Deferring Enrollment for MSW programs?

[nicolina_xo]

Hi all!

I have been reading this board (almost) obsessively as I am finishing up my applications for graduate school. After some soul-searching, I have decided I want to take a year off of school to mature emotionally and professionally, gain more experience, and pay down some of my undergraduate loans. Unfortunately, I have already submitted applications for Fall 2013 enrollment.

Here are my credentials:

-BA Psychology, 3.6 GPA

-2 semester internship at Yale Child Study Center School (working with adolescent psychiatric patients during special education at the hospital)

-1 semester internship as an RA for a current PhD candidate in the Yale Psychology dept.

-1 summer internship assisting milieu staff at a partial hospitalization program for patients 2-7 (essentially a day program out of a children's psychiatric hospital)

I applied to BC, BU, Columbia, and WashU.

Does anyone have any experience/info on this? I have scoured each program's admissions website and have come up empty-handed.

Thanks so much!

[Texasgrad5911]

I know for sure that BC does deferment. I think you just pay a fee to hold your place. I would definitely recommend taking a year or so off.

[SofieCat]

BU offers a one year deferment. No fees attached to it.

I would also highly recommend taking time off before graduate school.

Personally, I wouldn't have been ready for grad school right out of undergrad. I needed time for R&R (that pesky senioritis), and to gain more life and professional experiences, so I look a year off to travel and worked for 6 years. At my current age, I feel just about right for graduate school in social work.

Edited December 18, 2012 by SofieCat