acw

Hello! I am a rising senior at a liberal arts university and I am planning on applying to MSW programs this fall (with the hopes of deferring a year before enrolling in Fall 2016). I don't know much about MSW programs - I've been doing a little research on different programs' websites, but, to be quite honest, they all kind of sound the same. Aside from price and location, I'm not entirely sure what distinguishing qualities I should look for in a school. So I thought I'd come here and ask you what you think about the list of schools I've come up with so far. Are these quality programs? Will I be well-positioned for jobs post graduation? Any glaring merits or weaknesses? Based on the short summary of my resume below, am I a fit candidate for these institutions? Any schools I should add or remove from the list? A little about me: I'm graduating with a 3.34 in English and Sociology. I've been volunteering for the past 6 months at a battered women's shelter, and I am currently undergoing 32 hours of training to be a victim's advocate at a center for sexual assault survivors. I've mentored high school girls for two years through a local church, and I also volunteer with disadvantaged children through a feeding program. I just returned from a 6-week internship in Kenya, where I worked under a social worker with women and girls in a local community on feminine health issues. List of schools: Columbia Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) NYU University of Maryland - Baltimore Boston College University of Washington Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) University of Texas - Austin Loyola of Chicago Tulane Thanks so much for all your help!

My next question is: do I have to take a Biology course as an undergrad? I know some schools require this, but I really don't want to, especially because I know it'll mess with my GPA. I've already taken Intro to Psychology as a Natural Science and someone told me that this might fulfill any biology requirements a program would have...

WOW. I was not expecting this many responses!!! Thank you all so much for your help - this has certainly given me a lot to chew on. You all are the best!!! I wish I could send you all chocolate or something.

Hi there! I am a junior undergrad who is interested in pursuing an MSW, but I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Every avenue I've sought out for help (the career center at my school, the department chair in my major, etc) has given me very little direction. I know I need to take the GRE soon, but that's about it. So I have a ton of questions, and I was hoping you might be able to answer them! Where should I apply? I have a 3.34 GPA and I am a Sociology/English double major at a liberal arts school. I've been volunteering at a battered women's shelter for the past 6 months, and I've been leading a high school small group of 15 girls for the past 2 years through a local church (although I don't know if that kind of volunteer work even means anything to an MSW program). I'm also in the process of getting training to be a victim's advocate at a center for victims of sexual assault, but at the time of application I will only have volunteered for 6 months. This summer, I will be an intern under a social worker who has an organization in Kenya that keeps underprivileged girls in school. Someone told me to look into Columbia, NYU, and VCU, so I've been doing research on those, but I don't know if I can even get in to those programs. Where else should I look? When do I take the GRE? No idea what I'm doing here. Along with this, how did you prepare? Did you take an online course? Go through a book? What are some things I should start doing right now to be a competitive applicant? Like I said, I have zero clue what I'm doing. Thanks so much!!! Any and all advice is appreciated!!!