Difficulty getting into Social a Work PhD programs?

[iwashmycar]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking to apply this Fall to doctoral programs in social work but I am wondering how difficult they are to get into. I have previous research experience, already have my MSW and am currently finishing an MPH, as well as competitive GRE scores.

Anyone have any experience/stats they're willing to share?

Thanks so much in advance....

[LynneP]

I feel for you -- I applied last year and had a hard time finding any concrete admission stats for sw doctoral programs.  Here are a couple of nuggets, though:

 

Social work has some of the lowest average gre scores of any discipline.  You can see here (on page 4): https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table4.pdf  So, if your idea of competitive includes other fields, then your scores are probably even better than you think in comparison.

 

A lot of it depends on which schools you're applying to.  Michigan, Chicago, Columbia, Washu, Upenn and any other really good programs that I'm forgetting have a lot of name recognition so tons of people apply.  They usually accept somewhere between 5 and 10 people a year with more than 100 applicants.  For programs like that, the acceptance rate is usually somewhere south of 10%.  The same is true for programs based in urban areas (though the admission rates are likely higher) because there'll be a larger pool of applicants trying to stay home.

 

Which schools are you thinking of applying to?  With good scores, research experience, and an advanced degree in a related field (MPH) you probably have great chances of admission at most programs (most applicants likely won't have all three of those things).