Admissions Interview

[Stupid Guns]

Hi everyone,

I have an admissions interview at the University of Michigan coming up in the next few weeks and am looking to prepare myself. Currently I am preparing to discuss my personal statement, my motivation to join the social work profession, and the details of the social issues I want to address.

Could anyone who has had an admissions interview to an MSW program share their experience? Thanks!

[TLC]

I interviewed for my program over Skype since we were on different coasts. I realize that my experience will be very different from yours if you are interviewing in person.

The first thing that came to my mind is that you are ready to discuss some things that you have already written about. What do you still want to convey that you didnt get to include in your personal statement? That's what I discussed in my interview. My interviewier wanted to know why I was so passionate about military/veteran social work and wanted to know if I could see my myself thriving at a school who didn't have any course offerings in the subject.

I do remember freaking out for the interview and being ready to discuss the last book I read, my favorite person in history and how they influenced me, and was prepared with an entire spiell about Jane Addams. In retrospect it was for naught. I remember reading about your experience in another post and you are a military officer, correct? If you didnt delve too deep about that in your personal statement your interviewer may ask you to elaborate on it.

As the day goes on, I'm certain more people will chime in on this topic. Dozens of people on this thread have had admissions interviews that can be more helpful than me. I know a girl who I was stationed with who got into this school earlier this year... I will ask her about her interview experience and get back to you

[Stupid Guns]

Thanks for the quick reply!

This is exactly the type of information I was looking for. I think I'm currently at the stage you were, where I'm preparing to talk about anything and everything. I'm glad to get some idea of which topics to narrow my focus on. I would be glad to hear more if you hear back from the person you mentioned. Thanks again!

[TLC]

I reached out to her and am waiting for her to reply. Will let you know when she does. I'm glad that my response was helpful.... I was ambivalent about sending it

[mildmannered]

Hi everyone,

I have an admissions interview at the University of Michigan coming up in the next few weeks and am looking to prepare myself. Currently I am preparing to discuss my personal statement, my motivation to join the social work profession, and the details of the social issues I want to address.

Could anyone who has had an admissions interview to an MSW program share their experience? Thanks!

I had a group interview at Hunter college this past spring. I had some of the same nervous feelings that TLC described having before the interview. One thing that I went away with after the interview, was that there was no way I could have prepared beforehand for the interview. There were some of the generic questions about what type of social work practice interested me, but the interviewer wanted to know more about how we would approach specific situations. I also believe the interaction between people in the room was just as important as the content of some of the answers. My best piece of advice would be to just be yourself. Have some confidence in the skills, and work put in that got you the interview in the first place. If the program is a good fit for you, then you will knock the interview out of the park.

[Stupid Guns]

That makes sense. I imagine every interviewer has their own idea of what they want to see, so there really is no way to be 100% prepared.

[lancehicks]

Following this post, since I'm in the same boat. I just requested an interview at UofM School of Social Work, and it's scheduled for January 5th. So anxious, and eager to prepare as well as I possibly can.