savannahbee

here is what i know. social work education is much less about academics and much more about the whole applicant. at my orientation last week (for university of washington) they said that my cohort has an average GPA of 3.5, and an average of 2.5 years of field experience. certainly some people have better GPAs and some worse, some more experience and some less. as far as not majoring in a 'related field', the guy i sat next to at orientation was a biology major. my advice to you would be to a) do some volunteering if there's any possible way you can. not only is it good for applications, it's a pretty important thing to figure out if you actually LIKE the work before you commit to a grad degree. i spent 3 years working in the field and only this year was positive it was the place for me. get really good letters of rec. c) write a really really good essay.

oh hmm, i did not see that you had already graduated. as an alumni i believe you are still entitled to use the career center/career counselors, but it would complicate things if you no longer live in the area

oh hello fellow greener!!! i feel your pain! i am, however, about to start grad school at my top choice school (applied to 2 and got into both) so i feel somewhat qualified to answer this. i'm likely in a different situation than you because i knew all along i was going to go for a Masters in Social Work, which is a professional degree and not academic, so academics play a slightly backstage role, but here's what i did. my senior year i went and met with one of the career counselors. we went throught my whole transcript and we made sure, credit-by-interdisciplinary-credit, that i met all the prerequisites for most MSW programs (we used UW as a guide, which is where i'm actually ending up). i saved that piece of paper for 3 years, because then when it was time to apply to schools, i could show that i had x number of credits for y prereq. when it was time to apply, i called the schools i was applying to and asked what they would like me to do. they both said to fill out the forms as best as i could and in lieu of a GPA calculation, write a letter to include in my app that said i went to evergreen and to please see my transcript for an evaluation of my academic performance. UW gave me this answer right away because they are also a WA state school and thus are very familiar with evergreen. Portland State was a bit harder to figure out; the first person i talked to said, "ummm i know we've done this before, but i can't remember what you're supposed to do. email so and so" and then so and so took a couple days to figure it out and get back to me, but overall no harm no foul. so in short, my advice would be to meet with a career counselor--mine was very helpful. it would probably be good if you knew where you wanted to apply, but i'm supposing they could probably help you out with that too. and then get in contact with someone in admissions at the schools you're applying to and ask them what they want you to do. if they aren't familiar with evergreen and how it works, have them contact the career center (find out from a career counselor if that's the proper place to direct them to, first). there is no reason that a nontraditional degree from a state school should hinder you from grad school. you just gotta get on the ball! good luck!!!

oh i'm so jealous of everyone who has already started or will start soon. i don't start til sept 30th!!! i'm taking a tues/thurs night class during sept. to meet a prerequisite for my program, but i don't consider it "real school" and so mostly it's just screwing with my work schedule and making me anxious. good luck everyone!

well i don't think an online MSW is a great idea to begin with. in your specific case, i notice that the program is not yet accredited, so that's basically a waste of time.

granted, i'm in a "professional" field, not an academic one (social work) but in my field it's pretty highly encouraged to take time off and get some experience in the field before applying to school. i graduated in 2006 and will start grad school in the fall (so, 09). i think that time off was to my advantage because my application showed 3+ years of work in the field and demonstrated that i really know what the work is about and that i really still want to do it.

i already have a full-time job in the field that can be transitioned to part time when school starts. my boss is asking me about how many hours i'll be able to work and i'm trying to figure out what's manageable. i will definitely say no more than 20!

did you work full-time? you said you were a relief worker, so i'm guessing not...i know there's no way i could work full time and go to school full time, at least not at my current job, so i'm trying to figure out a manageable amount of hours.

i'm starting a full time MSW program in the fall and am trying to get everything sorted out. one item on my agenda is figuring out my work schedule. i will be able to stay at my current job with a fair amount of flexibility, but my boss is asking me how many hours a week i'll be able to work. I know that with a full classload and practicum, working more than 20 hours a week would be ridiculous but is 20 too much? I know there's no hard and fast rule...i'm just looking for opinions and guidance. can anyone help me out?

i swear i have NEVER seen this part of the forum before!!! would have been so helpful while i was applying, though it should be equally helpful now. i applied to U of Washington and Portland State. currently am unofficially in at UW (just waiting on the grad school to officially accept me and for my background check to be a-okay). i haven't heard from PSU yet, but it doesn't really matter at this point--it would kind of be nice to have the illusion of getting to make the choice though.

as an MSW applicant myself, I say go for that. it seems as if it's totally possible to do therapy with an MSW but harder to do social work with a psych degree.