UW- Seattle or UNC- Chapel Hill

[findtheriver]

I've been accepted to these two for a Masters in Social Work!  Still waiting to hear from a few other schools but have to decide soon.  I plan to do the Direct Practice/ Clinical concentration. 

Does anyone have insights on either of these universities overall? Especially their School of Social Work, or if not that, related departments (eg. public health, nursing, international development, public affairs, etc)?  OR thoughts about working /  living in either location? 

How do people make their decisions?

My overall priorities: support from faculty,  peers & administration, hands-on practical learning,  and opportunities to be involved in research. 

I probably won't be able to visit either school before deciding.  Will have to relocate either way.  Both have similar rankings. They will cost around the same (although cost of living in Seattle is higher). Both have similar courses of study as far as I can tell. UW is on a trimester system whereas UNC is semesters (but some classes are half semester intensives). 

In case it makes any difference I've already been working in the field for over 10 years on an organisational/ program development level. Not just out of undergrad. 

Any thoughts at all are greatly appreciated!! 

[findtheriver]

6 hours ago, findtheriver said:

I've been accepted to these two for a Masters in Social Work!  Still waiting to hear from a few other schools but have to decide soon.  I plan to do the Direct Practice/ Clinical concentration. 

Does anyone have insights on either of these universities overall? Especially their School of Social Work, or if not that, related departments (eg. public health, nursing, international development, public affairs, etc)?  OR thoughts about working /  living in either location? 

How do people make their decisions?

My overall priorities: support from faculty,  peers & administration, hands-on practical learning,  and opportunities to be involved in research. 

I probably won't be able to visit either school before deciding.  Will have to relocate either way.  Both have similar rankings. They will cost around the same (although cost of living in Seattle is higher). Both have similar courses of study as far as I can tell. UW is on a trimester system whereas UNC is semesters (but some classes are half semester intensives). 

In case it makes any difference I've already been working in the field for over 10 years on an organisational/ program development level. Not just out of undergrad. 

Any thoughts at all are greatly appreciated!! 

UPDATED since I can't edut--- What about U Michigan? Just got an acceptance there as well!  

[Nothingtown]

Hey there! Congrats on your acceptances! I'm in philosophy so I can't help much, but I did just get back from visiting UNC for the philosophy dept., and I can speak a little to my thoughts on moving to Chapel Hill. 

The Chapel Hill area is so beautiful, and very close to Raleigh and Durham--meaning that if you need something you can't find in Chapel Hill, you can get to Durham or Raleigh easily to find it. If you don't have a car, Chapel Hill is a great place to live. Their bus system is free for everyone, not just students, and the center areas of Chapel Hill and Carborro are very walkable. I also inquired about rent, which seems decent--though my perspective could be skewed, coming from Austin. Our rent here is quite high. Some grad students lived with roommates, but you can definitely get a decent place for under $1,000/month (check out Zillow for exact estimates). 

The campus was beautiful, but as you've probably seen in the news, they're in a state of some turmoil right now over the Silent Sam business. I recommend looking that up if you're concerned. It was a little uncomfortable because I could tell students (mainly undergrads) were upset; since I was only there for a few days, I can't say more than that. However, my sense is that this is temporary and I don't know how much it should factor into your decision making process. 

As for your programs, if you are able to, I'd reach out to current students to see what they think of the program in terms of climate, support from faculty, etc. Basically everything you mentioned. Also, I think funding plays into it a great deal. I don't know about social work, but in philosophy, you go to the master's program that funds you best (to avoid more student debt and all that). 

I hope this helped in some way! Congrats again!

[DevoLevo]

8 hours ago, findtheriver said:

Does anyone have insights on either of these universities overall? Especially their School of Social Work, or if not that, related departments (eg. public health, nursing, international development, public affairs, etc)?  OR thoughts about working /  living in either location? 

Not my field at all but Seattle is a really great place to live. I've been living here for the past 6 years and did my undergrad at UW and can't speak highly enough of the school and the city. The university as a whole is a huge research university, so there's no way that you'll have trouble finding research opportunities (and at least at the undergrad level, I know that the school of social work is well respected. 

[findtheriver]

21 hours ago, Nothingtown said:

Hey there! Congrats on your acceptances! I'm in philosophy so I can't help much, but I did just get back from visiting UNC for the philosophy dept., and I can speak a little to my thoughts on moving to Chapel Hill. 

The Chapel Hill area is so beautiful, and very close to Raleigh and Durham--meaning that if you need something you can't find in Chapel Hill, you can get to Durham or Raleigh easily to find it. If you don't have a car, Chapel Hill is a great place to live. Their bus system is free for everyone, not just students, and the center areas of Chapel Hill and Carborro are very walkable. I also inquired about rent, which seems decent--though my perspective could be skewed, coming from Austin. Our rent here is quite high. Some grad students lived with roommates, but you can definitely get a decent place for under $1,000/month (check out Zillow for exact estimates). 

The campus was beautiful, but as you've probably seen in the news, they're in a state of some turmoil right now over the Silent Sam business. I recommend looking that up if you're concerned. It was a little uncomfortable because I could tell students (mainly undergrads) were upset; since I was only there for a few days, I can't say more than that. However, my sense is that this is temporary and I don't know how much it should factor into your decision making process. 

As for your programs, if you are able to, I'd reach out to current students to see what they think of the program in terms of climate, support from faculty, etc. Basically everything you mentioned. Also, I think funding plays into it a great deal. I don't know about social work, but in philosophy, you go to the master's program that funds you best (to avoid more student debt and all that). 

I hope this helped in some way! Congrats again!

A big congrats to you too!! And thanks so much for the insights. CH sounds like a lovely place to live. Maybe a shift after living  in big cities most of my life, but it sounds like a cool change of pace-- especially the affordability! I've never owned a car so glad to hear its manageable without one.  I'm still waiting to hear about funding so trying to choose based on multiple factors. 

I imagine there are a few tensions, from what I understand its a bit of a "blue dot in a red state...."     How does it compare overall to Austin? I applied there too ?

Thanks again!

[findtheriver]

On 3/29/2019 at 10:46 PM, DevoLevo said:

Not my field at all but Seattle is a really great place to live. I've been living here for the past 6 years and did my undergrad at UW and can't speak highly enough of the school and the city. The university as a whole is a huge research university, so there's no way that you'll have trouble finding research opportunities (and at least at the undergrad level, I know that the school of social work is well respected. 

Thanks very much! It does seem like an awesome place. This choice is hard! 

[Nothingtown]

On 3/30/2019 at 7:02 AM, findtheriver said:

A big congrats to you too!! And thanks so much for the insights. CH sounds like a lovely place to live. Maybe a shift after living  in big cities most of my life, but it sounds like a cool change of pace-- especially the affordability! I've never owned a car so glad to hear its manageable without one.  I'm still waiting to hear about funding so trying to choose based on multiple factors. 

I imagine there are a few tensions, from what I understand its a bit of a "blue dot in a red state...."     How does it compare overall to Austin? I applied there too ?

Thanks again!

Ooh that's a hard question about CH/Austin! I was only in CH for a couple days and it was definitely different than Austin, but I felt I'd be happy living there and making the transition, so I suppose there were enough similarities to make me happy (ie local food markets, good non-chain restaurants, lots to do outdoors). I loved that many people just walk to the market there--definitely not a thing you can do in Austin unless you live in one of the ultra-expensive condos downtown. I hear Durham has some Austin-type hipster places as well. The "blue dot in a red state" is definitely true in both cases. Although, the "red" is different in each case. NC is more "Confederate" red, and Texas is more "Texas" red. While Texas did technically join the confederacy, there was only one battle fought on Texas soil--by and large, people here have more Texas pride than southern pride, and there's a stark difference between Texas and the deep south. Still no shortage of rednecks, but they're different rednecks

CH also had some nice breweries. Craft beer is big here in Austin and I love going to new breweries all the time.