Field Placements: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

[CJMSW]

For those of you who are already in MSW programs, how are your field placements so far? Which programs have the best placements? Which have been awful at placing students? And which have just been a horror?  I've been hearing some pretty crazy stories about different programs leaving their students to fend for themselves causing a few students to graduate late due to field placements not happening on time. Please tell me this is not typical!

[amanda lauren]

I'm currently in my last semester of the MSW program at VCU. Finding a field placement hasn't been a problem, as the program here does that for you (your first year you fill out a simple application and they match you with just about any program in Richmond and will tell you what agency you're placed with; your second year, you do an application based on your track - macro or clinical - and apply to your top 3 agencies; many of them require an "interview" and if it's a match for you and for them, then you get placed there). Most people I know have had good experiences; mine hasn't been great because the agency I chose for last semester ended up having very few clinical opportunities for me. However, I think the biggest problem is that a lot of agencies don't seem to know exactly what to DO with a grad student intern, at least based on a lot of the feedback I've heard from other students. It really depends on where you go, but at VCU, you are matched with an agency by our field department and aren't left to fend for yourself!!

[2011 MSW Hopeful]

I think that this is something that's wise to ask about when deciding between schools, and it's easily overlooked when considering other factors. But you'll be spending much more time at field placement than in class, and finding out what that process is like at a given school can be important. My school, like amanda lauren's, assigns first year field placements with varying degrees of consideration to your preferences. They somewhat intentionally challenge students and try to get them out of their comfort zones first year. Some students are happy with that, and others find it off-putting. There are other programs that allow you to choose or interview for your first year placement. I can see pros and cons to both approaches - with the assignment, you don't have as much choice to influence your career path, but your range of experiences will be wider. The important thing is to be sure that you get experience that will make you a competitive applicant for your second-year placement working in a section of the field where you'd like to focus your career. 

 

I would ask about field placements - how they're assigned, whether they're good (talk to students!), and what agencies a school has contracts with, especially for second year placements.