arcoventry

I graduated in 2008, and am coming into a social work degree from a corporate IT sales position - if I can get accepted anyone can!!

My biggest ally in this process was the one year of volunteering at a 24-hour crisis center, working with suicidal and depressed individuals. I was working about 50 hours a week at my IT job at the time I began the volunteer work, but the crisis work was inspiring for me, and the schedule was flexible. I volunteered for one 5-hour shift a week, plus an overnight shift once a month. It felt like nothing, once I got used to the emotional toll it took on me. After I completed my year of service and was accepted to a few schools, I did end my commitment there. I miss the work, but I needed to free up some time to get a second paid job to save up for school.

Everyone who has the calling to apply to a school of social work must have some part of them that is cut out for the task. If you didn't, you would be like 99% of the rest of the population who say "are you crazy!? I could never do that kind of work!!". Figure out why you want this so bad and be honest about it! Your essay is so important, so don't downplay why you might not have as much experience as everyone else - talk about how hard you've worked in your current career and what it has taught you about your inner social worker!!

Hi Ellie!

I am a non-traditional student in the sense that I have been in the work-force for 5 years also since graduation. I am also coming from a non social work field. I currently work as a network design engineer, doing IT sales and implementations for financial companies. I have been planning my transition to clinical social work for a long time, but now that the time has come for me to make the leap I am terrified. I have been saving as much money as humanly possible, both at my full time job, and also at the job waiting tables I picked up nights and weekends. I also have been trying to read more to get used to information retention and concentrating for long periods of time. I also will miss having my own office, and of course that paycheck...but I don't get fulfillment from my current work so I am looking forward and trying to remember what made me decide to make this crazy leap of faith in the first place - a chance at building a career I get more than just a paycheck from!!!

hi! i sent in my deposit, and immunization forms about a month ago. i was accepted into the oyr program so i don't need to send any field placement forms- i also hadn't received confirmation but called today and they said that they will be sending out informaion regarding pre-orientation and orientation dates within the next few weeks. so hang tight everyone!

Just to play devil's advocate, I would take a moment to do some thorough calculations on what you pay now monthly, and how much of a difference doubling or tripling your principal loan amount will make, both in monthly payments as well as total amount of accumulated interest over the years. I'll share some of my information to make the example concrete:

I personally have $25,000 of under graduate loans. With my current repayment option, I am paying $350 a month. If I were to take out a loan to cover NYU tuition, not even counting living expenses, I would be tripling my total principal I owe in student loans. For the sake of example, knowing there are less aggressive loan-repayment plans available to us, I triple my monthly payments, causing me to owe $1050 a month. Add that to rent, food, etc. Even if I land a job paying $50,000 right out of grad-school (a long shot in our field), after taxes (assuming 25% bracket) I am only bringing home 3 grand a month. A very large portion of that is going to loans.

As for the dual-degree, I am not inclined to believe a dual degree in public policy is worth spending an extra tuition on. Everyone in social work I have spoken to has said that if you graduate from a clinical focus school, you will have what you need to make the eventual transition to policy and administration. There is no better way to learn about policy than work in the systems for a while. Once you get real life experience in the field, working with populations, you will gain opportunities to work in a policy-focused job. It seems to be the natural progression of things, and since you mentioned not being interested in that work immediately, it might save you the money to get real life experience and find your way to policy gradually.

Just to play devil's advocate, I would take a moment to do some thorough calculations on what you pay now monthly, and how much of a difference doubling or tripling your principal loan amount will make, both in monthly payments as well as total amount of accumulated interest over the years. I'll share some of my information to make the example concrete:

I personally have $25,000 of under graduate loans. With my current repayment option, I am paying $350 a month. If I were to take out a loan to cover NYU tuition, not even counting living expenses, I would be tripling my total principal I owe in student loans. For the sake of example, knowing there are less aggressive loan-repayment plans available to us, I triple my monthly payments, causing me to owe $1050 a month. Add that to rent, food, etc. Even if I land a job paying $50,000 right out of grad-school (a long shot in our field), after taxes (assuming 25% bracket) I am only bringing home 3 grand a month. A very large portion of that is going to loans.

As for the dual-degree, I am not inclined to believe a dual degree in public policy is worth spending an extra tuition on. Everyone in social work I have spoken to has said that if you graduate from a clinical focus school, you will have what you need to make the eventual transition to policy and administration. There is no better way to learn about policy than work in the systems for a while. Once you get real life experience in the field, working with populations, you will gain opportunities to work in a policy-focused job. It seems to be the natural progression of things, and since you mentioned not being interested in that work immediately, it might save you the money to get real life experience and find your way to policy gradually.