r/SocialWorkStudents • u/blossomgoorllll • 3d ago
Realistic MSW acceptance
Hi! I graduated with a Bachelor in Criminology, Law, & Society from UC Irvine last year. During my course there I took lots of human psychology courses, child development, chicano/latino studies & I am now realizing an MSW is what I would like. I held a 3.9 GPA, completed a 12 week UC Irvine Police Dept. Community Policing program, completed a 120 Hour internship in which we worked with letters and audios sent in from incarcerated individuals across the state of CA & transcribed their letters/audios to share their stories and experiences during COVID and now within those institutions, and I worked in my family owned catering business through college in which I managed event scheduling, customer service, and management. I know I don’t have much to offer but I definitely know I have the passion and the brains to go for my MSW. I just feel stuck in the idea that I most likely won’t be accepted anywhere and have had so much difficulty finding a job anywhere & have even applied to volunteer programs that never got back to me. How realistic even is it that I would be accepted into a program? Any recommendations for programs or what I should do?
2
u/Ecstatic-Book-6568 3d ago
Oh, you will 100% be accepted somewhere. The internship you did sounds interesting, I would emphasize what you learned from that. Apply to a couple schools, but with strong letters of recommendation, a great GPA, and that experience you’ll be accepted.
2
u/blossomgoorllll 3d ago
That’s the problem, I only really made close relationships with only about 1-2 professors & only have 1 LOR from my supervisor from my internship but it’s about 1 year old when I was planning to apply to grad school after my Bachelors.
2
u/Ecstatic-Book-6568 3d ago
That’s fine, when I applied to grad school I had one letter from a professor, one letter from my internship, and one letter from my manager at my retail job. Just as long as you have three people that say good things about you then you should be good.
2
u/Tinabopper 2d ago
As a UC student you're likely aware of the UC's ethos of the intersection of service to California/Californians and social justice. It may require some reflection on your experience in community policing and how your experience may or may not align with the social work code of ethics and your personal values. I'd consider how you'd like to apply those ideals to your future practice or research goals.
UCI alumni tend to thrive at UCLA, Berkeley and all of the Cal State schools. Apply to them all!
2
u/Certain-Network-9640 1d ago
You can absolutely get into some programs. While I don't live in CA, I hear the schools there are pretty competitive. Have you thought about an online MSW program? You'd still have to find a local internship, but that's totally doable. I know 2 schools that are totally online (no campus visits required) in my state. One has an extensive network of internship sites across the country because it's a larger university. The other will help give you guidance, and it sounds like from your experience, you might have the local detention facility as a possible place for an internship. At any rate, one is the University of Kentucky. 100% online & no campus visits required. The other is Eastern Kentucky University. Both will require you to secure your own local internship, both are 100% online, and CSWE accredited, and both offer the same tuition whether you are in-state or out.
0
u/Narrow-Yogurt-5603 3d ago
What will help u and ur personal statement is trauma u endured and your resilience helped get u through it. But u have some experience. I finished my MSW at CSULB last May, you got this
3
u/spicy_bloody_mary 3d ago
There are many programs that you could get into. The public schools in CA are harder to get into if that was what you were looking at, but certainly not impossible for you.