Econ_Friendly

Stated another way, consider the mathematics of a full time job: 8 hours/day (plus, potentially, some amount of drive time, and some time lost to lunch). 0.5-1 hour minimum for meals/day (even if that is making food, picking food up, etc.) 0.5-1.5 hours drive time (depending on where all you go each day, how far you are from courses, etc.)' 0.5 hour/day for miscelaneous (we have 2 dogs 4 cats, so there's always something that needs done, including laundry for us, etc.). Even at the minimum, that's nearly 10 hours/day gone. If you get 6 hours of sleep, and you don't spend time relaxing, you ARE left with 8 hours a day or so to get stuff done. From my experience, this is far from realistic. My schedule looked like this on an average day: 5:30am-6:30am Wake up, make coffee, take out dogs, help wife get ready to leave. 6:30-7:00 make/eat breakfast 7-10:00 Work 10:00-10:20 get ready 10:20-10:40 drive to campus/park 10:40-11 walk to class 11-2 TA work, with 1 hour break at from 12-1, of which approx. 45 minutes was useful. 2:10 Walk to car 2:10-2:40 drive home (longer drive home b/c more people around campus/leaving and some coming) 2:40-3:15 Take dogs out, get settled back in, have a small snack 3:15-6:00 Work 6:00-7:30 Cook/Eat dinner/and spend a little while after talking to wife. At this point I would have been up for 14.5 hours, completed only around 6 and a half hours of my 8 hour day, not studied at all. If I had to do grocery shopping, do a bunch of clothes, or had a meeting, then I lost more time. I was optimistic before I experienced it. You just lose a LOT of time to nothing.

I am in a seperate discipline (Economics), and I don't know how intense the program is that you'll be going into. That said, I can perhaps offer some anecdotal advice. I began a master's program while working as a consultant (remotely - from my home with the flexibility to attend classes when I need, and only out of town here and there). Because it is consulting, and because I am salary, it was not always 40 hours a week, sometimes it was more. That said, it's been absolutely (and I mean absurdly) miserable for me. I was juggling 6-9 hours of varying intensity (from difficult in-class courses to independent work to research). All of my courses have deserved at least 6 hours/week each of dedication, but all of them could have used 9-12. Because I was too busy, I've felt like all I could do was juggle everything in an effort to moderately cover all my basis. What have been my results? Approx. 3.5 grad gpa. (That might seem great, but in economics most Master's GPA or undergrad students that go for a Ph.D, which is my goal, have at least a 3.7 GPA.) As a result, I've been falling short of my goals, and from my own perspective I completely know that I haven't been getting the practice that I need. I've been supporting my wife and I, so I didn't have the ability to just quit. However, my recommendation for anyone considering pursuing a full-time job while being in graduate school is only do it if you can quit (or seriously ramp-back your hours) if needed. Your schooling should come first, and I can say now-in the position that I am now in-that I would have definitely taken out loans if I had known then what I know now. Hopefully this is helpful to you or others.

My wife received an acceptance a week or so go, if that is helpful at all.

Right about that time. She was pressed for all her deadlines.

My wife heard back from Case Western Yesterday (Accepted)

My wife was admitted yesterday, applied early Jan.

You must be well acquainted with the correct pronunciation of Louisville then: "luuuuuuuuuh-vuuuuuuuhl"

It seems as though there are several possibilities: 1) Mass e-mail from the school, encouraging people to continue to keep the university "in the running" during their decision making process. 2) They extended an offer, and they are encouraging you to consider it strongly. 3) They meant "opportunities," -i.e. plural not singular-and therefore meant that you should keep Kentucky in mind when considering ALL your options. 4) Meant to psychologically make you think that "Kentucky" is the opportunity before you, in the forefront of your options-the best opportunity-and that all the others are behind you... None of these would surprise me. P.s. I grew up in Cincinnati, where there is a general "make fun of Kentucky" attitude (for a whole variety of reasons). (And despite the many fans of the Kentucky basketball team, xavier and UC force us to hate on Kentucky for this reason also.) In all reality, this cryptic of a message could have been sent by any university, no matter the prestige. Last year Penn encouraged individuals with even LOW GRE scores (by Econ standards) to apply, despite knowing full well that they (as a general rule) only admit students that have a 93%+ Quant score. Rather pitiful.

Thanks! Application season is too damn stressful! I told my wife she'd be OK, but the proof was in the pudding for her. She's really excited about ASU, so I just hope I don't let her down by not getting into U of A. She loves the PAC focus - it's what she's tried to devote her undergrad to (or rather, steer it in the direction of, since there's no focus like that here). We'd be thrilled in Tuscon was a little cooler. I don't know much about the 'desert southwest.' I've been to AZ a few times over my life, but nothing since I was 15, and nothing that was eventful. All we know is that Tuscon looks a little expensive in some areas. We're hoping to buy a house rather than rent. We have 2 dogs and 4 cats, so renting is extremely difficult. Plus we know we'll be there for at least 5 years if we go. Thanks City. Do you happen to know much about Tuscon? I actually have a buddy that lives out in Phoenix right now, but he doesn't seem to know much about Tuscon.

Thanks - I would welcome this as well. Anything to get more of a consensus. This seemed likely for most "areas," but some just seem "so specialized," like healthcare, that I wasn't sure. Licensee is certainly extremely important, and something I forgot about when considering this question.

For something like this, I think that the best answer is "honesty is the best policy." What I mean by this is that if your condition greatly affected your performance, you should probably include at least a sentence or 2. This is most important for individuals that were "diagnosed" during their undergraduate career, where it can be seen that there was a drop prior to a "fix." Understandably, adcoms are cautious of such comments. Some people (I am in no way suggesting that you are one of these people) will use such circumstances to garner sympathy and make excuses. As a result, it is most beneficial to mention it when you can show a triumphant conquering of such circumstances. Although I did not suffer a 'condition,' my wife's life and I was disrupted by an extremely tragic event close to our family, that irrevocably changed the rest of our undergraduate career, especially the 2 semester that this event spanned. Although I never recovered as an undergrad, I continued to persevere. Rather than hilgihting this as a terrible event, and try to explain away my problems, I highlighted it in my SoP as making me a stronger student and Husband. I tried to further show this through my increased performance during master's/Ph.D level graduate work at a different university (before applying to Ph. D programs). Hope this helps.

Can you elaborate on the Title IV stipend? I'm not aware of what this program is. Is this a national "program" that universities/departments adopt, or is this a California thing?

I am within a different field, but if it makes you feel any better I applied to approximately 16 programs - all were due Dec 1 through Jan 1. I've been rejected by 3, accepted by my lowest program (safety of safety's), implicitly rejected by 5 others, and only have a few left. Anxiety is terrible during application season! But keep up the hope.

Perhaps I asked the wrong question, since the post on "do you (think) you want a PH.D" indicated that ranking is not so critical for the MSW. Another question, perhaps that is more crucial, is: "How Important is specialization?" Can you only get certain SW jobs with a certain specialization, or does it just place you in a more advanced "pool" when applying for a job where your specialization is relevant? Stated, perhaps, a different way: Are there any SW jobs that you are effectively "opting out of" by not having a specific specialization? For example, can you be a health care social worker without having a specialization in this? Or is everything highly based on placement?

My wife applied and was accepted to the ASU program (Tuscon). I applied to U of Arizona for my program (seperate discipline). Pending my acceptance, that's where we're planning to go. My wife is crazy about the ASU program. She was also concerned about the potential size of the Tuscon program, but as far as she could tell it didn't seem to be that much different than the phoenix program - nothing specified on the webpage that "these courses are only offered in Phoenix," any any statements like that.

Thank you for this information! That's very helpful. We're going to look into one city-based options exist. I was really hoping that something like the CPS agreement that exists with ASU might exist semi-informally across many cities, but that it was something you had to look into rather than being a formal relationship with a university.

Thank you so much for all your help-and this helps a lot. So far PITT has offered a little funding, and others a very small amount. but it is still looking like it'll be around 20-50k. That's one reason why Tulane looks appealing, i think, to her. Tulane's program is 1 Fall, 1 spring, and 1 summer - then you're done 9 months earlier than most programs. She didn't do an undergrad in SW, so she isn't qualified for any of the "express" paths that are open to BSW graduates. I have told my wife this many times, but I really respect what everyone in the social work field does, especially now learning of the level of debt (and thereby the obvious commitment) it takes. BTW, with regard to the teaching apprenticeships, what does this refer to? is this like being a TA? One of the options that was open to me (after I was accepted, but not known previously) was that the university offered some "graduate assistantships" to graduate students for "administrative" roles that required no departmental specialization. These involved things like working for the registrar, not anything within a department. We are currently at a large state flagship school (>40k students). They typically offered tuition remission, but no stipend. If anyone has heard of these type of positions at other school, that would be good information to know. This was kind of what I was hoping for her as a backup. Thanks again for your feedback! I'm sorry if this should have been in its' own thread, but this seemed appropriate.

Hello Everyone, I am new to this forum (although a member on TM). My wife is applying to MSW programs as I apply to programs in yet a different discipline. One of the things that has been scaring us is that it seems like MSW programs have very limited funding. We are both white (although she has native american in her, she isn't registered or anything), and she will be first generation college graduate. She has been interested in Arizona state because of their joint program with CPS, and the associated funding. Most other programs seem like they are going to require us to take out extraordinary loans. I was wandering if anyone could indicate how likely it is to find funding within the program that is not advertised. For example, I am currently completing graduate work, and although funding was advertised as being non-existent, once I arrived there were options within the department (for TA), and also options within the "school" for TA/other positions that would at least offer tuition remission if not a stipend also. Does this type of thing happen in Social work? Is it common? If you need more information, just let me know. We'll need to make a decision on where we are moving in the next month or 2 months, and we're like to have full information. (Of course we can ask departments, but as per the information on the websites, graduate directors seem to be similarly tight-lipped about options that aren't explicitely listed on their website).

Hello everyone, I come from a background where program ranking is extremely relevant in determining the potential for your job placement after graduation (especially from grad programs). I have looked at the criteria for ranking in social work, and the criteria doesn't seem as relevant. My wife, whom has applied to MSW programs, is also very unsure about how much ranking matters. I was hoping this community could help us in our decision of where to attend. My wife is most interesting in "children and family" programs, but has applied to other MSW programs (or specializations within MSW programs) as well, including clinical, marriage and family therapy, etc. She has a great profile. She's applied to a ridculous number of programs (as have I, since we are trying to find a good match), and so far she's been accepted by every school that has sent out results, including those in the top 20. She ended up applying to at least 1 program for each 1 that I applied to, so even if she does get rejected someplace, we should still be able to find a match. Wherever we go, we'll be there for 5 years while I do a Ph.D. After that, we'll be moving again (Maybe out of state, maybe not) depending on where I am placed. As a result, ease-of-moving from one state to another is important. I thought that name recognition (and general "sense" of a program's credibility) was more important than actual rank. For example, there might not be much difference between, say, Tulane at 44, and Ohio State around 20. I've rambled a bit here, but hopefully what I am asking makes sense. I just want to make sure she makes a choice that she is happy with while also having complete information.