MSW Applications Fall 2020

[IvySWCu]

48 minutes ago, PeacefulMind said:

Feb 15th, what about you? 

I heard back Jan 24 and applied mid November!

[avizenoi96]

On 2/14/2020 at 8:26 PM, cmongradschool said:

 

[avizenoi96]

^^ not sure what happened there. 

To folx who are appealing financial aid from Columbia, how did you do it? What does it look like? 

[msw715]

Have my UPenn interview at 4 ahhhh

[Behaviorscience]

1 minute ago, megan715 said:

Have my UPenn interview at 4 ahhhh

Good Luck!!!

[cmongradschool]

Those of you who were accepted to UW, if you don't mind sharing, how much were you offered in scholarships?

[MSWSTRESS]

19 hours ago, Polcc said:

yass! I know right I already put orientation on my calendar lmao. I am v thrilled to be done with applications and such 

You are ready ! Lol Once I make it official I need to start getting ready too 

[ara275]

Now that many of decisions have been released, how do we go about narrowing down? To be honest, I'm feeling myself kind of, "freeze up", decision fatigue if you will. I thought I might've been accepted to one program, but not my top three. UW hasn't released any financial aid information yet, I have my package from Denver, even if it's smallish, and I'm still waiting on UWMilwaukee to see if I am chosen for a fellowship. How do I decide?

 

I just feel kind of lost.

[NicoleDes]

Is anyone attending/ considering Boston College that would be in need of a roommate? I'm in the process of narrowing down schools and as of now I'm leaning towards BC. I'm from NY so I would need to search for somewhere to rent. I'm also still considering Columbia but the cost just doesn't seem feasible at the moment. 

[SocialWorkStdnt]

4 hours ago, ara275 said:

Now that many of decisions have been released, how do we go about narrowing down? To be honest, I'm feeling myself kind of, "freeze up", decision fatigue if you will. I thought I might've been accepted to one program, but not my top three. UW hasn't released any financial aid information yet, I have my package from Denver, even if it's smallish, and I'm still waiting on UWMilwaukee to see if I am chosen for a fellowship. How do I decide?

 

I just feel kind of lost.

I agree with you. I live in  PA and wanted to stay here, so I applied and was accepted to Widener, West Chester, and am waiting on Bryn Mawr, which when I interviewed last week they said they send out decisions pretty quickly, usually a week or so. I love that Widener has a clinical track, gave me 5k in scholarship and know several people who were happy there. West Chester is so much cheaper though, but they don't have a clinical track. West Chester also seems to have more assistantship availabilities. Bryn Mawr will need to offer a lot of scholarship to compete with the others. It's so difficult. But at the end of the day they're all good programs, and I don't think there is a *bad* choice. Congrats on your acceptances!

Edited February 17, 2020 by SocialWorkStdnt

[AlabasterSeas]

8 hours ago, NicoleDes said:

Is anyone attending/ considering Boston College that would be in need of a roommate? I'm in the process of narrowing down schools and as of now I'm leaning towards BC. I'm from NY so I would need to search for somewhere to rent. I'm also still considering Columbia but the cost just doesn't seem feasible at the moment. 

I feel you on the Columbia front. Six-figure debt for an MSW is kind of crazy, especially when we'll likely only be making around $50k/year (if that) after graduating. Then, for NY, you have to wait around 3 years before you can take the LCSW exam and then maybe you can get a salary bump to around $60-$65k/year. It's like wut? There are some public school districts where teachers make a comparable amount to start out / a lot of non-profits in NY that offer higher starting salaries for entry-level-ish positions. No good deed goes unpunished. And, then, if you ever want to get a house or have a family, debt will be around until our sixties, seventies. That's why I'm really hoping I get into Hunter. Still a lot, but more practical. 

[MCSW23]

9 hours ago, ara275 said:

Now that many of decisions have been released, how do we go about narrowing down? To be honest, I'm feeling myself kind of, "freeze up", decision fatigue if you will. I thought I might've been accepted to one program, but not my top three. UW hasn't released any financial aid information yet, I have my package from Denver, even if it's smallish, and I'm still waiting on UWMilwaukee to see if I am chosen for a fellowship. How do I decide?

 

I just feel kind of lost.

I feel this in my soul. I called my parents as soon as NYU sent me their decision and just told them that I have zero clue how to even go about choosing now. I'm visiting NYU in a few weeks right before my decision date, but still nervous it won't yield any groundbreaking results to convince me one way or another. 

[perfectamity]

On 2/10/2020 at 4:13 PM, JuliaFrances said:

I just got my UPenn acceptance letter and am getting $36,000 total! 

Congrats! One of the schools I applied to. That would bring the tuition down to about $67,000 for two years. That's about what Case Western will cost me if I accept their offer. I don't think that's in my budget.

[basw]

On 2/15/2020 at 2:47 PM, IPmsw2020 said:

I am so sorry you got rejected, being rejected really, really sucks, and it is totally normal to be hurt by it. But first things first, you just got admitted into an Ivy League School!!!! That is INCREDIBLE!!!

Seeing as you got into CU but not UT Austin, I would assume UT Austin either got full, had too many people applying for a certain concentration, had a quota for admissions based on locations, etc.

Honestly, it really seems like the admissions process for any grad school is incredibly flawed. I truly do not believe that acceptances or rejections from a school is a good judge of your character, intelligence, or qualifications. A GPA, three letters of recommendations, a transcript, a resume, and an essay(s) is not enough to judge someone's ability to become a social worker or to get the full picture of who you are as a human. Not to mention there was literally a scandal recently about rich people paying their childrens' ways into college (idk about people doing this for MSW programs but who knows). Maybe you had just gotten dumped last fall by your partner of 4 years, and then immediately had to write a bunch of grad school essays as well as be a full-time student, are those going to be good representations of your actual abilities in social work? Are those essays going to be the best quality you could do? These are only snapshots of your academic career that neglect any outside forces affecting your quality of work, and do not represent you wholly. Like, you could date someone for over a year and still be learning new things about them daily, how could an application with such little information about you be an accurate and complete representation of your skills and personality?

Again, it is totally normal and valid to be hurt by rejections. It hurts, it makes you question your abilities. Let yourself be disappointed and sad, but don't let it dictate your self-worth. You clearly have qualifications if you got into CU. If you were truly incompetent/stupid/a bad fit for social work/etc., you wouldn't have gotten into anywhere (and even then it could've just been bad luck or an overly competitive year).

Thank you SO much for these kind words, WOW. I needed that. You are right! There are a lot of factors that contribute, and my best friend framed it like "the universe made that decision for you", which is helpful! 

[perfectamity]

Which path did you apply for a Case? Did they offer you a sizable scholarship? 

[perfectamity]

On 2/15/2020 at 4:59 PM, Mrobocop said:

Hello all, been monitoring this forum for a bit but haven’t really seen much about the schools I applied to.

i applied to Case Western, Temple University, Rutgers and Nazareth on 12/12. I was accepted to case about 2 weeks ago and temple a week ago, but I haven’t received my scholarship/aid package from Temple yet and I’m really anxious to receive it. Still nothing from the other two.

Anyone else waiting to hear back from these schools? 

Which path did you apply for a Case? Did they offer you a sizable scholarship? 

[iloveanthonyrizzo]

Ugh dying on the wait for University of Chicago, UC Berkeley and UW Madison. Has anyone heard back from those schools that applied mid Jan (and end of Nov for Berkeley)? I know the results will be out theoretically for Berkeley next week... maybe........AHHHHh

 

 

[Mrobocop]

1 hour ago, perfectamity said:

Which path did you apply for a Case? Did they offer you a sizable scholarship? 

I applied for the community practice for social change concentration. My scholarship was 36k total but I was pretty disappointed as I was hoping to be in contention for the fellowship full tuition award or at least the half scholarship. 

[Paul-BSW]

Hey Guys,

I have been following the thread for a while and I must say thank you for sharing something similar to what am currently feeling - in terms anxiety, indecision, having to wait, etc. I hope to be an international student in the USA by fall 2020. I am an international student in India and in my last semester of BSW. I have returned to college after many years away from school.  

- I applied for MSW at Columbia - waiting for decision (I will probably write them soon). Waiting.

- I applied for MA (SID) at Heller School of policy (Brandeis Uni.). Accepted with 60% tuition scholarship but I have to accept by April 15th.

- MA Policy at UNA - still waiting.

Please, can any give me relevant info or advice about CU and (SID) "Sustainable International Development" at Brandeis, plus considering that my situation maybe a bit peculiar (international student), I would really like to get into CU especially if they'll offer me fellowship/scholarship better than Heller's 'cos I really desire to continue my career with SW. 

Thanks

[rockroad29]

On 2/15/2020 at 10:13 AM, basw said:

I got accepted to Columbia and denied from UT Austin. I know that I shouldn't care but for some reason my feelings are still a little hurt! How do you guys get past the icky feelings that come with rejections?

Congrats on your acceptance to CU! I have been stalking this group for a while but I feel like I have to say this to you, and this maybe helpful to some others who have applied or are preparing for their application. My partner used to be in a graduate school admission team in one of the top 5 MSW schools. Overqualifying is a real thing. Especially if there's a part in your application that asked if there are any other schools that you have applied to - they do look at this. Offering you an admission while knowing that you're very well qualified and have a high chance of getting in and going to a better school, give nothing to them except increasing their acceptance rate, which will impact their school range when they report it. Hence, they give you a rejection. Schools do not only accept those that qualified, but also those that are most likely to go to their school. My partner's team even did one round of "we want these applicants" - this consists of selecting those that are qualified for admission out of the application pool. After the first round, they reviewed everyone again but this time wasn't focusing on whether or not they're qualified but what are the chances that they will accept the offer. They were able to weed out almost 30% from those that are qualified. This makes their acceptance rate lower while increasing their accepting admission offer rate, both are good for school ranging.

Don't let this define you and your past achievements, you are simply just not a good fit for the school. I'm not saying that this was your case, but it could be a part of it. 

Good luck on everything!

 

[basw]

14 minutes ago, rockroad29 said:

Congrats on your acceptance to CU! I have been stalking this group for a while but I feel like I have to say this to you, and this maybe helpful to some others who have applied or are preparing for their application. My partner used to be in a graduate school admission team in one of the top 5 MSW schools. Overqualifying is a real thing. Especially if there's a part in your application that asked if there are any other schools that you have applied to - they do look at this. Offering you an admission while knowing that you're very well qualified and have a high chance of getting in and going to a better school, give nothing to them except increasing their acceptance rate, which will impact their school range when they report it. Hence, they give you a rejection. Schools do not only accept those that qualified, but also those that are most likely to go to their school. My partner's team even did one round of "we want these applicants" - this consists of selecting those that are qualified for admission out of the application pool. After the first round, they reviewed everyone again but this time wasn't focusing on whether or not they're qualified but what are the chances that they will accept the offer. They were able to weed out almost 30% from those that are qualified. This makes their acceptance rate lower while increasing their accepting admission offer rate, both are good for school ranging.

Don't let this define you and your past achievements, you are simply just not a good fit for the school. I'm not saying that this was your case, but it could be a part of it. 

Good luck on everything!

 

I had never considered this but it definitely makes sense! I'm not sure this is the case with me, but it's good to know that it could've contributed! 

[IPmsw2020]

does anyone know when Loyola Chicago sends financial aid packages?

[Olas]

Hello everyone,

Congratulations to everyone that has been accepted!! I wanted to know if anyone aimed for schools like the University of Maryland - Baltimore? I heard back from Pitt and Columbia, but the financial aid is not enough to fully transition.

[fooliejulie]

7 hours ago, iloveanthonyrizzo said:

Ugh dying on the wait for University of Chicago, UC Berkeley and UW Madison. Has anyone heard back from those schools that applied mid Jan (and end of Nov for Berkeley)? I know the results will be out theoretically for Berkeley next week... maybe........AHHHHh

 

 

Still waiting for UC Berkeley. Eek! Let’s hope whoever posted here about February 22nd was right. My fingers might fall off from being crossed this long!!!!

[msw2020waiting]

Still waiting for U of Chicago... I dreamt of being admitted last night and was so disappointed when I woke up lol