(Clinical) social work and post-undergraduate prep?

Parents Forum
1

<p>I'm a social work and psychology double major and a junior. I'm wondering how to best prepare myself for life after college in terms of grad school and getting a job. I'm thinking it would be best to go straight to grad. school (1 year for an MSW if the person has a BSW) and then accrue clinical hours (~2,000) for licensure, but I don't know how to best focus my efforts now,,, </p>

<p>Frankly, I feel a bit all over the place. I just started a clinical position in substance abuse this semester and will hopefully continue that and get a clinical practicum senior year. Last semester, I did an administrative-type internship with knowledge that could parlayed into clinical work and got a great recommendation. I have lots of teaching (TA) experience, which can get surprisingly clinical at times ;) and a good amount of research experience in psych and biomedical psych, some of it more clinically focused (i.e., qualitative), as I hope my final research project will be. Lots of volunteerism and community involvement, too, just as an outgrowth of high school involvement.</p>

<p>Basically, I don't know where to focus my efforts/time in terms of grad school/jobs. I LOVE the research I do and if I want to go the clinical psych. route, that's imperative, but I also want to be able to present myself as a clinical person if I go the MSW route (because either way clinical work is what I want to do)... </p>

<p>The thing is, it's a lot easier (relatively speaking) to get paid undergraduate internships or even volunteer work doing administrative stuff and not so easy to get clinical opportunities, and so I've done more of that, even though I know it isn't my "calling" so to speak. </p>

<p>I don't have any idea how grad. schools would view my teaching experience (it's in psych/social work), either (good? unrelated?).</p>

<p>Do I focus on research or internships? How should I aim myself given my clear goal but varied background?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I would advise you to work in the field a few years before you go to grad school. Social Work grad schools prefer to take students with a few years of experience, so you'll probably have more options if you work a few years. There are still some agencies, particularly state and federal agencies, that will fund or partially fund your graduate education.</p>

<p>PM me if you have more specific questions.</p>

3

<p>Either degree track is likely to value some real world clinical work experience and there is a lot to be gained from getting employment experience with a population you might like to work with (in either career path). So I'd start looking at your core interests in terms of who/where you'd like to be working in5 years--with adults, older adults, adolescents, kids, substance users, immigrants, trauma victims, prisoners? Getting some volunteer or paid experience in possible domains will help you choose a direction.</p>

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<p>My niece is currently in grad sch. for MSW. She went directly from undergrad( is continung at same university).</p>

5

<p>If you're interested in more clinical stuff, find out if you have a local rape crisis center that will train volunteer crisis counselors (especially if you're female - they tend to staff most of their counseling programs with women). They tend to need good people, and (if it's like it is here) you get a state certification, which I would expect to look impressive to a clinical program. And the time commitment is not huge (around here, you sign up for one shift/week once you're trained and certified).</p>

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<p>You could volunteer to be a listener on a crisis/suicide hotline. Some colleges have student-run hotlines on campus.</p>