<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I'm an upcoming senior and am currently looking into graduate school programs to follow my bachelors in psychology and minor in computer science. I have been looking into MSW programs to see which ones to set as my reach, safety etc. but I have been unable to find stats for these programs. Would anyone be able to give me some advice as to where I can look? I'm just starting out on the process of researching programs so any advice would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I think you should start by looking at the social work programs in your home state, at public universities at the state in which you are a resident. Social workers’ median salary is $42,480, with the middle 90% earning between $27,000 and $72,000. Since you can’t expect to be making the big bucks as a social worker, you’ll want to minimize your debt for an MSW. It’s also not a high-prestige field - by which I mean you don’t need a prestigious degree from a tony school to break into the field. You just need licensure and the actual degree. So look at your home state’s public MSW programs first.</p>
<p>Top schools of social work include Michigan, Wash U (St. Louis), Columbia, Chicago, UW-Seattle, UNC, Berkeley, UT-Austin, Case Western, BC, Fordham, Pittsburgh, USC, UW-Madison, VCU, BU, CUNY-Hunter, NYU, Smith College, UCLA, UIUC, UMBC, Penn, SUNY-Albany and UIC. Note how many of those are public institutions.</p>
<p>One thing to note is that different schools of social work may have different tracks/specialties that they offer. Most have the general offerings of clinical social work (which will, in part, lead to licensure as a LCSW and allow you to practice private counseling/therapy) and community social work (which doesn’t emphasize counseling but rather child/family services work). But within those, there may be some subspecializations. I think USC, for example, has one for working with veterans and military families. Another school may have one for hospital social work. Still another may have a group/family therapy concentration within its LCSW track.</p>
<p>One other thing to consider is the connections the school has. Sometimes, graduates get their first social work job through the fieldwork/internship that they do. One of my friends got her MSW at my university and her first job was through the fieldwork assignment she had in her second year. Another close friend is doing one at a hospital this year and she hopes to get a job there after. So you may want to review where MSW students do their fieldwork and see if those institutions are places like where you would want to work.</p>
<p>Generally, though, MSW programs tend to be more “cash cow” programs for universities and therefore aren’t SUPER competitive. I think for most top programs, a 3.3-3.5 GPA and decent GRE scores (maybe around 60th percentile?) will suffice. MSW programs do look for other activities that show an interest in social work like volunteering or service projects with communities that are often served by social workers, but MSW candidates frequently come straight from undergrad even at the top schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply juillet! It was really helpful and will allow me to consider things that I haven’t thought about yet. I’ll probably have more questions as I do more research but I was wondering…do you know if there is a website from which we can see the GPA/GRE requirements for each school in particular or can I just assume they’re pretty similar?</p>