lmcfarlin

I am currently in the process of applying to this program at CSU Stanislaus and previously interviewed at UC Berkeley. After you graduate, you are required to find work with a public child welfare office in California for two years in order to "pay back" the stipend. It seems as though schools have different requirements about whether you have to find work at an agency in the surrounding area or if you can search anywhere in the state of California, but I might be mistaken about that. It would be a paid job, not a two-year voluntary position. Also, if you document your job hunt and cannot find work at a public agency within a certain amount of time, they will permit you to apply with non-profit agencies that serve Title IV-E clients. What school are you looking at? If there is anyone on this forum already in a program, do you know anything about how this stipend is treated for public assistance? I was planning to apply for food stamps and Medi-Cal to help get me through school (I have a small child), but the stipend plus child support would put me over the income limit if they treat it as wages. I am starting to wonder if it is worth pursuing since the school has already given me a tuition grant and subsidized loans.

Nope, I haven't heard anything yet. Good luck to you, too!

My interview did not go well at all. Apparently my desire for success is inversely proportional to my ability to be articulate and thoughtful. I almost couldn't believe my responses when I was walking out of the room, especially since I thought the questions were pretty straightforward. Berkeley is far and away my first choice and probably the only program I could swing as a single parent. I also applied to CSU Stanislaus, but I don't have the family network there to make emergency calls and long working hours really feasible. Where else did you apply? You'll have to let us know if you hear good news after they finish interviews up this week!

Congrats!

Sadly, it is even less. If they decide to be generous, that is a 14.4% admittance rate. Scary!

FYI for anyone else out there interviewing for the program, I just received a very nice phone call from Berkeley explaining that their first E-mail mistakenly used old information. I guess it is safe to assume people in Admissions are perusing these forums as well. Good luck to everyone!

It is only Title IV-E, although that second email makes it sound like my admission in general will depend on getting into the stipend program. I am still a little uncertain about how to interpret those emails.

Thanks so much! I definitely need all the luck I can get!

I applied to the MSW program at Berkeley under the Direct Practice in Child and Family Services/California Title IV-E Child Welfare Training Program. I've been invited to interview for the stipend program, but the two E-mails I've received from their office this week have totally confused me. The first one states: Candidates will be notified of their acceptance for a stipend award as soon as all the interviews have been completed. Although you may qualify for an award with our program, you will still need to be accepted by the graduate school for admission to U.C. Berkeley. The second one states: You will be notified of the results of the interview to the IV-E program after all the applicants have been interviewed and final acceptance for admission to the School of Social Welfare will depend upon acceptance by the Title IV-E Stipend Program. They seem to be saying two different things about how this interview impacts my admission to the School of Social Welfare. Thoughts? The E-mail says they are doing three days of interviews, and it seems as though they are only interviewing four people per day. However, the Website says they take up to 20 students per year into the stipend program. Has anyone gone through this process with Berkeley before?