amers

So strange firewisp! My deadline to give my decision to UT was more than a week ago, makes me wonder what their thought process is with all of this... But anyway, I agree with everyone on here, it can't hurt to reach out! You might not get a specific response, but it's worth a try for sure.

You should be just fine! My BA is in public relations and advertising with minors in art history and psychology and I got accepted at all of my top 3 programs. It also sounds like you have more social service experience than I do, I volunteer but my paid experience is in communications/marketing. So if I got in, you should definitely be able to as well!! I was really worried about all this too when I was applying, but as long as you have a liberal arts background and can write your statement in a way that connects your unique experiences to social work, I think most programs are open to students with diverse backgrounds. However, if there are any schools you're particularly interested in, I would check with their admissions counselors. Some schools do have requirements about the amount of experience you need, undergrad classes you took, ect. Good luck, don't worry too much

I also took my stats class online at community college. This will most likely be your cheapest option, and I don't think most programs care about where you did the class as long as it's on your transcript with a decent grade. Good luck, I hated stats lol.

I don't really have any hard evidence for this, but I just recently decided what school I'll be attending in the fall and the issue of specialization was a big factor for me. DU (where I'll be going) offers more concentrations and options to specialize your studies than the other school I was considering (UT), although the latter is more highly ranked. In the end, I decided that since I'm coming from a background outside of social work (marketing) and have some idea of what areas of social work interest/don't interest me, I'd rather be in a program that allows me to tailor my degree to the things I care about most. I think having a more in depth education on certain subjects will help me bridge the gap a bit since I don't have a BSW. But that said, both DU and UT have great programs and I'm sure I could have found a lot of success in either. I feel like it's more a personal choice about what you're looking for in a program and what's the best fit for your life and goals. Maybe that's just me wanting to defend my choice haha, but I don't really think that I'll have more trouble finding a job after I get my degree solely because I'm not coming from a top ten ranked program.

Congrats Ciara!! I'm in the 2 year program, so the process might be a little different for me, but I'd still be very interested to hear how everything goes for you, especially the housing search. I've been thinking about that a lot lately too. I visited campus back in September and really loved it, it's beautiful in Denver and the social work building is very nice. Enjoy your trip!

econ_friendly, I think you mentioned that ASU has a program in conjunction with child protective services? I think many schools offer a similar option, where the government will pay for some/all of your graduate degree if you agree to work for CPS for at least 2 years after you graduate (at least this is also the case with Univeristy of Texas Austin). If your wife is interested in working with children and families, this could be a good path. If she's interested in healthcare social work, certain positions in that industry also provide loan forgiveness options, you can find more info here: http://nhsc.hrsa.gov/loanrepayment/ In terms of scholarships, it varies greatly depending on the school (I really doubt Tulane will be your cheapest option to be honest). If your wife has the ability to go to a state school, that would certainly be cheapest. It seems private schools have more scholarship money to give, but the initial tuition rates tend to be higher. Good luck!

I just accepted my offer to attend DU in the fall! Let me know if I'll be seeing you there

Thanks firewisp! To everyone else who was accepted, what date do you need to decide? My letter says February 22nd, which is coming up really fast. I'm pretty sure I'll be attending Univeristy of Denver instead, but I wish I had a little more time to think about it....

Are there any former or current UT students that could tell me a little about how you feel about the program? I would be in the clinical track. I'm having a hard time deciding between DU and UT for a couple reasons, but the big one is that their programs seem very different. I like that DU offers more of a chance to specialize and focus on taking classes that will be most relevant to the career you want to pursue. UT seems more general to me with two concertration options versus eight at DU. But that's just my impression, I'd love to know how someone in the program feels about UT, maybe there are advantages to the way they do things that aren't as clear to me.

There's this thread for UT: Good luck with all your apps!

My undergrad gpa was 3.7 overall, a little higher for just upper level classes. I think my GRE score was 140 math and 160 verbal? I don't remember exactly haha but it wasn't stellar by any means. From what I gather though the GRE is more of a formality, just required by the university for anyone applying to a graduate program. I think the School of Social Work pays a lot more attention to your personal statements, letters of rec, ect. Good luck!!

I got my acceptance email about two/three weeks after the status changed to in review, so I think you should know soon! I also had 3 letters of rec, didn't seem to hurt my chances

Just realized you are the person I replied to about this before, so sorry for repeating myself haha! Still very interested to follow this thread though, thanks for creating it

Hi firewisp11! Not sure if the one person you're talking about is me lol, but I was accepted about a week ago. So far I've seen this on the mystatus website and received an email, nothing in the mail yet although the email said a packet would arrive soon. I finished my application in early December and was honestly surprised to find out so soon! The deadline they gave me to decide by is 2/22. I know what you mean about UT not being popular on these threads...which is interesting since it's fairly highly ranked and seems like a great program to me! I'm currently trying to decide between U of Denver and UT, it's a really tough decision!! Going to try to sit down and really weigh my options this weekend, but if anyone has any insight on either of these choices I would be very grateful! At least I have two awesome programs to choose from, very excited about that Good luck, I hope you hear back soon!