dressagester

Hi, I have not been on this in quite some time but I saw this thread in my inbox. I am post-MSW, licensed, and worked in SUD for several years. I am not in recovery but I wanted to share some professional insights. In all of my jobs, I have worked with clinicians in recovery. Many of them had some kind of legal history related to their substance use. I also went to graduate school with someone with a felony from their involvement in a really serious crime that I could see some taking issue with. Some talked about it in their personal statements, some did not. At the end of the day, no matter what one's history is, I think it's about how the story is shared, one's understanding of personal growth, insight into boundaries (this one is huge) and knowing our audience. Best of Luck!

Most come out September/October but you may want to call individual departments to find out. I started my personal statements in the summer. The personal statement questions are all pretty similar: why do you want to be a social worker. Share your social work-related experiences. Identify a social injustice you have encountered. Why is this program a good fit. Tell us about your experiences working with diverse client populations etc etc. I actually found it helpful to write down some of my more profound moments leading up to my decision to go into social work--it's amazing what you remember once you start writing. Good luck!

I applied to Tulane last year and got in but chose not to go due to finances (it was a really tough decision). First of all, the staff and faculty were WONDERFUL. I was able to meet with the admissions director, field placement officer (who spent over an hour with me) and sit in on a class. I was definitely impressed with the program. When I was looking into the program, I spoke to an alumni (LCSW) and she felt the program had really prepared her to come back to California (where we are both from) and begin her career--she has worked in school based social work and now is in private practice. She did say that the 4 back to back semesters does make the program really intense but the "clinical community" curriculum model has served her well. There are good field placement options but a number of them were cut due to the aftermath of the Hurricane. If you went, you would definitely need a car. Call them if you have any questions, they are really great!

I turned NYU down last year because of the cost but talk to an admissions adviser when I got in. You can write a letter of appeal to the financial aid office asking for more money. At the time, the officer I talked to was a little wishy-washy on how it would turn out if I did pursue an appeal with financial aid. Hope this helps!

It is a tough program to get into and they want a lot of work experience prior to applying for the program. It has been a very well respected program for quite some time but in the last couple of years there have been a lot of interdepartmental management issues and difficulty agreeing on the direction of the program. As a result, they have been taking fewer and fewer students.

Find something that inspires you and pushes you. I have spent the last 8.5 years volunteering with my therapy dogs in the ICU. My experiences with my canine counter-parts inspired me to pursue an MSW. I am currently interning at an agency that serves low income families--really tough but I have grown professionally and personally. In my experience, if you are smart and motivated, they will give you really great hands on (but supervised) experience. Just start making calls, social workers want to help out their own!

Yeah, it looks like Monday is the day. To clarify, I applied Health Services so I don't think they're necessarily sending their responses based on concentration.

I just called to check my status and was told they are sending out emails today and Monday. The wait continues... :-/

Re: CSU's. I applied to CSUEB and CSULB a couple weeks ago. I got a letter from East Bay today instructing me to set up a net ID and was subsequently assigned a school email address but my application is still pending. And the waiting game continues...