Question for NY/NJ MSW Graduates

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Dear GradCafe community,

 

I'm very grateful to have received acceptance letters from Rutgers, NYU, and Columbia. I'm still waiting to hear back from YU and Fordham. Hunter rejected me *shakes fist angrily.* 

 

At the moment, I'm really favoring Rutgers for a very simple reason: it's incredibly inexpensive. Has anyone here attended Rutgers? I would love to hear a first hand account. 

 

I will probably practice in New York (does that make Rutgers less attractive?). I want to concentrate on direct practice in my studies and intend to become a school social worker. Is Rutgers a good fit for that trajectory?

 

Finally, my mom is encouraging me to defer for a year, take the GREs, and apply for PhD programs in the interim. My father in law said that I won't earn income for an additional 3-4 years but I'll earn the money back in the long run. Any thoughts on the pros/cons? Thanks! 

[Lifesaver]

The MSW is a terminal degree. Having a PhD wouldn't be useful if you aren't planning on doing large scale research.

Rutgers may be a better idea simply because it's not in the city. I have a friend who's graduating from Fordham soon and she has now told me twice to stay out of the city. She said getting a good field placement is hard because there so many MSW students in the city competing for the same thing. That alone is deterring me (even though NYC is home), and I've been accepted to Fordham and NYU.

[kstubbs11]

I went to Rutgers for undergrad and it was excellent. I know the MSW program had a good reputation as well and my friends in the program speak highly of it. They also have a DSW if long term you want to go the PhD or DSW route. New Brunswick may not be as attractive as NYC but having a good field placement is one of the more important parts of an MSW program.

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Thanks for the advice guys. I learned that Rutgers is 27k / year out of state and doesn't offer merit or need based scholarships which basically makes it prohibitively expensive for me. I'm leaning towards YU right now, which offered the best scholarships, but I'm thinking about placing a deposit and deferring for a year so that I can reapply to Hunter.

 

I want to be a school social worker. Does it make a difference in that field if I get my MSW from YU, NYU, or Hunter? 

 

Thank you!

[TheCrow]

 

Finally, my mom is encouraging me to defer for a year, take the GREs, and apply for PhD programs in the interim.

 

PhD programs in what? If in social work, you need both the MSW and the PhD to be a social work professor in most places. There are a limited number of MSW/PhD programs, but it's not like history or political science where you just get the MS en route. And if you don't want to be a researcher, it's not worth the time of an MSW/PhD program to try to get funding.

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Hey TheCrow--I meant a PhD in Psychology. My father in law argues that its a few more years of education but I will make the investment back via increased income in the long term. Then again, I know that I want to be a school social worker and I suspect that a PhD will makeme overqualified for the position. 

[TheCrow]

He probably means a PhD in Clinical Psychology, which are often more competitive than medical school, and is based primarily on the successful completion of an original research contribution to the field, not coursework. A PhD in Clinical Psychology is not intended to prepare you to be a school social worker. If you wanted to be a psychologist and are not interested in research positions, there is a professional PsyD degree.