Help!

[ANS17]

I was accepted to Hunter, Fordham and NYU for MSW program with a clinical concentration. There all really good schools and I wanted people opinions on which school they believe is better to attend (based on financially and academically terms; and which will give me a better chance at my career to working with juveniles).

[BritPhD]

Hi ANS17,

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! I understand that these choices can be overwhelming, so I will try to help, but I can only tell you about my experiences as a student at NYU. Honestly, for me NYU's Silver School was a great place to do an MSW. I felt incredibly supported by all the faculty; they all seem genuinely interested in their students, and are willing to help you carry out independent research, publish, find work placements and if unable to help, direct you to faculty members who might be more appropriate. Academically, while most MSW programs are not extremely difficult, I do feel that I learnt a great deal from some extremely experienced professors (a number of whom have experience with juveniles). In fact, when I work with clients now I often think back to one particular professor and ask myself: "what would X do?" Also the class sizes are quite small, 24 max, which seems to be more conducive to learning.

NYU also allows you to take a number of electives that are international or out of the school. I was fortunate enough to take part trips to Paris and DC. In terms of placements, it seemed to be a mixed bag, my first placement was terrible (no supervisor, too many interns and not enough clients), but I was lucky, NYU saw the problems and pulled their students out of there.

In terms of finances, do you have a scholarship to any of these programs? NYU is generally pretty generous.

As I said, I only have MY experience of NYU, and I am sure all three schools are great and attending any of them will give you an equal chance of working with juveniles. It is really up to you and I don't think you can go wrong.

Please feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.