Baffledgenius

I am not sure what SA stands for, but if domestic violence is what interests you then go for either the Direct Practice in Child and Family Services, or the Mental Health concentration. The Direct Practice in Health is far more like hospital social work and so the focus is on case management, health care delivery, etc. A lot of the decision is simply in which way you want to go about helping people. Child and Family services lets you focus on the home as a whole, MH letss you focus on the the individual's state of mind that is affecting themselves and others around them, and Health Services allows you to meld a passion for medicine or policy with your desire to help people through challenging times or transitions. Keep in mind some concentrations such as MH are much larger so they can accept more students, but also far more competitive.

Congrats on being a senior! I too graduated from Berkeley(anthro and psych), so I understand what you are dealing with right now, as well as the two DeCals you listed. Having known numerous people who did Napa State Hospital and having done the Teach in Prison(San Quentin), I would recommend them both. However it is useful to show experience in the particular facet of social work that interests you, so would that be mental health/clinical practice or re-entry population/policy? In regards to your current experience, it is all about how you shape what you did on your CV. Sounds like you already understand that and have done a good job of finding the most relevant responsibilities you undertook. In regards to work/volunteer experience vs research, MSW programs place significant importance on the experience. Undergraduate research is more highly valued in PHD Social Work programs as opposed to MSW's. Though your research may show a developed understanding of a topic that highly motivates/interests you, so it is of value. If you are hoping to attend Berkeley for grad school as well, they take a year of full-time experience extremely seriously and so you may need a gap year in order to achieve this. Other prestigious universities are not usually quite as strict, I have noticed. Oh and don't forget that many California MSW programs require the GRE score(emphasis is on the verbal), whereas many other programs elsewhere do not. If you have any other questions I am happy to help. I have served as an academic adviser for the past 2 years and for MSW programs was accepted into UCB, UCLA, USC, UMichigan, UChicago, and UPenn.

So if it helps, I applied last year and received my letter of acceptance from USC around february or early march through snail mail. In regards to scholarships, USC is notoriously cheap and refused to offer me any amount of grants(mind you I come from a very impoverished background, so the idea of need-based grants are out the window with them.) I ended up saying no to USC and saying yes to U Penn, but here are my stats: GPA: 3.42 from UC Berkeley(anthro) GRE: 162(Verbal), 144(Math), 4.5(Writing) 3 years part time volunteer work Worked full time throughout college to support myself Grew up with severely mentally ill single mother As you can see, I didnt have the greatest GRE score or GPA but I still got into UC Berkeley. UCLA, U Michigan, USC, U Penn, etc. So do not worry too much about the numbers and focus on showing your passion for social work and learning more about the part of the field that interests you most!!

Penn :-)

I keep hearing that WashU gives out a lot. Ive learned that USC and U Michigan give pretty much nothing.

Graduate loan maxes are completely different than undergrad loans, dont worry. You start fresh

Umich gave me nothing, usc nothing, upenn $9500 a year, ucla is unknown. Msw programs seem to rarely give aid other than 1500-2000 for work study a year.

I actually called my alma mater and they had never considered requiring a car. It took me asking 3 people in the office and none of them heard of it. Honestly i dont think you will

Yep thats exactly how i feel. It is incomprehensible that they assume everyone can afford the numerous costs associated with buying and maintaining a car. Honestly its not a great first impression on their part, especially considering schools in other large cities told me it is not a problem for them to find closer field sites for me since i dont drive.

It says it is recommended on the website....they should have a freakin flashing warning sign instead!! I just called them, its a requirement. *Insert numerous curse words*

It would be for me...im a brand new driver

Hi everyone, So I recently learned UCLA might require people to have a car for fieldwork, and that it sounds frowned upon to do otherwise. Coming from Berkeley where cars are few and far between and we all take public transit, this is strange to me. Has anyone attempted to do their fieldwork in a big city with no car? How did it go? And for those of you with a car, does having the car to get around really outweigh all of the expenses that a car demands?( Gas + 150 dollars a month insurance + parking etc... )

For grad school coops I highly recommend HIP and The Convent. Both are pretty quiet, and get great groups of people in them. Places like Cloyne, Casa Zimbabwe and several of the other undergraduate coops are drug addled party dens.

It came by postal mail for a lot of us.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/UCLAMSW16/

Reading over my post i realize i might come off a bit negative. I loved my years here and i would never trade in the unique experiences i have had here. One of my favorite berkeley-esque things is how every morning i walk to the coffee shop where all the people without homes gather. They all have dogs and let anyone who wants to play with the dogs or just sit and talk. Those conversations opened my eyes to the diverse range of people living on the streets and took away so many of my preconceptions. People getting their degree in social work can learn a lot from this town if they keep their eyes and minds open

Look, i did my undergrad at Cal(Berkeley) and so i know the soc wel dept decently well. The professors and classes are not challenging and often people feel they do not recieve the education they expected of our prestigious institution. (Though make no doubt about it, some of our other depts are incredible and field leaders). Also while outdated, we are not conservative. So thats the ugly side....outdated classes and professors. The good side is that we are a great place for individual research and you can really shine if you partner up with our researchers and publish scholarly articles. I know thats not necessarily what people think of first when doing an msw, but do our practitioners not also need updated, revolutionary techniques in this field? The program has its flaws, but so does every program. Berkeley the city has been a love hate relationship for me... its got the crime issues of a big city, but it also has a small town community feel to it as well. Hard to explain. If you do choose us, rent is god awful...i cant even describe how much it sucks. I got lucky eventually and found a dorm style apartment complex steps away from campus and 5 min walking to the dept building. Google "Hotel carlton" on telegraph. Its an apt i swear. Run by a slum lord but its actually a pretty good place to live and only 600 a month

Not sure im allowed to, but its the only ucla msw 2016 group

UCLA is sending out admissions decisions through snail mail Also I created a facebook group for all of us who decide to go to UCLA( I just chose them). Just facebook search UCLA MSW 2016. That way we will have a group just to ourselves to focus on uniquely UCLA MSW questions.

Just got waitlisted for the mental health concentration but i did my undergrad at berkeley so im just gonna choose ucla

Is anyone interested in getting a roommate to split the bill with? I was thinking this would probably be cheapest. It's just me(24 year old female) and my little dog

So they accepted my proposal of extending the deadline till April 15th :-)

I waited a week and then they called Christmas eve to accept me.

I received my financial aid award letter, $9500 a year. It's such a tiny amount and I asked them to increase it but they do not want to. I hope you guys have better luck.

Applied the same day as you.