Enough experience for an app?

[MaggieDot]

Hi everyone, 

 

I decided just recently that I wanted to pursue a MSW degree (clinical). I'm looking at Hunter College and U of Mich. Here's what I've been lining up for myself since:

 

- Talk line counselor at two non-profits (working with people who have experienced sexual assault, domestic violence, homelessness). I year commitment, both require 65 hour training. Just started training for one, will start next in two months.

 

- Research assistant position at well respected university's psychology department (working with immigrant populations). Will begin in May.  

 

- I might volunteer at a hospital, but not sure how much that'll help. I know I'll get exposure, but I want to be able to work directly with people in a social work capacity, not sure that's possible though. I don't want to be a volunteer receptionist.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if this is enough experience to get decent LOR and apply. I've been out of school since 2010, have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 (Sociology and PoliSci). I'm considering applying this fall just to see what happens. What do you guys think? Should I wait until next year to apply?

 

Anyone recently accepted that wouldn't mind posting their stats?

[hmsw2013]

Hunters deadline has already passed. So if you want to attend that school you can apply next year.

[MaggieDot]

Sorry, I meant this next app season (next Feb for Hunter, I guess technically 2014).

[hmsw2013]

I think your experience is ok to apply for the next admissions cycle. Good luck . Try to obtain good LOR

[Purplescarves]

I'm guessing you don't yet have the experience, but you will be getting it? It looks good! You'll want at least one letter from a college professor. You should reach out to them now. Not necessarily to request the letter, but just to establish communication if you think that could be difficult.

 

Are you prepared to pay for the MSW? That's often a consideration that people don't make until it's too late. It seems like high academic achievement as well as substantial experience make candidates more competitive for scholarships, grants, or fellowships.

 

Good luck!

[MaggieDot]

Purplescarves--that's correct. I have no previous SW experience and am just beginning to set up experience to be able to apply. I emailed one of my professors from undergrad about my progress recently, hoping I can keep communication going enough for him to feel comfortable writing a letter when the time comes to ask.

 

Hunter is relatively low cost compared to other schools I'm interested in, and I'm hoping I would receive aid from U of Mich., although we'll see what happens since I'd be an out of state applicant. I'd be okay taking out loans, but wouldn't want to get myself into more than $20,000-$30,000 in debt for an MSW. 

 

Thanks for the advice and the support! 

[Sassafrass333]

Hi everyone, 

 

I decided just recently that I wanted to pursue a MSW degree (clinical). I'm looking at Hunter College and U of Mich. Here's what I've been lining up for myself since:

 

- Talk line counselor at two non-profits (working with people who have experienced sexual assault, domestic violence, homelessness). I year commitment, both require 65 hour training. Just started training for one, will start next in two months.

 

- Research assistant position at well respected university's psychology department (working with immigrant populations). Will begin in May.  

 

- I might volunteer at a hospital, but not sure how much that'll help. I know I'll get exposure, but I want to be able to work directly with people in a social work capacity, not sure that's possible though. I don't want to be a volunteer receptionist.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if this is enough experience to get decent LOR and apply. I've been out of school since 2010, have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 (Sociology and PoliSci). I'm considering applying this fall just to see what happens. What do you guys think? Should I wait until next year to apply?

 

Anyone recently accepted that wouldn't mind posting their stats?

 

I wouldn't encourage you not to apply but I would suggest gaining more experience since it's way more competitive now and also you can see whether or not you really want to pursue a MSW afterall and also which population/concentration that matches you. I was advised not to apply for a masters until gaining more experience and not to rush into it but I wanted to try anyway. Plus the application process can be soooooooo stressful.

 

I applied for Fall 2012 and was denied. I applied again for Fall 2013 and got into 2 schools so far. My GPA is pretty low (3.0 in the last 90 units) & I have a little over 3 years of experience in child welfare with a BA in Sociology w/ a Social Work Option.

[Kristopher]

I can't speak to Hunter's or U of Mich. credentials, but I applied to only one graduate school, Ohio State. 

 

Here are my credentials:

 

3.04 undergrad GPA (Bachelors in Psych.)

 

Experience only in sales and customer service

 

I have zero experience in direct human services, but in my personal statement I discussed similar traits required for sales that are required in social work (I'm interested in the clinical area). I also had 3 really strong letters of recommendation. 1 was from a professor, 1 was from a work supervisor, another was from an old supervisor of mine from Best Buy who is now a practicing PsyD. 

 

With that said, I got into Ohio State.  Admissions looks at a lot of variables. What you lack, or think you lack (you may not have experience in the field, but you may have the same traits required like I do), you can make up for in other areas.

 

As a side note. I see many posts on this board centered around just the "top" schools: Hunter, UMich., USC, NYU, Columbia. Very little about other schools. I'd encourage you to look at alternative schools if you feel like you want a better chance to get in. Picking a "top" school is a silly notion. Is a school ranked #10 all that different from one ranked #20? I doubt it. An MSW is a very versatile and employable degree. I think the connections you make while doing field work and within the University are much more important than the name. I'm not knocking the top schools, they are great. But try and save yourself some stress, and money and look into "lower" tier schools. No one looks at a resume and says "Well this person went to a school US News Ranks number 50, we'd rather go with the one ranked #20." 

[MaggieDot]

Thanks for your responses and feedback. I know I still have a lot to learn, so I'm trying to gather as much experience as I can before the next app season. I hear that personal statement/SOP is critical to getting accepted, so I'm going to be putting a lot of time into that as well. If i don't get accepted this next cycle, I'll definitely try again. 

 

Kris427, thanks for your advice. I certainly wouldn't mind going to a smaller/lesser known school for the MSW, but I have my heart set on living in NY for school (I didn't follow my heart for undergrad). That being said, I'll take another look at programs in the area that I maybe haven't considered seriously yet.

[Simbacats]

I don't know about U Mich, but I did get into Hunter.

 

I'm not going to go into my academic stats because I'm an aberration (Ph.D dropout in another field) and I seriously don't think you need that kind of background to apply for an MSW.

 

Hunter's minimum GPA requirement is something like 3.0. But what is much, much more important is your statement and experience. And then how you interact with others in the interview if they invite you for one.

 

What Hunter is known for, regardless of budget cuts, etc, is community organizing, serving the underprivileged, and that approach spills over to all its other areas of specialization as well as admissions, I think. At my group interview, the vast majority of applicants had some sort of community-based experience, whether it was drugs counseling, or working for a group home, or educational outreach, etc.

 

Hunter has a definite bent more for say non-profit background as opposed to research (which they aren't strong in at all), and are very serious about diversity, which is reflected both in their faculty and student body to the extent not seen in any other school I've looked at. As the one public, subsidized school in NYC, they also have the reputation for drawing from the best and brightest particularly of the local working class and grooming them specifically to return and serve the city. (Hunter is very big in city government.) Having said that, I think you should first choose your activities based on what interests you most, because they want you to be passionate about what you've been doing.

 

I personally spent a year volunteering/then getting a part-time job at a local mental health advocacy organization, doing everything from helpline work to training as a mentor/counselor for consumers to data collection for program evaluation. It continues to be the most rewarding experience ever. I have the feeling that that, combined with my statement about who I was, what my life experiences were that got me to that point, and in the interview confirming the sort of person I depicted myself as in the statement, was what got me in.

Edited April 23, 2013 by Simbacats

[MaggieDot]

Simbacats: Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to reply and for your valuable insight!

 

 I think their emphasis on diversity is really what attracts me to the program. I can tell that research isn't as huge for them as it is for other programs (like U Mich.), and since I'm more interested in interpersonal practice and applied social work right now, it feels like a good fit. I AM interested in research, too, but my research interests also involve historically marginalized groups (and I don't plan on pursuing this until later anyway).

 

I can say that my volunteer activities involve populations and social issues I really do care about, I think I'll just have to wait to start my statement until I get more experience under my belt. I feel that even though I'll have had less than a year of experience working directly in social work related areas when the time comes to submit an application, I'll have had extremely meaningful experiences (because I'm already having them) that will help shape a clearer picture of the work I want to dedicate myself to. 

 

Is there anything else you would recommend me doing? Would you mind sharing who you asked for LOR?

 

Thank you, again, for your post!

[MSDubbs]

Hey MaggieDot!

I can't speak much to Hunter's admissions process (although I do have a good friend in that program now) but I applied and was accepted to UMich.

 

I would say that if you are just starting to explore social work as a potential occupation, give yourself some time to feel it out. All of those volunteer experiences look great and references from them will help with your application. Since they will also be new, you might have more luck getting references after a year than after two months or so when you need to start gathering them. I would also keep in mind the fact that it will be apparent that you have just started all of these volunteer opportunities around the time you started considering an MSW. This is not a bad thing necessarily, and I actually think that if you are transparent about it, it could in fact help your statement of purpose. I think it can be very compelling to discuss why you have now chosen to pursue social work and your experiences will show a dedication to becoming involved.

 

Try not to over extend yourself trying to line up resume boosters, though. That will probably end up being more detrimental than helpful in the end. As for volunteering at the hospital, you may need to do some boring tasks and not everything you do will be working directly with patients or clients, but I think those experiences are very valuable and also worth something in the admissions decisions. My resume was a mix of advocacy work and community organizing (I'm going that route rather than direct practice) and things like staffing the info desk at a community center. Even the "boring" stuff that doesn't feel super relevant makes a difference when it shows your dedication to a community or to seeing what a specific environment is like. I even talked about my experience as an admin assistant in the social service department at a hospital as one of my early introductions to the field of social work. I literally spent all of my time scheduling appointments and copying client records, but I got to see what the social workers were doing and how they functioned. Those sorts of things are more valuable than you might think.

 

Good luck!

[MaggieDot]

MSDubbs, thank you for your input. I had been thinking about how to address the fact that I'm gathering all of this social work related experience now, as opposed to when I was in undergrad or even immediately after graduation (in a way that doesn't simply chalk it up to "life happening," although, really that's how I feel about my journey on deciding to pursue social work). I think you're right about being transparent about my reasoning, though. 

 

What do you mean about the volunteer work being detrimental in the long run? Do you mean that jumping in too quickly might wear me down early?

 

Thanks for the info and the support! 

[MSDubbs]

Sorry I wasn't super clear there. I mostly meant that I think it would be better to have a few places where you were really able to dedicate some quality time and energy than giving less to a large number of organizations. This will also help with your references by showing the organizations that you are invested in the work and by allowing you to make some solid connections. Just my 2 cents though.

[MaggieDot]

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for clarifying! 

[unlikelymermaid]

I honestly had less than that. I came from journalism and I had around 36 hours of pet assisted therapy volunteer work under my belt and a few psych classes. Only thing is the university I applied to (USC) is welcoming to students that dont have a background in social work fields and I think that made a huge difference. That and I actively went back to school to get some psychology background, which I didn't have the first time I applied, certainly helped quite a bit as well.

[Simbacats]

My LORs came from the professor of an abnormal psych class I took at the local college (I never took psych and also some schools require statistics before entering so I was brushing up on those subjects); my boss at a non-profit I worked for about two years; and then finally my supervisor at my mental health advocacy organization, who also happens to be a social worker. Not that I have any concrete confirmation from admissions people, but I think the most important one was that last LOR, because my supervisor was able to recommend me specifically in the context of my suitability for social work.

 

I'm guessing LORs from people who supervise you at the non-profits would be the most ideal, but again, it also probably boils down to who you've clicked with the most and you've done the most with/for.

 

As for the rest, I think there's nothing more I can add in terms of what you "should" do because you've already gotten a lot of feedback from other people. Honestly, I really do think that the most important thing to do is think about what you're passionate about, and why you want to enter social work, as opposed to worrying all that much about getting into a school. A lot of schools accept over half to most applicants, so I think that gives you a lot of leeway. And then ultimately, while I think taking that approach would benefit you in terms of writing your application, I don't think most social workers go into what they do for money or prestige, because usually we don't rank too high on either. They do it because they are drawn to their work. So, it will have to be that passion that will take you through not just school but your career afterwards.

 

ETA: I certainly wouldn't suggest moving to NYC just for this, but while Hunter's official acceptance rate is around 25%-33%, I heard from one alum that there is also a way in which you can be "grandfathered" in, sort of. That is, for some locals who didn't get in the first round but are desperate to get to Hunter at whatever cost / don't mind stretching things out, can still take classes at the social work school. They just won't get placements or the special upper-level classes. But they then make connections with the professors there, apply again, and can get in.

Edited May 1, 2013 by Simbacats

[MaggieDot]

unlikelymermaid and Simbacats:

 

Thank you for sharing your experiences! It definitely took me a few years out of college to figure out that I want to commit myself to social work. It was something I generally tried to run away from, but ultimately, I think it's where my heart is. I just want to make sure that I can secure a position in grad school soon (hopefully, one of my top two choices) so that I can move forward with doing this type of work. I'm trying to make a lot of progress right now so that I can, in ways, make up for lost time I spent while exploring other career options. I'm just very excited to finally be actively working toward a career I know I can really be invested in. Thank you for the support and contributions to this topic, I really appreciate it!