MSW personal statements and asking for faults?

[sanjuanglass]

I've noticed that many school's MSW personal statements are asking for areas of improvement. How would one address these without making them look bad?

[LittleDarlings]

I talked about my past in therapy, I think you can pretty much mention anything as long as you explain how it helped you grow as a person. 

[nugget]

One way to approach this is to select faults that can also be strengths depending upon the context. ex: shy but have strong listening skills.

 

You can also choose weaknesses that are less central to social work (however, you want to be careful to not give the impression that you don't have a good understanding of what social work is and what this work entails).

 

When you mention a weakness, you could also mention any strategies or strengths you have to compensate for that weakness, which will show a certain degree of resourcefulnes and serve to your advantage. As a social worker, part of your job is to help clients learn about their strengths and find strategies to overcome their challenges and weaknesses. So if you are able to do this in your own life, then you will likely to be able to help clients do the same.

Edited January 1, 2014 by jenste

[Kristopher]

Just be honest. As long as you recognize how to improve it and discuss what you have been doing to improve on the weakness, that will be appreciated. Don't try to bullshit it and come up with something that really isn't a weakness.