kpsychapp

I applied to MSW programs last year and ended up deferring my admission to take a year off. Of the ones on your list, I applied and was accepted to Columbia, NYU, and UT Austin. I am from the NY area, so I originally planned on attending Columbia (despite the heavy cost of living in NY). However, when I decided to defer, Columbia was a big pain about it and the people I spoke to about it acted very judgmental. Because of this reaction, I decided not to defer Columbia because I no longer wanted to attend the program. Instead I decided to defer UCLA and UT Austin because the faculty (especially the admissions directors) are extremely personable and helpful. They remembered who I was every time we spoke and just made me feel like home. However, my advice is to talk to members of the faculty and/or students from the programs (if you ask the admissions office they can usually give you the name of some students). It helped me get a feel for the workload, internship opportunities, etc. Also, UT Austin has a great career center solely for msw students (the only msw program that has this), which seems great. In NY, Columbia is generally known as a more macro-oriented program and NYU is better known for clinical social work, although they both have both. Both programs are quite large, Columbia has over 500 people in their new student group on Facebook for class of 2014. So it depends if you are looking for a larger program or a smaller one. And keep in mind that field placements for both programs can span all of NYC, the five boroughs, NJ, and CT, which can leave you with a heavy commute to your field placement. But, because it is NY, you could be lucky to get a great placement at a well-known hospital. Hope this helped a bit! Good luck in the admissions process!

I went through applications for Msw programs last year, and I promise you all do not have anything to worry about! In your statements just talk about your experiences that relate to psychology, social work, or anything related to public service or volunteering, as well as your career goals (like what population you want to work with, whether you want to do therapy or case management or non-profit admin, etc). And if you have had any personal experiences that have led you to the social work profession, tell that story as well. They just want to get a feel for who you are in the essay. Good luck!