Hello,
I was accepted into Rutgers, NYU, and Fordham for their MSW programs. I did my undergraduate degree at rutgers and honestly kind of hated it there, if I’m being blunt. I didnt really connect with anyone and didn’t really like the campus either.
I was accepted into both fordham and NYU as well. Fordham I liked but NYU I loved. Even cried randomly when I visited because I finally got that weird and corny “this is where I belong feeling”. While that’s all dandy I would not be super pumped about being in massive debt after I graduate. I got a 12k scholarship for NYU but I would still have to take out about 30k to 40k or more a year if I add I housing ( but there is still time for me to secure more scholarships) ,while rutgers is about 17k a year and still a good school to get an MSW at.
I know to some my dilemma is an easy one (duh, go to the cheaper school) but I have been pretty depressed and lonely for sometime and feel as though living in new york might give me some umph to get out there more. I feel as though theres so much more to do there when youre not a partier and a lot of my good friends live there. The one thing that makes me happy is going to concerts and playing music and I feel as though I could do more of that there. I know you don’t have much of a personal life during grad school but I also feel like the would have more access to better fieldwork opportunities.
Basically, I rate opportunities for growth and change right up there with my need to be financially stable so I feel so conflicted.
Do any prospective, current, or post graduates have any advice? Would love to be proven wrong about either school. Would just love some insight.
Please, please, please do not borrow one cent more than you absolutely need for an MSW. The salaries are not gooe, the workload is stressful, and it will be very difficult for you to pay off your loans.
Rutgers is not all that far from NYC. Go to the cheap place, and pop up to NYC for a weekend when you have the time to do fun stuff.
Do you still have time to apply to more MSW programs?
If you hate Rutgers and can’t afford NYU (and please do NOT take on debt for a MSW) you need to add more schools to your list.
What about CUNYs?
Perhaps expand your list a bit, think of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis St Paul, Atlanta, Miami, Tucson, Phoenix… As well as college towns like Amherst, Ann arbor, Chapel Hill, Bloomington, State College, etc.
You obviously only want some folks here to agree with you to assume massive debt so you can be in NYC for a year or two. (Yeah, I get that it would be real cool). But taking on any debt to accomplish that flight of fancy is beyond foolish.
As one of the most expensive schools in the country in the most expensive city in the country, NYU is NOT an option. Not even close.
“I did my undergraduate degree at rutgers and honestly kind of hated it there, if I’m being blunt. I didnt really connect with anyone and didn’t really like the campus either.” … “I have been pretty depressed and lonely for sometime and feel as though living in new york might give me some umph to get out there more.”
It sounds like you may have some serious personal issues. Rutgers is a huge school. If you couldn’t connect with anyone out of all those students, perhaps that problem is not with the students or campus. A change of scenery is not likely to address the problem. Are you getting professional help? Perhaps you should consider taking a year off to take care of yourself before tackling a high-stress, expensive graduate program. Next year, you could expand your search too.
As was already mentioned, social workers do not make the kinds of salaries necessary to repay the kind of debt that you will go into for NYU. Social workers make a median salary of about $47,000 a year, with even the 90th percentile of social workers earning about $79,000. While that’s enough to live a middle-class lifestyle, it’s not enough to repay $60-80K in debt. $34K is a much more comfortable debt load for a future social worker.
While your environment does have some impact on your mood and behavior, if you’re feeling depressed and lonely likely a change of scenery alone won’t solve the problem. Besides that, it may be even more depressing if in 2-3 years you are struggling to afford debt payments! If you would like to move to New York, why not consider completing your MSW at Rutgers and then searching for employment in the city for after you graduate? If a lot of your good friends live in New York, you can easily take the NJ Transit train from New Brunswick into the city a couple times a month to hang out.