KaraM

The day after i got waitlisted i sent an email to the dean thanking him for my position on the waitlist, and saying i was hopeful. I also attached my midterm grades from the current semester. Seemed to go over well for me!

That makes sense. Well, don't rule anything out then! Every student has a different experience at these schools.
I'd think of which state I'd most want to live in and which MSW fits in the most w/ the type of experience/education you want to have. No school will be perfect; it's more about the experience that you want to cultivate for yourself.
Columbia is in the heart of Harlem. So, if you decide to go, you'll definitely have a very different experience from how you grew up, and that would be an education in itself. It's also ranked in the top 5. So, it probably has a good curriculum/faculty in comparison to the other schools.
Also, every institution of higher education will have anti-Blackness. So, if that's your reason for second guessing Columbia, then you wouldn't be able to go to any grad school.

Concerning Erika Hart’s situation - it’s extremely disappointing to hear how Columbia SSW handled the whole situation. NYU Silver was also called out for another racist incident a while back too. As a bipoc, I was definitely turned off by how the institution handled all of these situations but at this point I’m realizing that no institution, even those with a clean track record, are immune to racism... up until recently CSSW had a clean track record. Many schools are trying to become more anti-racist but racism is systemic and it is deep... with majority being predominantly white institutions it’s hard to avoid these racist encounters no matter which school we choose to go to. So even though these events are steering me away, I’m trying to focus on which school I can benefit from the most and which school’s values and field opportunities align with what I want to do. But I’m also considering at diversity of staff and students too.

I've also heard negative things about Columbia and that it's better to just choose the least expensive program (i.e. a state/city school if you get into one). Columbia's program looks amazing though for a macro specialization

I’m really happy with Tulane! It’s more work than I anticipated but it’s manageable. I have had a lot of late nights spent reading and writing. I’m pretty good at time management and I feel like it’s just at the level I can handle. Classmates are very supportive and it’s great getting to know them and their research interests! 
One perk I wasn’t expecting is that summer semester is condensed, May - Mid July, which gives you a mini summer break. 

I would do more research and not necessarily decline either of those programs because of a single comment of a friend of a friend on an anonymous forum. They’re both great programs. Every program has occasional hiccups and outliers. Reach out to alumni and current students. Best of luck! 

Accepted to Tulane! 

I would be wary of Tulane's program, especially because of the price tag that comes with it. I know several people in the MSW program who advised me against applying because the admin really is not great at all; after Ida, I knew someone who had a tarped roof and was dealing with a lot of ramifications as a consequence of the storm (a Cat 4 on the anniversary of Katrina in a place where hurricanes happen every year) and admin was not flexible or understanding of the situation and wanted business as usual as soon as possible. Definitely worth considering when evaluating options!

I did too!!

For those who’ve applied to UT Austin’s advanced standing program:
I just received my acceptance letter from Andrea. Best of luck to everyone! 

Just got accepted to Simmons Online MSW for the September 2022 cohort! 
This past year has been such a crazy journey. Huge congratulations to everyone on their respective acceptances! I will be putting my deposit down today, so I will be logging out of my account on here. Thanks everyone for all your help in this process!!!

Got the news this morning via email that I was accepted into CSUN’s two-year online program!! I have until March 25th to make a decision, and I’m still waiting to hear back from CSUF?

can you explain what you mean by competitive? I am having trouble deciphering how competitive the advanced standing online programs are. Thank you!

And this is just for the MSW program. I'm not sure what the acceptance rates are for the advance standing program... 

So it's my understanding that competitive means a lower acceptance rate and you're competing with more applicants for limited space. Like the website for u of m says approximately 430 are accepted out of over 1250 applicants. So that's a acceptance rate of 34.4 percent.