If you have an idea of what type of social work you want to do, I would suggest contacting schools and talking with their admissions department to see what the offer in that field. Also, go beyond that and talk with some students if you can so you can get an on the ground perspective. Be aware of the trap that grad students tend to be the cash cows for universities and don't take anything at face value. If you find a professor or professors doing work that you are interested in at a school, you could probably get out of it what you want. I feel like most schools put a lot of focus on one type of social work. For example, I have friends that graduated from University of Maryland Baltimore SSW and all three of them are now working for Foster Care, as that school heavily focuses on that. Here at UT there is a heavy focus on school social work, as most placements are in schools. You will also need to do your own research beyond talking to admissions as they will most likely tell you that the program can be whatever you want it to be. After all, their job is to get people to apply.
I know at UT that you can do your final field anywhere, including Internationally. They have a handful of connections for international social work and the majority of those are for the CAL (MACRO) concentration. They also offer some mini semester courses to explore international social work. This winter break they are going to London to see how the social welfare system is set up there. Keep in mind those expenses are additional to tuition, including air flight, hotel, etc. It is not cheap. Do a Google search for international social work and MSW programs and see what comes up. When I was looking at schools I think University of Denver had a focus on that? Not certain though.
As to funding, SSW programs are huge. There were 120 incoming students this year at UT, and at Michigan there were like 330. It is difficult to get funding out of such a large group of people. However, maybe your undergrad grades were amazing and you could be up for some merit based awards. Mine were total crap as I was too busy protesting stuff instead of actually going to class. Your best bet is to try and get a graduate student position that offers some sort of tuition reduction or stipend.
The biggest regret I have is not investigating more about what type of work the school does. Look at professors work, what they have published, what research they are doing, contact them even and ask if you can get what you want from the program. Also, talk to students!
