Columbia V Penn

[campbellave]

Hey all,

 

Sorry for starting another one of these boring school versus school threads, but I just got a rather curt e-mail from Columbia telling me they expected my decision days ago (who doesn't give you 'till the 15?!), and I'm still on the fence between their program and Penn's.

 

I'm almost certainly interested in doing clinical social work in a community setting, specifically with populations involved in the criminal justice system.  Penn has this really built into their program (with the Goldring Reentry Initiative), whereas at Columbia, it seems you have to carve out your own niche.  However, Columbia, or so it seems, has more name recognition than Penn, and I'm not at all certain I want to live in Philly post-graduation.

 

I guess, for anyone at/considering either Penn or Columbia, do you have any thoughts about the quality of instruction/placement for clinical students? Anyone at either school interested in criminal justice work and have any advice?  Thanks plenty for your help.

Edited April 3, 2015 by campbellave

[Figaro]

I'm presently close to completing my first year of Penn's MSW program and I am sorry that I didn't see your post until now. In order to help any other people, I'll reply anyway.  I can tell you that Penn is very social policy oriented. Because the criminal justice system is so very lacking when it comes to social justice, that subject is well dealt with at Penn.  My instructors have been nothing short of fabulous. My field placement is great and I love Philadelphia and the UPenn campus. Because you're from the west coast, I'll forgive you for not understanding that UPenn is an extremely prestigious university and has no less name recognition than Columbia. It is also a great university but I don't know anything about their MSW program because I did not apply there. Therefore, if you're choosing between the two, I would leave that issue out of the equation. Philly isn't cheap to live in and west Philly landlords jack up the rents because of all the colleges in University City (area of Drexel, Penn and a couple other colleges), but it's still a lot cheaper than living in NYC. If you have to "carve out your own niche" at Columbia to concentrate on criminal justice, then you should have accepted Penn. Given the excellence of both universities, I'm sure you'll do well after graduating from either one.