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I'm applying to MSW programs too! I'd be more than happy to look over you SOP.

I finished editing it! Sorry about my previous PM saying I'd look over it within the next few days, I didn't realize you needed it by Thursday. I'd prefer to email you a Word attachment since it has all of my comments on it, so please PM me with your email address and I'll get it out to you as soon as possible. I'm more than happy to look over second, third or fourth drafts.

I am also up for reading over it if you want a second opinion .

I'd imagine that your recent Master's level work will be more important to them than your undergrad GPA. Plus you have a great deal of experience, and international experience at that! I was accepted to Columbia's MSW for Fall 2010 and although I have no idea what exactly they're looking for, I'd be more than happy to shell out some stats regarding my academic history if you think that will be helpful. I wouldn't stress too much about it. Just make your personal statement as strong as you can and make sure you have solid letters of recommendation.

Positive. It's in the "welcome to America" book for permanent residents. Though I suppose if the conditional green card is good for 2 years, he could technically be away for one year total since 6 months from one year + 6 months from the second year= 12 months. Best of luck to you, too, Alexis! Understandable that he doesn't want to give into any more USCIS demands than necessary. I didn't realize so many people on gradcafe were married to foreigners!

Since your husband came over on a K-1 visa, he's eligible for naturalization after only 3 years as a permanent resident. It's 5 years for some people, but since he married a U.S. citizen it's only 3. Any reason he doesn't want it? They say you have to renounce your British citizenship when you get your US one, but apparently the UK government doesn't recognize that renouncement so you can have dual citizenship still. As for leaving the US for a long time, a permanent resident (10 year or conditional) can only leave the U.S. for a maximum of 6 months out of a year whereas a citizen can leave for however long they want. So, since my husband will still be a permanent resident at the time of my graduate study, he'd have to pay $400 to apply for a reentry permit. As is typical with the USCIS, there's "no guarantee" he'll be allowed back in after going over the 6 month limit even with the permit. Would be so much easier if he had citizenship already, but we have 2 more years to go. Then hopefully I'll start working on my UK citizenship. And I second what you say about visajourney and britishexpats. It saved us so much time and money! Sorry for the derail, everyone. In short, immigration is a nightmare.

He arrived in the US on a K-1 Fiance visa in March of 09. He's now a permanent resident. We're hoping if I go to grad school in the UK, we can get a re-entry permit document thingy so he doesn't lose his green card. Oh, immigration! Feel free to message me if you have any questions. Alexis, does your husband have citizenship yet? It seems a bit complicated to leave the U.S. without citizenship...

I had a pretty rough situation when applying to undergrad (my parents abandoned me and my sister and we were in the custody of someone else, etc.) and I found that most universities were harsh and not very understanding. I was classified as an independent student with an EFC (estimated financial contribution) of $0. Despite financial hardships, they were not willing to increase financial aid packages or anything despite the fact that I had a 4.0 GPA, excellent SAT scores, clear financial need etc. Repeatedly, I heard "If you can't afford to attend, we suggest you look elsewhere." I hope universities are more understanding in your situation, but please mentally prepare yourself for the possibility of utilizing loans and/or work study to fund your graduate degree. Perhaps things are different for grad vs. undergrad, but that was generally my experience. As for whether to mark yes to loans/work study, when I filled out the FAFSA before entering undergrad I clearly marked that I was not interested in loans or work study since I had already been awarded a full ride to one university. However, sure enough when financial aid packages started coming in from other universities I'd applied to, work study and loan amounts were on there. I think that no matter what, you will be considered for those types of aid. Universities are struggling right now too and it's much, much more feasible for them to offer you loans or work study positions (as they get $ or free labor) than it is for them to increase your financial aid package and essentially lose money themselves. Not sure if any of that was helpful or not, and I'm sorry to sound cynical. I hope somewhere gives you a lovely full ride and stipend!

My husband immigrated to the US from England to marry me and has been out of college for a few years now. He's going to pack up with me and continue working. I only applied to universities in major cities within the US and the UK to increase his chances of employment. He does computer programming stuff, so hopefully he's able to get a job.

Thanks so much for the responses! And sorry for my delayed one- I've been out of town. Anyhow, I think I'll mention that I plan getting a degree in social work but not mention Columbia as its not extremely relevant. Oxford doesn't offer a social work degree so that wouldn't be an issue, but they certainly push students to go onto the MPhil/DPhil and who knows- I may decide to continue at Ox if I'm accepted. Good luck with your DPhil application, Ziz!

Right now, I am very much leaning toward doing a relevant one-year Master's abroad and then returning to the U.S. to begin a MSW degree. I really want to go into social work and social policy and the University of Oxford has what appears to be an amazing course (MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention). I've already been accepted to Columbia University's MSW program for 2010, however if I get into Oxford I think I will either defer entry (if I can get permission) or reapply next year. Anyhow, I'm working on my SOP for Oxford and I'm meant to talk about my future career plans and how this course fits in with my goals. Should I say that I plan to do the course in Evidence-Based Social Intervention at Oxford and then go on to get my MSW at Columbia? Or is it taboo to mention another university like that, even if I plan on attending both of them? Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

How's the wait going, everyone? I saw a few acceptances in the results search!

I'm not at all implying that Columbia is the only program with a strong policy focus and I'm well aware that University of Michigan consistently ranks higher than Columbia. However, I am not considering any programs outside of a few select areas (NYC, Pittsburgh, the United Kingdom and Honolulu) due to my husband's career. Out of the universities I've applied to, Columbia has the best policy-based program. I was mainly asking if it's worth some debt to study policy, and if policy generally yields more financial returns than clinical social work (at least within the U.S.). Also, my husband is from the UK and we'll likely move between countries quite a bit. I need to make sure that I market myself well both in the U.S. and abroad. It's indisputable that Columbia has a stronger international presence than any of the MSW programs I've applied to, regardless of rankings, and I think Columbia would likely make my c.v. and applications for PhD programs in Europe much more competitive. I'd hate to feel like I'm paying for a name, but I have to consider its potential as an investment. Thanks for the advice FSIA! I received a call from a Columbia admissions counselor on Friday and I was told that the absolute max they offer in scholarships is $8,000/year. They said I could get paid for my field placement through federal work study but that only amounts to an additional $4,400/year. Though that's nearing half-tuition, the cost of living in NYC is much, much higher than where I'm from and that's still close to $50,000/year with housing. If you don't mind me asking, how exactly did you lobby for more aid? Did you show them that other universities had offered you more money or something? And your friend who found an assistantship position- did he/she already have a master's degree? I brought this option up with the admissions counselor also and she said those positions are typically filled by people with a master's degree and I am just about to graduate with a B.A. I've already started emailing various departments, so hopefully something falls into place!

I've heard this argument, though I'm really leaning toward policy instead of clinical social work. From everything I've read, Columbia offers very little financial aid but some say it's worth the debt to go there because policy concentration will open up more doors for phd programs and academic posts. Is this consistent with what you know of the field? I'm very nervous about going $120,000 in debt!

If you're applying for the 2010-2011 academic year, the FAFSA becomes available online on January 1st. Good luck!

Update: She submitted the recommendation this evening without any further emails or phone calls. Phew!

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll give her until the end of the day tomorrow and if I don't hear anything, I'll send one more email and also call the porter's lodge and leave a message. That should give her all day Thursday to submit it and if she hasn't, I'll have my backup send in his reference Friday morning. The most annoying part is that she already has a letter written for me- she's the one who wanted to tailor it further. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!

I have already submitted everything for my application to the University of Oxford. I'm just waiting on the one professor to complete her recommendation. I previously studied at the University of Oxford and think it would be a great advantage to have a recommendation from an Oxford professor. I contacted this professor about being a reference months ago and she's already completed recommendations for 3 graduate schools in a timely fashion. I sent her an email on the 1st reminding her of Oxford's Nov. 20th deadline and she was very enthusiastic about my returning to Oxford. She said she already has a general letter written for me from previous applications but that she's so excited by the prospect of me coming back that she wanted to tailor her letter to the specific program I'm applying for and asked me a bunch of program-specific questions. I responded promptly. Sounds great, right? Well, it's been over two weeks since I've last heard from her. I sent her an email last week asking if she wanted to see my personal statement or anything to help her tailor it and she didn't respond. I emailed her again on Saturday and said, "Don't forget about Friday's deadline! Let me know if you need anything further from me." and haven't heard back. I'm getting very, very antsy about this. I've contacted a professor as a backup, but he's not from Oxford and I was really hoping that this particular recommendation would give me an edge. I highly doubt I could get in touch with her by calling the UK as she's never in her office. I don't want to pester her with email after email. I don't want to just delete her as a reference and use my backup reference because there's still a few days left. I'm not sure if it's better to have this recommendation arrive late or not have it arrive at all and use someone else. Any recommendations? (No pun intended...)

I was just accepted on Thursday so I've not yet heard what kind of funding they are offering. I will be sure to post when I do. I am not eligible for in-state tuition (though from their website, there doesn't appear to be any difference between in-state and out-of-state). I plan on visiting at the beginning of January so I guess I'll take it from there.

Yes, very dazed and confused! I only decided to change career paths this summer. I spent 3 years of my undergrad as a nursing student, hated it, and changed my major to psych at the beginning of the year. Originally, I wanted to pursue counseling (and applied to USD) but have since been told by many professionals that a MSW is more valuable so I've applied to a bunch of those as well. I, too, am working toward the PhD in Social Welfare goal. Where are you applying? There are so many programs that I had no idea where to start. I'm sure your counseling psychology will definitely make you stand out among other applicants.

Programs with rolling admissions tend to respond with a decision within 4-6 weeks. Those without rolling admissions tend to respond sometime in March. I sent all of my applications out at the beginning of October. I was expecting to hear back from the University of Sussex this month since their website says they make a decision within a month. I'm just as surprised as you are about Columbia, though! Their application deadline is January 15th and their website says they don't review applications until after March 1st. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to see an acceptance letter in my inbox on Thursday.

I've submitted all but one (see my signature). I just got an offer from my top choice though, so I'm not sure I'll bother with the last one. I'm with you piccgeek! I can't decide between medical-based programs, social work programs or literature and creative writing.

I studied abroad at the University of Oxford as an undergraduate so I am familiar with the UK system. The results of your degree are sort of like your GPA. Here's the translation from my transcript, word for word. Degree Class US Equivalent I [First] A+ to A II(i) [2.1] A- to B+ II(ii) [2.2] B to B- III C+ to C Pass C- Fail No grade Typically, a first class is a 3.6 or above. A second class (2.1) is a 3.3-3.5. A second class (2.2) is a 3.0-3.3. And so on. It's very difficult to convert since the systems are so different. As for the application form itself, just put all of your awards on your resume rather than on the application form itself. And highlight all relevant stuff in your essay to make it clear how important it was to your academic success. Eucalyptus is right, UK universities are very familiar with the American system and generally much more personable. If you have any other questions, feel free to send me a message!

I just finished reading through the MSW 2009 thread and it seems like a good idea to join together in this crazy application process. So far, I've applied to Columbia University, New York University, The University of Hawai'i at Manoa and Hawai'i Pacific University's MSW programs. I've applied to a few non-social work programs as well at The University of Oxford, The University of Sussex and Winchester University (all in England) as well as Goddard College and the University of San Diego. So far, I've been accepted to the MSW at Columbia (yay!). Has anyone else finished their applications? Anyone currently working on them?

I applied for the 2 year program. I submitted my application on Oct. 15th and just found out on Thursday that I was accepted! Their website says they don't evaluate applications until March though, so I was very surprised to find they'd reached a decision so early. Good luck!