20 years old... Is that hurting me?

[ucirvine2011]

So I am applying to U. Wash, CSU Los Angeles, Sac State, and was rejected from CSULB last month.

My bf graduated from Long Beach's MSW a few years ago and keeps close contact with the department personnel. He called and they told him they were surprised at how young I am.

I am now beginning to become anxious as I await decisions, which should be coming very soon (Sacramento should be notifying my via email this week )

My concern is that they believe I do not have enough "life experience" to pursue such a degree.

To give some work experience stats:

1) I am Vice President of a homeless outreach on the UC Irvine campus. A position I've been in for close to 2 years. This job comes with many community service tasks (soup kitchens, feeding homeless, awareness on campus, etc.)

2) I worked at an AA/NA program for 3 years.

3) Worked at the Boys and Girls club for about 2 years.

4) Assistant for In-home health services for a little over a year

5) Internship at UCI LGBT resource center (and the director wrote an amazing LoR).

6) Student body VP at my previous college.

What do y'all think?! I would appreciate some help, and maybe peace of mind!

[MSW11]

Based on your experience, if your GPA and personal statement are strong, I would think you might have a good chance at getting into a program. It really just depends on the program you are applying to. CSUs aren’t exactly as easy to get into as a lot of people seem to think they are. This is mainly because of the budget crisis right now. You should find out how many people they are admitting and how many applied. This will give you a much better idea of where you stand. I applied to SFSU and honestly don’t expect to get in. They cut a couple of concentrations, and are now only admitting about 25 students this year and get several hundred applications. Although you may be qualified to get into the program, they’ll be making some tough decisions, and you may be competing with some people who many have a little bit more experience or even 10+ years experience in a human service related field. I believe the CSUs that you mentioned may even be some of the stronger MSW programs in the CSU system. Ironically, you might have a better chance at getting into University of Washington because they’ll be admitting several hundred students…the tough part is paying for the tuition. If you don’t get in this round, consider applying to some of the programs that are known for offering some scholarships and are larger programs (out of state?) – might help offset some of the costs of living and tuition. That’s just my opinion and was sort of my thought process before I started applying to programs. Best of luck!

[thestarsarealigned]

Your life experience seems pretty impressive so I would say the same as the previous poster and would think you do stand a good chance of getting in. I attended the info session for CSULB a year ago and was told that due to the budget crisis, they were admitting fewer number of students (if I remember correctly, she told me they normally admit ~250 but will now only admit ~160). That was a little over a year ago and the economic climate of California hasn't really improved plus the pending new budget will likely slash additional funding so it seems to be a bit more difficult than most people realize to get into a CSU grad program. Specifically for CSULB, I was told that more people apply to the youth/families concentration versus the older adults/families concentration...which actually works out fine for me since my experience have been mainly with adults and I'd like to continue working with adults.

I applied to the older adults/families concentration at CSULB for Fall 2011 and was notified last month that I was accepted. I graduated from UCSD in 2008 and have spent the last 2 years working before deciding to go back. I think most schools also look at the number of hours you have in a related field as well so even though someone may have years of experience...the actual hours worked will vary depending on whether it was part or full time. Nonetheless, I don't know if age is a factor but I'm sure your experience speaks greatly for your committment to the field of social work so I think you should have a good chance.

[ucirvine2011]

Thank you both for the timely responses!

I think I went into this with not doing enough research. I recently went to a social work panel hosted at UCI and 1 of the social workers told me CSULB received over 600 apps, and accepted around 100-that is ridiculous!

It's scary to hear you say I have a better chance at UW, because I feel thats my worst shot. I dont hear too much about CSULA-does anyone know much about the program?

[Devyn]

breathe.... u have enough experience, relax.

as long as your academic record is up to par, you should be fine.

[creativesocialworker]

So I am applying to U. Wash, CSU Los Angeles, Sac State, and was rejected from CSULB last month.

My bf graduated from Long Beach's MSW a few years ago and keeps close contact with the department personnel. He called and they told him they were surprised at how young I am.

I am now beginning to become anxious as I await decisions, which should be coming very soon (Sacramento should be notifying my via email this week )

My concern is that they believe I do not have enough "life experience" to pursue such a degree.

To give some work experience stats:

1) I am Vice President of a homeless outreach on the UC Irvine campus. A position I've been in for close to 2 years. This job comes with many community service tasks (soup kitchens, feeding homeless, awareness on campus, etc.)

2) I worked at an AA/NA program for 3 years.

3) Worked at the Boys and Girls club for about 2 years.

4) Assistant for In-home health services for a little over a year

5) Internship at UCI LGBT resource center (and the director wrote an amazing LoR).

6) Student body VP at my previous college.

What do y'all think?! I would appreciate some help, and maybe peace of mind!

Hey ucirvine2011! I am graduating from UCI this year too! I am only 21 and though I have done a lot of volunteer work I haven't had any direct social work experience. I had exactly the same concerns as you do. When I talked to reps about this at the graduate fair they said that they don't expect people coming straight from undergrad to have tons of experience but volunteer work is required. They weigh GPA more heavily for undergrads than they do for people who have had more experience. I applied for fall11 and got into UCLA and USC.

[AdvancedStanding]

I am 20. I got into both schools I applied to, NYU and Columbia's advanced standing program.

Message me if you got any question