rooibos123

Thanks to you both for your replies. I'm going to crunch the numbers this weekend; most likely I'll go to Smith, I'm excited about the program. I'm also hoping the block plan will let me work more easily; I've calculated I'll want to earn about 1500/month throughout, about 15 hours per week of work. Fingers crossed I can make this happen through freelance gigs...

This is so helpful, thank you all! I'm going to crunch numbers and amortization tables this weekend and decide what to do. Hla, I heard firm Catholic 3 weeks ago; I submitted my application the first week of Dec. Good luck to you!

Me too! Are any of you thinking through the costs of Smith? Is it worth it to you considering how little MSWs make? I'm trying to decide where to go, partly based on what kind of loan burden I can handle; I would be 40K in debt after Smith. If you're one of those lucky people whose parents can pay for things, dont let me know, I will be jealous. ;-)

Hi all-- I hope you're getting good admissions news! I'm wondering if people have perspectives on the trade off of cost vs quality/prestige. I've been admitted to Smith, my first preference school, but with no institutional aid unfortunately. I've also been admitted to catholic in DC, and am waiting to hear if I got a half tuition scholarship. If I did, Catholic would be half the cost of Smith. I am much more excited about Smith's program, but i would end up with 40K in loans. Is it worth it in the long run considering how little MSWs make? (A starting salary is half of what I make now, without a loan burden). Smith is nationally recognized and perfect for what I want to do (psychotherapy practice), but I just don't know how much recognition, curriculum, and prestige matters when so much of being a clinician is about learning on the job. I live in DC and need to stay here to share living costs with my partner, so unfortunately a state school wasn't an option b/c DC isn't a state. Any perspectives sought.