Wishing

SFSU specifically is famous for this - it happened to my wife in a different program there and I also know several other people who had the same issue. According to the admissions dept. for that program, the aid award letters only go out to students who have been accepted and are not automatically processed for all students, but I don't know if it works that way for the MSW program. Apparently their turn-around time on sending out acceptances is pretty crummy and sometimes the aid arrives first. I'd call the admissions office and ask whether a decision has been made on your application.

Natalie, In general the advice is go to the least expensive place, which definitely includes the cost of living. Are you going for a clinical focus? If so, I'd choose the least expensive school. In general I think it's only worth it to pay more if there is something very specific at one school that you absolutely can't get someplace else. For me, I consider a well-developed macro program a necessity, since most programs don't have one. For most other people this logic doesn't make sense because the clinical options (aside from something very specific and specialized) are pretty much identical between schools. Good luck making your decision!

Cool, excited to be there with you! I applied for the relocation stipend when I submitted my deposit about a month ago. I haven't hard anything about it yet but I'll definitely post an update if I do so that others can get a sense of the timeline.

Boston University

See you there!!

MSW programs are actually exactly the type of program in which I think an extra year would benefit an applicant. Some people may disagree with this, but with other types of graduate programs (many types of PhDs and MDs come to mind) there is very little you can do to improve your application after a certain point and (anecdotally) people who re-apply don't seem to have different results. Plus, unlike those programs, MSW programs admit, on average, a much much higher number of applicants so there is no reason you would continually get rejected if you take steps to improve your application. IMO the major issues with MSW applications are a pretty east fix and basically fall into the following: 1. Additional human services experience is a must. Work or volunteer - it seems admissions committees like to see some combination of the two, and internships are also always good to add if possible. Show that you used this extra time to add to your experience and are committed to working in the field. 2. Grades. I don't know what your stats are (if you share them maybe we could give more specific advice), but if you have weaknesses in your transcript or could benefit at all from taking some additional classes to supplement your undergraduate coursework definitely consider taking some community college classes. If you have cash to throw around you could try to take graduate level courses in social work as a nonmatriculating student, but it's super expensive at most schools. Personally, I graduated with a BA in Political Science and Gender Studies, so in the time I took between undergrad and grad school applications I took some basic courses in psychology - intro, human development and in statistics. Research methods (in psych) is another good class to add to your record if you don't have it yet. If you can get good grades in these classes it will help boost your application and you may even be able to get letters of rec out of it if you are a particularly stand-out student. 3. Letters of rec. If you have any doubts about yours seek out different recommenders. Volunteer supervisors can make great recommenders. If you don't have strong academic recommendations you may be able to get better ones by taking extra classes. 4. Statement of purpose. Make sure you are able to articulate reasonable career goals for yourself as a social worker that are connected in some way to what the program you are looking at offers and to whatever extent possible your prior work or volunteer experience. Familiarize yourself with the programs you are applying to and make your application specific - why do you want to attend THAT school? What experiences will your bring to your class there? What drew you to this field and kept you interested? Answer the questions in the application as fully and completely as you can. I have not applied more than once, but I did get in to all the schools I applied to this time around and researched the process extensively for over 2 years before I applied. I have no doubt that I would have been rejected had I applied straight out of undergrad because I needed to work on areas 1 and 2 as described above in order to have a strong application. I needed more human services specific experience (rather than political experience) and coursework that showed I was capable of completing graduate level work in a discipline in which students (even macro students, like myself) need to have proficiency in understanding and working with people.

I am pretty sure it's never too late to rescind your admission as long as you haven't begun taking your classes. Obviously it's easier to rescind the less deep you are in the process, but don't feel like you HAVE to choose Columbia just because you already accepted. If NYU is the right school for you and/or they offer you a better financial aid package definitely consider it. You will lose the deposit but I'm sure this happens all the time. In my opinion, Columbia is kind of asking for this to happen because they admit students so quickly and then require a response soon afterwards. They know they're forcing students to commit before they have all of the information they need from other schools, so they shouldn't be too surprised when this happens.

I am pretty sure that is right, but obviously I am not the right person to ask. I know a couple of people who have moved to CA after going to school and practicing in other states and while it's been kind of a pain for them to get licensed it wasn't the end of the world. Also, knowing your boyfriend is in the military influences my answer to your question about the military concentration - if you think the school with the specific concentration is right for you, definitely go for it if you can afford it, but also consider doing some volunteer work or unofficial intern work where your boyfriend is stationed if at all possible. It sounds like you have some affiliations with the military that you could leverage to network if you take the initiative to do so.

I took post-bacc psych classes at a local community college, but I'm currently living in CA so it was very affordable. I'm not sure how expensive that would be in NY (assuming you live there.) I had a political science undergrad major so I wanted to show dedication to a deviation into social work from that. I took basics that were required by some programs - Intro to Psych, Human Development, Statistics, Research Methods. A lead on volunteer work with a time committment that isn't terrible is the Court Appointed Special Advocates program. In some states it is called Guardian ad Litem. Check to see whether your state requires you to be a lawyer or law student or whether anyone can apply. I am currently a CASA in California and I needed to do a 40 hour training before beginning but the time committment for the volunteer work is very reasonable - I do about 3 hour a week unless my child's case is up for review, and then it's more like 5 or 6 hour for a couple of weeks. In many programs MSWs supervise the volunteers, so you may even be able to get a letter of recommendation out of it. Other ideas are working at a women's shelter or domestic violence shelter, programs for at-risk youth, nonprofits dealing with social services. You can always contact organizations directly about volunteer opportunities and they're usually flexible on time committment. Good luck! It sounds like you are thinking in the right direction about how to improve your application and with that kind of attitude and the right experience you will definitely make it.

Oops, yes, this is what I was thinking of.

I don't know a lot about clinical licensing (I'm going to be a macro practice student and don't intend on seeking licensure), but if I recall correctly California is one of the states that requires supervised hours to be conducted in-state or with some other requirement that would make it desirable to begin one's supervised hours as an MSW student in field placement actually IN California. That said, I'd check out the concentration at USC. What exactly are they offering beyond the normal curriculum for this "concentration"? Is it experience you may be able to get elsewhere through a field placement working with the military/veterans? Or could you construct a similar experience at a less expensive school? Just some thoughts. I have a friend who went to USC and loved it, so it's definitely not something to rule out completely even if the debt is an issue. Good luck!

I thought I should post an update since I spoke with one of the BUSSW deans yesterday about the program. I didn't take super detailed notes, so bear with me. The school overall has about 425 students, but that is including the part-time students/students at other campuses, so the Charles River program is much smaller than that. He said class sizes are small: for foundation courses about 25 students, methods classes around 20, and advanced classes in the 2nd year are between 10-20, usually on the smaller end. He was SUPER nice on the phone, also. I have some phone conversations set up with current students over the next few days, so if I learn anything that might be of interest to others I will post it. Hope that helps someone!

I am actually from Boston - no worries! I don't mind the green line one bit.

Hah - I guess you are right.

Haha, yes Krisi, probably we should take the rest of this convo to PMs so people won't get too defensive! I'm sure UMich is a wonderful school and I defintiely have nothing against it! I just personally hate bureaucracy. Do I think they could do a better job being communicative with applicants/admitted students? Yes. Other people obviously have different experiences. No harm, no foul.

For freaking real. People it is going to be TOO LATE for those of us busy planning our lives in other locations. I honestly did not see myself as a "late" applicant (like the 2nd dau of January!), and the other schools I applied to were much more prompt with their responses so why do I get the impression that I am late for the Michigan party?! I called BU and Michigan today in search of information to help me make my decision.... I got the DEAN on the phone at Boston (he was awesome, btw) and he answered a bunch of my questions. I got an answering machine at Michigan and left a message that hasn't been returned. Usually that wouldn't bother me, but I'm still waiting for a response about a question I asked almost 2 weeks ago (called and emailed) so I'm not holding my breath. I think the cards are falling in to place. I know everyone slated to go there and already there loves Michigan but maybe it's just not the right place for me. I don't get the impression that they care very much whether I decide to attend.

That is kind of what I was thinking re: fieldwork. To me it is probably the MOST important thing, especially since I am looking for pretty non-traditional placement options, even for a Macro student. Boston gives me the exposure to legislative and political/organizing options that AA can't. Plus I could do 2 placements instead of one, which is awesome. The price does pretty much even out, especially considering I plan to work in Boston (but wouldn't in Michigan because work-study is already part of my package, so that is included) if at all possible. I love Jamaica Plain! We would probably live in the Brighton area, though, just to be a bit more central to things. I spoke to the dean at BUSSW today and I really liked what he said about the program. It is a lot smaller Than Michigan's program and with class sizes that better fit my preferences.

For real.

My advice would be to get a job as close as possible to your interests and then add additional volunteer hours/experience on top of that. Take inventory of what skills you can realistically get from the job you procure and then look for volunteer positions in areas your paying job maybe doesn't touch on. The admissions teams are not going to want to see you doing the impossible - getting a job with a BA that you should have an MSW for - but they will look at what experience you have and how you're able to talk about your experience. IMO they also look at initiative and like to see volunteer AND paid experience because it shows you're dedicated and interested.

Thanks, Roxy! I did see some stuff about carpooling to field placements that seemed like it might work for me, which is good. However, the field placement sites themselves really overwhelm me because Michigan doesn't seem to have any placement for the type of work I am interested in compared to Boston. Also Boston lets you customize the field placement selection as a Macro student in the 2nd year, which is a huge bonus to me. I love that I could do 2 formal field placements and that I could work in the summer when I wasn't taking classes (or take a break, or do another internship, or sign up for a language class!) because it seems less rushed than the Michigan timeline. Plus the alum network is unbeatable at BU for the Boston area and we're going to do everything we can to stay post-graduation. The $15,000 only comes into play if I estimate the cost of living really low in Ann Arbor (ie not living close to campus/downtown), and I also have to account for the extra costs of moving to Michigan that I don't have to deal with in Boston because I am close to tons of friends and family. Plus, since I do a joint budget with my wife, we'd have to pay for her dissertation research costs out of pocket if we moved to Michigan, wheras she would be local to her research if we moved to Massachusetts. After adjusting for those things the gap starts to narrow and narrow and when it's only 5k or so then it seems to matter a lot less. I guess what I'm also saying is that is is more complicated than any set of Pros vs. Cons could ever make it seem and that some factors that seem "soft" (even to me!) end up mattering so much to me. I'll definitely give you a shout if I have any questions about Ann Arbor! I am sure I would love the city itself, but as a gay person Michigan is pretty close to my worst nightmare in terms of where to live. AA does what it can, but there's not much anyone can do about what the legislature and courts system have done.

Well, I definitely won't be getting a car, even with the savings between schools, so that's not really a factor. I do wonder about doing 2 field placements at Boston vs. the one at Michigan. And also about alum networking to get jobs. Ideally we would try to stay in the Boston area after graduation. Perhaps this is an exercise in me just doing whatever I want regardless of what others think (wouldn't be the first time!) but I am curious what others will say. I reserve the right to make the final choice even if it seems stupid to others.

I have suddenly found myself with a sort of unexpected issue. I've accepted an offer of admission from BU and was really all set to go until I got an offer from U Michigan last week. I know a lot of people on this forum have opinions on how to choose programs but I haven't hard any hard and fast opinions on location vs. cost. So here's the deal: LOCATION Boston is the better location because a) it's Boston and I like Boston... our quality of life would be really great there, especially because we don't own a car and can't really afford to buy one and my sister lives in Boston and my family is close by. It would be nice to finally be back on the East Coast after living out here in CA for so long and also save on travel costs to visit family and c) if I could choose where to eventually practice it would be in Boston. HOWEVER, my wife will graduate with her PhD in 2014 (the same year I will graduate) and she is professor-track in a social science discipline. For those of you unfamiliar with the academic job market right now we basically will not have any control over where we end up living after we graduate. There are more colleges in Boston/Massachusetts/New England area than there are in the Ann Arbor area, so statistically speaking it is more likely she could get a job there, but there is no way to know whether anything will be open in her field and/or whether she would be chosen for the position if one did open up. I would never voluntarily live in Ann Arbor so it is very unlikely we would end up living there after graduation. Summary: We are not interested in living in Ann Arbor in the long term. We'd prefer to live in Boston, but it's equally likely we'd end up living elsewhere regardless of which school I attend, making local ties and networking during field placements possibly less useful than they would be otherwise. I am not sure that simply prefering to live someplace for personal reasons is a good reason to choose a program when the program length is relatively short, although it certainly is tempting. COST Technically, BU is cheaper. The tuition is less expensive. The cost of living in Boston is not cheaper, but the difference evens out somewhat if I'd need to buy a car to realistically make it to my field placement site in Michigan (I hear mixed reviews on this.) HOWEVER (and I forgot to calculate this originally), the Michigan program I was accepted to is 16 months, which means I would only pay for half a year of living expenses the 2nd year. When all is said and done and financial aid packages are added to the mix, Michigan is roughly $15,000 less expensive over the course of the program. I am also still under review for one of the stipend programs. If I were to receive it (that's a big "if") it would be $40,000, pushing the cost of Michigan WAY below BU. However, it would require me to move during the summer term to complete the field placement, which would be a huge hassle. We have a dog and my wife will be returning to the University she is a student at to teach in the summer, so it could get kind of messy there right in the middle. THE PROGRAMS I know everyone here thinks this doesn't matter much, but I prefer Michigan's program overall to BU's. I am specifically interested in community organizing and combining community organizing with issue and policy advocacy, things which Michigan's program focuses on in depth. BU seems to have less comprehensive/in depth course offerings in this area. I can take more electives at Michigan and the electives tend to match my interests more closely. BU doesn't offer very many community organizing courses. Boston may have better field placements, especially for policy-based work, as it's a capital city in a state that does a lot of progressive social welfare stuff. BU is also one of the only schools in Boston that offers placement for macro-focused students from what I understand. BU also has more placements easily accessible to public transit. I seriously feel like this is the hardest decision I have ever had to make, and I've made some pretty tough ones. I don't know what to do. What think you, fellow future social workers?

Thanks for the info, Roxy. I hate to say this, but I am still really in love with Michigan. Blah. This decision is so hard! I am curious, did anyone ask questions about the special program applications that are still pending at the open house? I haven't seen anyone mention acceptances or rejections from the National Community Scholars program, and the fact that I haven't been rejected yet (and therefore in my mind still have some remote chance of receiving it) is the only thing really standing in the way of my committment to BU. Without that I can't afford to go to Michigan anyways so it's kind og a moot point. Any word? I'd call, but it seems I can never get anyone on the phone so I'm wondering if anyone else has heard anything.

If you are really dedicated to doing this I have no doubt it can be done. I would start by looking at the programs you are interested in. Do they consider mostly the last 60 credit hours of college work you've done? Or is it more wholistic? The programs I applied to mostly considered the last 60 hours of credits, which benefitted me as a student who has an upward trend in grades over my college career. You could apply to programs that consider the entire GPA more heavily OR try to take some additional courses at a community college or even at the graduate level (in social work, even!) as a non-matriculating student. If I were you I would do everything possible to seek out classes that would complete my education and make me look well-rounded while trying to demonstrate your ability to perform well academically. Did you take stats and research methods as an undergrad? If not, take those classes to help you out and do the absolute best you can in them. If you already have, try to see if you can get yourself into some upper-division courses in Psych or Social Work that you haven't yet taken and kick butt. If you do really well you can also use these instructors as potential recommenders. Bonus points if you can get yourself in to some graduate level social work classes and get those professors on your side. Otherwise, check to see what the minimum GPA requirements are for the program you are interested in. Some schools have a firm GPA cut-off and students under (usually) 3.0 culumative GPA need to appeal the department for consideration. Others allow you to substitute a really good GRE score for a lower GPA. And definitely go ahead with seeking out experience relevant to the area you are interested in working in. If you can get a job in this area post-graduation that would be great, but also try to log volunteer hours in a related field in addition to that. Show your dedication and be ready in your application essays to demonstrate your skills and how you have grown over time academically and professionally to possess the skills you need as a social worker and also as a student at the graduate level. Good luck!

I know what you mean about waiting to hear back from all your options. BU actually was not my first choice throughout this whole process, but now that I've had more contact with schools I'm really convinced it's the right choice for me. It sounds like in the Boston area their macro focus option is unparalleled in terms of opportunities for students. I am really pleased. I actually looked and couldn't find the information about the entering class size/program size on the website either. It is one of the questions I plan to ask as I continue conversing with the department in the coming weeks, so if I find out I'll post it here. If you get a chance to speak with them and ask before I do I'd be interested in hearing their response!