<p>I'm thinking about going for an MSW after my BSW/BA if I don't go to psych grad school.</p>
<p>Anyone else?</p>
<p>I am also interested in an MSW but from the policy and management perspective.</p>
<p>I'm a first year MSW student concentrating in mental health. I went the MSW route because I decided I didn't want to spend the time and energy pretending to enjoy research for 5 years in a psych PhD program when I could ultimately do everything that interested me with an LCSW.</p>
<p>Good to see a social work thread. I am actually applying to PhD programs in social work specializing in child welfare and policy.</p>
<p>I am also an MSW potential candidate.</p>
<p>I was interested in the PhD in Social Work, but I realized my interests are more nonprofit management and policy evaluation. I don't want to be in academia. Since I want to do a dual degree (MBA), I am gaining relevant work experience before I go back to grad school.</p>
<p>I am like you tenisghs. I have no interest in academia. I am very interested in creating and evaluating programs and policies related to children as far as homelessness and foster care. I figure with the PhD it would be a good shot as I can earn it along with the masters without getting into massive debt as a pure masters student.</p>
<p>@ sgk</p>
<p>I still do like research. I'm very good with social policy, but I don't want to be in grad school longer than three years. No one likes massive debt either, but I know the MSW/MBA dual degree will definitely open doors in the nonprofit/foundation world and pay off immensely in the long-term. </p>
<p>If I have an original research topic I would like to seriously explore in the future, then I may apply to PhD programs when I am older and more experienced in the field. For example, I noticed the average PhD student at Columbia is in their mid-30s! Good luck!</p>
<p>@ sgk</p>
<p>Another program that may interest you is the MPP/MSW dual degree. For example, here at Univ of Michigan, it is becoming a popular program: Social</a> Work and Public Policy | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy</p>
<p>
[quote]
The 90 credit-hour program is designed for completion in two and one-half years (6 terms). In the final term, each student proposes and completes an independent research/practice project related to his or her career objectives. Two faculty members, one from each school, supervise and evaluate the project. Students in this dual degree program will have opportunities to learn social work practice skills and do intensive fieldwork. In addition, they will expand their analytical skills in economic and political analysis and program evaluation.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>hi fishoutofwater,
I was recently accepted into Fordham and NYU for their MSW program for fall 2011. I have also applied to some CalState schools that are signiicantly cheaper as a California resident and am waiting to hear back. I too am interested in becoming a LCSW, and would love some advice on the value of private expensive education vs cheaper “worse” education. I have heard that fordham and nyu have reputable cinical programs while the state schools are just kinda, whatever. on the other hand, the state schools are virutally free where the NYC schools would leave me 70,000 dollars in debt upon graduation. im wondering where u go to school and how u decided on that particular school. any private institution has outrageous tuition, something that may not be a big deal as a law or med student with high salary promise after graduation, but something pretty scary for us future social workers. basically im trying to decide between the “better” private schools and cheaper public schools. how much do jobs, etc look at the school u graduated from on your resume? basically, im trying to decide on a school and dont know how much i should worry about the financial aspect. most schools offer unsubsidezed loans which means ill be paying them back for a very very long time.</p>
<p>so any advice anyone has, please, HELP ME!
thanks!</p>
<p>If you are a California resident, why didn’t you apply to Berkeley? I went there and, really, I think it’s the best program in the country. The best overall graduate school in the nation, a beautiful area, and you can qualify for California residency(which you already have). Word of caution though. It is heavily slanted to research and policy, so, if that isn’t your bag, maybe you look elsewhere.</p>
<p>galanter,
thanks for your advice. i am interested in clinical social work which, for some reason, california schools dont seem to put as much emphasis on.
did you go for research and policy?</p>
<p>I went for policy and management.</p>
<p>I may be too late for you, but I would definitely go to the less expensive programs. You don’t want to be in tons of debt in a low paying field, and you can get clinical training any program through choosing the appropriate classes and field work placements.</p>
<p>Hi there, I believe this is probably too late as you wrote your post a few months back. Either way just in case you haven’t gone yet or someone else reads this, the Cal State and UC system in California is very well equipped to educate you as a social worker for clinical practice. Most of the programs here allow you to choose some courses in a concentration such as mental health which would be what you’d want to choose perhaps for eventually earning your 3,000 or so hours it takes to get your LCSW (this takes most people 2 to 3 years to gain those hours since they are under a licensed social worker who has to allow you to do clinical hours under them and you usually work an actual social work job outside of this for your wage). Anyways, most people are uneducated about how much our private society teaches us how to value things that are more expensive over things that are cheaper that create the same outcome or sometimes are much better as in not going into debt in this case. It is very important to understand that not all the best teachers/professors go to private institutions, quite the contrary. There are only so many positions open at those universities each year and often once they are filled they are that way for 20 plus years, so many many amazing, educated, top professors and thinkers teach and prefer to teach at public universities because they care about education equality, as in most people cannot afford private institutions but those professors believe they still deserve the same great education because afterall they are also part of our growing and thriving society (these people affect us as well). We want them educated and helpful in our society! It really worries me when students or people for that matter speak ill of their public universities when if you look at a roster of the professors you will find that they come from every background (from cal state los angeles to Harvard and everything in between). You may have to pay a lot to work under a specific person for certain research that is only done at certain universities, however for a general Masters in Social Work you would be very smart to accept that your education is what you make of it and that your ability to think and learn from those experiences you are forced to do as part of your fieldwork in a program is the best education you’ll probably ever get, it doesn’t matter what school’s awarding you the degree! Cheers and good luck to anyone in this field or going into it!</p>