience and seems extremely knowledgeable on the matter. I hope it helps you come to a decision as quickly as it helped me.