Admitted UMich Students

[Nochal]

Hello,

 

Since so many of the applicants to UMich on these forums have heard back (and have been accepted!), I wanted to start a thread about the specifics of the program that we will be doing.

 

I applied for the Management of Human Services practice method with a minor in Interpersonal Practice, along with Children and Youth as my practice area. When I applied, I couldn't decide between the Management or IP path, but I am glad that I chose Management as the focus since that is what I'd like to do during my career.

 

I am now having second doubts concerning the IP minor, though. My program length is only 3 semesters (Advanced Standing), so other than field placement, I will only be taking 11 courses total: 4 in Fall, 4 in Winter, 3 in Spring/Summer. Using the course planning worksheet (for Fall 2014, unfortunately, as 2015 is not available yet), this is what my current course load would look like besides field placement:

 

FALL

            -SW502 Organizational, Community, and Societal Structures and Processes

            -SW560 Intro to Community Organization, Management, and Policy/Eval Practice

            -SW623 Interpersonal Practice with Families

            -SW 661 Budgeting and Fiscal Management

 

WINTER

            -SW660 Managing Projects and Organizational Change

            -SW663 Children and Youth Services and Social Policies

            -SW601 Adolescent Development and Behavior

            -SW683 Evaluation in Social Work

 

SPRING/SUMMER

            -SW664 Management of Human Resources

            -SW696 Social Work Practice with Children and Youth

            -SW625 Interpersonal Practice with Children and Youth

 

In bold are the courses that contribute to the IP minor. Unfortunately, since my program is so short, those two courses take up valuable slots that can be filled by other Management courses that may be more useful to my education. I could substitute those two courses with two of the following: 

 

-SW665 Executive Leadership and Organizational Governance

-SW662 Management of Information Systems in Human Service Agencies

-SW663 Grantgetting, Contracting, and Fund Raising

 

These three seem very valuable to an education in Management if I want to one day hold a position in higher management. I don't want to miss out on taking them just for the sake of having a minor. I decided on the minor because my concern is that if I solely focus on management during my program, I won't have the IP background that an agency may be looking for when I apply for entry level social work jobs after finishing school. I was wondering if anyone had any input or insight into this situation.

 

Also, feel free to post which practice method/practice area you will be doing. It's amazing how much variety there is in this program.

 

[Stupid Guns]

Hey Nochal. It looks like I'm the inverse of you. My practice area will be interpersonal practice with a concentration in health. My minor will be management of human services. I'm really interested in medical social work. Barring anything unforseen I should be on the 16 month track.