amanda lauren

I'm in my last semester at VCU right now (so close to being finished!!!) and although it's a lot of work, it's definitely manageable. Our first year, we have field placement 2 days a week for 14 hours, plus 4 classes; second years have field 3 days per week plus 4 classes. From the get-go, you learn to balance field and classes, so it isn't a shock/adjustment later on in the program. There are a TON of papers to write and very few tests (the only ones I've ever had were for my research classes), so it's nice that you can start papers early and work at your own pace rather than needing to study for a 2-hour test. Definitely DO NOT leave your work until the last minute or you'll end up pulling all nighters and will fully regret it. I did that only once in the program, when my (now ex) boyfriend was visiting and I didn't want to give up time with him in order to do my work. Fast forward to the night before my final paper was due for the semester and there I was, pounding coffee like it was going out of style and writing my paper until 6:30 in the morning. Trust me, not as fun as it was in college. I have to say, one major major piece of advice that I would give is actually one that my advisor told me during my first week of the program: HAVE A LIFE. Sure, the MSW program is hard, there's a lot of work, field can be super draining, and there will be some weeks when you have so much work you feel like you're going to cry - usually toward the end of each semester. However, it's so, so important to make friends (in the program or otherwise), get out once in a while, and just do some fun things, or you'll be burnt out before you even graduate!

I'm currently in my last semester of the MSW program at VCU. Finding a field placement hasn't been a problem, as the program here does that for you (your first year you fill out a simple application and they match you with just about any program in Richmond and will tell you what agency you're placed with; your second year, you do an application based on your track - macro or clinical - and apply to your top 3 agencies; many of them require an "interview" and if it's a match for you and for them, then you get placed there). Most people I know have had good experiences; mine hasn't been great because the agency I chose for last semester ended up having very few clinical opportunities for me. However, I think the biggest problem is that a lot of agencies don't seem to know exactly what to DO with a grad student intern, at least based on a lot of the feedback I've heard from other students. It really depends on where you go, but at VCU, you are matched with an agency by our field department and aren't left to fend for yourself!!

I would definitely be interested in this group! Great idea

I'll be starting Virginia Commonwealth's Master of Social Work program this fall and couldn't be more thrilled! It's been my top choice school for a long time now, for a handful of reasons: 1. It's ranked 14th in the country, which is what originally made me notice the program - I hadn't heard from VCU beforehand. 2. The wide array of field placement opportunities is really impressive, and I have the opportunity to work in a school, a hospital, even adoption agencies (and as someone who is adopted as is considering a career with an adoption agency, this was a huge plus). 3. The location seemed perfect - a small city that wasn't horribly overwhelming, but still had enough going on to keep me from getting bored! I've lived in bigger cities my whole live (grew up in NY, went to college in Boston) so I was looking to still stay in a city to keep myself from going crazy, but I wanted to try out a smaller city for once. 4. I was really impressed with the overall impression of VCU and the MSW program that I got when I visited the school. Everyone was incredibly friendly, went out of their way to help me (one woman working in the MSW department even took an hour out of her day to give me an unscheduled overview of the program, the school, everything). 5. THE WEATHER IN VIRGINIA - almost anything would be better than the Boston weather at this point, and I'm pumped to be moving to the south! 6. VCU offers a certificate program in school social work, and I've wanted to be a school social worker for quite some time now, so this was a priority when looking at schools. 7. VCU is a public university and the cost is significantly less than what I've paid for my undergrad tuition at a private university; tuition at VCU will be less than half of what my undergrad tuition was. 8. The program size is great: not so small that I'd feel cabin fever, but not so big that it feels impersonal. 9. VCU MSW students have study abroad opportunities, whether for a semester-long field placement or for short-term international trips over winter/summer break. Studying abroad was the best experience I had as an undergrad, so getting a chance to do it again, and use my social work skills on an international level, would be amazing! 10. Did I mention that I'm dying to move south and get away from New England? There are even more reasons why I chose VCU, but those were the main stand-out factors that put VCU above all of the other schools I applied to. Oh, and the fact that I've gone to college 6+ hours away from home and wanted to make sure I could go to grad school far away from home too - not that I don't love NY (I do, I really do!) but I like the feeling of experiencing someplace that's completely new and foreign to me.

I'm definitely not an expert by any means, but I don't think that would be much of an important factor - from what it says on their website (and what I was told when I visited), the most crucial factors for deciding who gets in are GPA (and possibly GRE scores tie into this, but only a small amount), Personal Statement, Letters of Recommendation, and Volunteer/Work Experience. From everything you've said it sounds like you're good to go in all 4 of those areas!! And like you said, you've let them know that you'll be fulfilling the bio requirement ahead of time. Honestly, I took bio back in freshman year, aka the year that I did nothing except get drunk, stay up til 4am every night, and pulled plenty of all-nighters studying/writing essays one day beforehand, so I was doing pretty horribly in bio for most of the semester (around a C). I got my act together, signed up to take the class pass/fail and passed it, but all it says on my transcript is that I passed. I was kind of worried about that for VCU since I wasn't sure if a requirement could be fulfilled with just a "pass" instead of a grade, but it seems to have worked out. I brought this up when I was checking out the MSW department and they said that the prereq courses are in place just to make sure you get a solid foundation and are all starting with the same basic background, and as long as you pass the courses and finish them before you start in the fall, it's fine, so I wouldn't worry too much - it sounds like it definitely won't make or break your application. Like I said, it sounds like you've got a strong application and I can't imagine that you wouldn't get in! My fingers are crossed for you too p.s. you're interested in living in NY and/or Boston? Awesome! I'm a MUCH bigger fan of NY than I am of Boston, but I'm also biased because NY is my home. Don't get me wrong, Boston is great and it's a really nice place to live, but I've been here for 5 years and I'm getting kinda stir-crazy. It's a much smaller city than NYC and isn't anywhere near as active, so after being here for such awhile I feel like I've seen and done most of the things that there are to see and do in Boston. Plus, the weather here is absolutely awful...a couple of weeks ago we had one day that was sunny and 60 degrees, and two days later it was in the 20s and we got a few inches of snow. I even remember it snowing once during our finals in the end of April! Boston is more of a "cozy charming" city, while New York is more vibrant, diverse, and fast-paced. Both are really great places and I hope you get the chance to live in them!

I agree with abookbumble - I was in this same situation as well, where my top choice school said they'd notify us by "mid to late April", and all of the other acceptances I had gotten needed a decision by mid to late March. I ended up panicking and accepted the offer from my 2nd choice school and turning down all of the others, and figured if I got into my top choice then I'd back out of that original acceptance. However, after accepting the offer, my 2nd choice school began sending me time-sensitive information, including forms to fill out for advising, course registration, and field work that had to be submitted within 2 weeks, which would still have been before I heard back from my top choice. I didn't want to submit these forms and be "locked in" at that school just in case I did end up getting into the one I was waiting on, so I called my top choice and explained the situation, saying that they were my first pick, but I was getting nervous because I had heard from other schools and the deadline to accept their offer was rapidly approaching (I didn't say that I had already accepted another offer). Two days after that phone call, I received an email from my top choice saying that I was accepted into their program! I quickly sent an email to my 2nd choice and said that regrettably, due to unforeseen circumstances, I would have to withdraw my offer of acceptance for their program. They were very understanding and it was a simple, painless process. It ended up working out exactly the way I wanted it to, but if I could go back and re-do the situation, I'd probably call my top choice school BEFORE accepting the other school's offer. There's no guarantee that they'll give you a decision sooner, but it might have been a little less stressful if I didn't have to accept and then withdraw from the other program.

Ah, yeah...I was a little bit nervous about Richmond's reputation, but I figure I grew up in New York and went to school in Boston at Northeastern (it's right where Roxbury and Mission Hill are, and both are notoriously dangerous and sketchy areas of the city - we've even had a few students who were murdered there, if that puts it into perspective), so hopefully I can handle what Richmond throws at me! I've also heard from a lot of people that the city's reputation has been improving, and as long as you have some basic street smarts, you should be ok...hopefully that all ends up being true I applied to grad schools REALLY early, like abnormally early (I think I sent out my applications in early September) because I studied abroad last semester, and I didn't want to have to try to get my applications together while living halfway around the world. I probably came off as a little over-eager since I got everything in so early, haha! I did call the school in mid March and asked when we could expect to hear back, and I explained that other schools had given me deadlines to accept/decline their offer, and I wanted to see if I'd be hearing back from VCU before making those decisions. Not sure if that call ended up helping push my application along, or if it just so happened that I called right around the time that they had reviewed my application, but 3 days later I got an acceptance letter from VCU (it was on St. Patrick's Day)! I was told that I would hear back anytime from mid-April to early May, so you should be hearing back any day now!!

I was in the EXACT same boat as you about a month ago - I had heard back from a few schools and had gotten acceptances, including being accepted to my 2nd choice, and the deadline for responding was 3 weeks after receiving the letter. Unfortunately I hadn't heard from my top choice school yet, and I didn't want to turn down my 2nd choice and end up with no grad school to go to. I accepted the offer from my second choice and about a week later I got accepted to my top choice (a higher-ranked school which I was much happier with, and which cost less than my second choice) and had to back out of my previous acceptance to the other school. I simply emailed both the graduate school and the admissions division for my specific program and told them that unfortunately, due to financial restrictions, I would not be able to enroll in their program for the fall semester. I left out that the financial part was linked to the fact that my top choice school was cheaper. All I had to do was send them a short, simple email and my acceptance was removed (or whatever they do when you withdraw an acceptance), and that was that! Hopefully it's this easy with other schools, but I just wanted to share my story since it was a very quick and painless process, and I had agonized over it for a few days before finally sending the email.

From everything I've read/heard about it, it's an awesome program...there's gotta be a reason it's ranked 14th in the nation! I took a tour of the campus, grad school, MSW department, etc in August and was really impressed with VCU. I honestly couldn't find a single thing that I didn't like about it, and I got to speak with a woman who worked for the MSW program and had been an MSW student there a few years earlier. She gave me some fantastic advice and left me with a great feel of the MSW program overall. I'm not sure what your concentration is, but for me personally, VCU offers everything that I want - it has a school social work licensure program, a huge variety of fieldwork placements, the program is a great size, they have international study options (ie. over winter or summer break), it's a very diverse school, it's a public school (I went to a private university for undergrad, so the price difference is HUGE - VCU costs less than half of what I paid for my undergrad tuition), and not to mention Richmond seems like a really wonderful city - it's not huge or overwhelming, but it's big enough that there is still plenty to do and keep you interested. At least, this is the impression I've gotten after visiting VCU and browsing through the website. Not sure if any of this is at all helpful, especially since I haven't even started at VCU yet, but I figured I'd give you my perspective Are you going to VCU for the MSW program this fall? I just accepted their offer a few weeks ago!

Actually, I do! She was a VERY egotistical and judgmental person, and she tended to hold others to impossible standards that even she couldn't meet. Her personal statement for med schools was along the lines of "I went to college not knowing what I wanted to do, took a bio class as a core requirement, and realized I kind of liked it, so I want to go to med school." An actual quote from her essay: "As I worked in my biology lab that semester, I realized that this wasn't as hard as I had always thought it would be - I could do this, and I was actually good at it. In the end, biology was not as difficult as I had anticipated, and taking that course proved to me that I could master the material and excel in the sciences." Nothing like telling the admissions committee that their field is simple! At least her essay flowed nicely, from the beginning about how she mastered her Bio101 class to the end in which she discusses how she will surely master medical school. If anyone needs a hint of what NOT to write about, this is definitely exhibit A!

I applied to 4 schools, and with the GRE, transcripts and postage I'd say about $500-600. I actually have an old roommate (no longer a friend, very long story) who applied to 18 med schools. I can't even imagine how much she spent between the MCATs, transcripts, applications, postage, etc. The worst part is that she's heard back from 11 or 12 of them and hasn't gotten a single acceptance yet, so now she's considering taking a year off and working before applying to school as a physician's assistant next fall...which means even more money spent on applications.

Yep, MSW = Master of Social Work CaliforniaMSW, I'm in the same exact boat as you right now. I've gotten acceptance letters from 3 of the 4 schools I applied to (the other one I still haven't heard from, but thankfully I've already heard back from my top choice, so there isn't as much agony as I wait for the 4th school). All of the letters were just plain acceptance letters, without a single mention of financial aid. I did fill out the financial aid forms for all of the schools and sent them in along with my application. When I visited one of the schools, they mentioned that we'd have to make a decision about which school we'd be attending long before we heard back about financial aid, since those letters wouldn't be sent out until July or August. I'm wondering if all of the MSW programs do that?

I actually visited all of the schools that I was considering applying to back in August, before I even started filling out my applications. I emailed the social work department at each of the schools to see what kind of visit I could set up - ie. if I could meet with somebody in the department, get a campus tour (as opposed to signing up for an undergraduate campus tour, which wouldn't be of much help to me), go to an info session, etc. Some of the schools weren't much help, while others went out of their way to put together information packets for me (and they gave me free goodies! Who doesn't love free pens?!), set up personalized campus tours, set me up for a meeting with someone in the department, etc. It was extremely helpful to get to see the schools, and the departments, where I would potentially be spending the next few years of my life. Visiting the schools helped me eliminate a few from the running because they weren't what I was looking for, and I ended up changing my top-choice school based on the visit. You really can't get a feel for what the school/department/surrounding area is like unless you visit it in person. I would definitely try contacting the department to see what you can set up, since a visit to the school can really help to make your decision a lot easier!

I am going through the exact same thing right now. I thought my senioritis was bad in my senior year of high school, but that's more like comparing a mild cold to mono - it's NOTHING next to the senioritis I have right now. I've already been accepted to a few grad schools, including my dream school, so I think the switch in my brain has flipped from "need to do well so I get into grad school" to "already accepted to grad school and no longer care about undergrad whatsoever". I've been doing the work for classes and everything, it's not like I haven't been handing in assignments or attending classes, but I have found that I half-ass all of my assignments and don't care that I'm not putting in more effort, and when I'm in class I just really don't care about anything the professor is talking about. I think it's worst in my Anthro 101 class - it's a requirement for sociology majors at my school, and I left it until my last semester of undergrad. Sitting in a 250-person lecture class with about 200 freshmen is NOT motivating me. I'm putting in the work required to at least pass the classes, and I'm probably getting around a B in all of my courses right now...the sad thing is, normally I'd think "how can I bring that up to an A", but right now all I can think is "hey, at least I'm passing"!

Things I won't miss: -My undergrad university. I definitely made the wrong choice when I picked my school, and I never transferred to a different one because I was scared of starting over as a transfer student. I have had some really great experiences through this school (ie. an amazing internship, my semester studying abroad) but none of them have been while I was physically at my school, and I'm glad to finally be getting out of here. -New England weather!!! GOODBYE ICE AGE WINTERS!! -Being part of a huge university and department where I feel more like a number than a person -The ridiculously high costs of living here -Core requirements and all the "101" classes with over 300 students -Not being able to have a car because of the price of a parking sticker! -95% of people here automatically judge you if you're from New York Things I will miss: -Awesome public transportation! ....yeah, that's about it! I can't wait to move and start grad school!

I understand the whole "living in a new country" thing too, and it's definitely intimidating but SO worthwhile!!! And congrats to you on being brave enough to get out of your comfort zone and attend a school somewhere totally new! I'm also going through the post-acceptance shock right now. I heard back on Thursday that I was accepted to my top choice school (it was overwhelmingly exciting; I never had a top choice when I was applying to undergrad and didn't visit schools until after I had applied and heard back, so it felt great to hear that my top school wanted me as much as I wanted them)! I'll be moving to a new state where I know NOBODY...not only do I not know anyone in my grad program, or at the school, but the few people I do know in that state are either people I graduated from high school with back in '06 and haven't talked to in forever, or they have very busy lives and are nowhere near the city I'll be living in. Plus, I've spent me entire life living in the northeast USA (New York, and college in Boston), so moving to the south is both exhilarating and intimidating. People keep telling me to expect a culture shock, but not going into deeper into it than that. I guess the thing that's been helping me deal with the "moving to a new place" jitters is that I've done that twice before, and it's always turned out well. When I went to undergrad I moved from NY to Boston and knew about 3 people at my college, though none were good friends, and everything turned out fine. I also studied abroad in Greece for a semester and that was even scarier - I literally knew nobody in the program, barely spoke any Greek, had no idea what the school was like, didn't know what our apartments would be like, had never been to the country before (or anywhere in Europe other than London), etc. It ended up being the best experience of my life and I made some life-long friends! Anytime I get nervous about moving to the south and not knowing anybody, I just remind myself of Greece and how fantastically it turned out, and I know that this will turn out to be just as great. I'm sure there are going to be plenty of people who are in the same boat as me, and are new grad students who don't know anybody and are hoping to meet new people and explore a new city!

pickupsticks: I'm also 99.9% sure that I'll be moving to Richmond soon - I just got accepted to VCU's MSW program a few days ago, and it's been my top choice all along, so unless something really drastic happens between now and August, I'll be heading down to Richmond for the next 2 years! I have to say, I don't know much about Richmond at all - the only time I've ever been there was when I visited Richmond and VCU for 2 days last August, but I absolutely loved it. I grew up in New York and went to college in Boston, so I'm very used to huge cities (NYC) or large cities (Boston), and I guess after 22 years of living in/near major cities, I'm excited to be going to a smaller, more manageable city. I've also come to kind of dislike Boston after living here for so long. There are some huge advantages - ie. it's packed with college students/young adults, it's pretty easy to walk to most places, awesome public transportation - but the weather is HORRIBLE, there really isn't much diversity (at least not as much as I experienced in New York), it's crazy expensive, among other things. I don't know if this situation applies to you at all, but I'm really looking forward to life in a small city, especially one that's as diverse as Richmond. Anyone else who's living/has lived in Richmond? Are there any more laid-back, chill places to hang out (ie. bars, pubs) that aren't packed with douchebags, frat boys, sorority girls, and drunk college kids falling all over the place and spilling their drinks on the floor? I don't have anything against greek life or college students, but I would much rather go to a bar with friends, meet new people there, and have some real conversation over a few drinks than go to a club, dance with random strangers and have vodka cranberry spilled all over my shoes.

Waiting to hear back from grad schools was definitely worse than waiting to hear back for undergrad. No comparison. I just got an email from Virginia Commonwealth at 9:30pm today (who knew they sent out admissions emails at night) and I've been accepted to their MSW program for this fall!!! It's my top choice, I fell in love with the school when I visited it in August and I can't wait to start there in August!

Just got an email tonight (at 9:30pm, wasn't expecting to get an admissions letter at night) saying that I've been accepting into VCU's MSW program for this fall!!! It's been my top choice since I visited grad schools back in August and I'm so excited to be starting there this fall

I received an acceptance to UNC Charlotte's MSW program early this month, and I was told that I needed to inform them within 10 days of my decision to register. I hadn't heard back from my top choice school yet, and I knew I wouldn't hear back until at least mid-March, so I accepted UNC Charlotte's offer just in case I didn't get into my top choice. However, I just heard back from VCU (literally 20 minutes ago) and found out that I was accepted - YAY!!!! Since VCU is my top choice I obvoiusly want to go there, but I'm not quite sure how to tell UNC Charlotte that I want to take back my acceptance into their program. Has anyone done this before, and how exactly would I go about doing this?

I've applied to 4 graduate schools; 2 I've heard back from, and 2 I've heard NOTHING from since I got the "thank you for paying your application fee" letter back in January. One of the schools that I've heard nothing from is my top choice, and their website says that "applicants will be notified of decisions by May 1st" (is it just me, or is that ridiculously late to be notifying us, considering that most schools send out letters by March, or April at the latest?). Of the schools that I heard back from, I was accepted to both and was told that I had to reply with my statement of intent to register within one week of receiving the letters. I called my top choice school to ask if there was a rough estimate of when I might expect to hear back from them, hoping that I would hear back much sooner than May 1st, and was told that my application was already under review and I would likely hear back sooner than the May 1st deadline, but probably sometime in April. *Side note: when I called the department, the woman I spoke with immediately knew who I was and knew that my application was already being processed - am I just grasping at straws when I'm thinking that this could be a good sign? End side note* Anyway, I had to accept an offer from one of the schools that I'd already heard back from, since I didn't want to say no to both and end up screwed if I don't get into the other schools that I haven't yet heard from. I accepted this offer about 2 weeks ago, and figured that I would be able to withdraw my acceptance if I do get into my top choice (I know other people who have done this). However, the school whose offer I accepted has sent me several emails today, and apparently I need to sign up for classes, field placement interviews, etc within the next 12-14 days. It feels to me like I would almost be locked in to that program at that point, and withdrawing from it to attend a different school would be extremely difficult. As such, I emailed my top choice school today and explained the situation, and asked (politely!) about when I could expect to hear back about my admissions decision. Normally I wouldn't have contacted them - I haven't contacted the other school that I haven't heard from - but at the rate things are going, I may not be able to pull out from the other school at that point and would end up going to my second choice school because my first choice has an insanely late notification date. Was I wrong to contact them?!

Thank you so much - I wasn't sure if I would be out of line calling them or not. I had called a few weeks ago (I wasn't sure when they were going to be sending out decision letters and I called to check, which is when they told me that letters would be sent out by May 1st), and I didn't want to come across as one of those neurotic pests who keeps nagging the school, you know? I'll try giving them a call to explain the situation. Thank you for your advice!!!

I've applied to 4 MSW programs for the fall semester; I've heard back from 2 schools so far and was accepted to both. Unfortunately, my top choice school will not have our admissions decisions ready until May 1st, while students need to either accept/decline offers from the other schools by mid-March...aka now. I don't want to decline all offers in hopes that I'll get into my top choice, because if I don't get in then I'll have no grad schools to attend, so I accepted one offer and declined the other. I had hoped that I would hear back from the top choice soon enough that I could withdraw this acceptance without any major difficulties - however, the school whose offer I accepted has now sent me several emails, and I need to register for fall classes in 2 weeks and must set up an interview this week to discuss my fall field placement options. I feel like I'm trapped right now...I absolutely have to do these things to keep my spot in the school's program, but it's only my second choice and I won't know for another month and a half whether or not I got into my top choice. I feel like if I set up these appointments I'm sort of locked-in to the school's program, and if I do get into my top choice it will be a tedious process to withdraw from the school that I've currently accepted. However, I absolutely love my top choice school and I don't want to give up on it. I guess I just wanted to find out if anyone else has been in a similar situation, and if so, what did you do?

Congrats to everyone on your acceptances!!! So far I've heard back from 2 of the 4 schools I've applied to for my MSW and got admitted to both U Hawaii at Manoa and UNC Charlotte. Still waiting on UNC Chapel Hill and VCU (VCU is my top choice and I'm right at the edge of panicking as I wait to hear back from them). I do have a question - there has been a lot of talk about people receiving scholarships along with their acceptances. Neither one of the schools I've gotten accepted to mentioned anything about scholarships in the acceptance letters. I know when I was at an info session for UNC Chapel Hill back in August they said that they wouldn't be notifying MSW students about any scholarships/other financial aid until June, so we'd have to make a decision before knowing whether we'd be getting any assistance. Just curious to know whether most schools wait until after students have decided to attend/decline before sending out financial aid info, or if the fact that there was no mention of financial aid in my letters is an indication that I won't be getting any.

Hi everyone! Congrats to all who have gotten acceptances already! I was surprised to hear about the email acceptances too - the majority of the schools I've applied to say that I'll be able to check my application status online and/or will be notified be email. I remember applying to undergrad and running to the mailbox everyday to see if I got a big package or a little envelope from the schools I applied to....now I go online and check my application status more times than I'd like to admit! I'm surprisingly less freaked-out about my applications now than I was when I applied to undergrad, which is pretty surprising to me since this, for me, is slightly more important (and I'm applying to significantly fewer schools) than my undergrad applications. I turned in my UNC Chapel Hill application in the end of August - I'm not crazy, I was studying abroad in the fall so I had to get it in before I left, otherwise I wouldn't have turned it in until winter break! The rest of my applications (UNC Charlotte, Virginia Commonwealth, and University of Hawaii at Manoa) were all submitted by the end of December/early January. I only have 1 app left to go; I'm applying to Fordham as sort of a last resort since the only reason why I'd go to Fordham would be if I needed to stay at home and I would commute into the city for classes; otherwise I fully plan on living in a brand-new city, and I'm more than ready to move out of the northeast after getting my BA in Boston. Odugrad2011, I saw that you mentioned you applied to VCU too - any news yet? And did anyone else hear from any of these schools yet (UNCC, UNCCH, VCU, UHM)? I'm trying not to freak out.....