Hey everybody, it's monica and welcome to my channel where i help social workers. Therapists and healthy professionals deepen their level of self-awareness, while increasing their competence and confidence in the profession. So for today's article we're going to be talking about five things that you should consider if you're thinking about earning your msw degree. So if you're interested in this topic, then please keep watching i'm anika, thomas, the founder and clinical social worker at kendrick connections therapy center. I'Ve been a social worker for over 12 years, i decided to do an entire youtube channel on my journey from cubicle working social worker to successful entrepreneur.
So when you're thinking about earning your msw degree, there are so many things to consider. So i'm excited that today's episode is sponsored by socialworkdegrees.org powered by wiley. Socialworkdegrees.
rg is a comprehensive resource that allows you to explore colleges and universities that offer degrees in the field. So, whether you're, just starting your social work, career or you're, looking to advance your career, socialworkdegrees.org offers a wealth of industry and academic knowledge to help you achieve your professional goals and the reason why i like this platform is because they have a plethora of degrees depending On where you are in your social work career, so if you're looking to acquire your associate's degree, your bachelor's, your master's or your doctorate, you're sure to find a program, that's a good fit for you not only that, but they also provide state listings. So you can find schools for msw or a bsw within your state. They also have information on social work.
Licensure, and i know a lot of you have questions on that. So take the next step in your social work, career and visit their site today to learn more so, let's get into the five things that you should consider now these things are not in any particular order. There are just some things that i want you to keep in mind as you're thinking about transitioning into a master's degree program. The first thing that i want you to think about is the program length. Meaning do you want to do a full-time or a part-time program?
So, as you know, the msw degree is a master's level social work degree. So it's going to provide you with some advanced level coursework, and it's also going to give you the opportunity for specialization within the field you're also going to gain relevant practical experience. So be thinking about what type of work you want to do, because that's going to determine where you will do your practicum in your master's degree program. So if you complete a full time program that can take you about three years to complete so for you, you want to be thinking about what skill set. Do you want to develop?
Do you want to work more with an administrative track? Do you want to do more macro level, social work or micro level, social work or on a community level or working in schools, so really give it a lot of thought now, although you can change your specialization, it's always good to have a really clear plan around What you want to do before you get started, so some programs offer an accelerated program or an advanced standing program could be another name for it, and that's actually the program that i completed.
So i was able to get my bachelor's degree in social work which took me four years to complete and then, after that i did an advanced standing program where it took me one year to get my master's degree and the reason why it only took me one Year is because i had already completed the master's level coursework in my last year of my undergrad degree, so those courses were transferable, so i only had to do one more year at the graduate level. So because this is an accelerated program, you can end up taking more classes in one semester than you would in a traditional school year. So if you work full-time going to school, full-time might not be an option for you.
When i did my advanced ending program, i didn't work, i was able to focus strictly on school and then, after i graduated is when i focused on getting a job. So if you're working full-time, you might want to consider a part-time program so with the part-time program that can take you anywhere from four to five years now, with the range of programs that are being offered. Currently, you can also take weekend classes evening classes so really find out what meets your schedule when you're thinking about the program length.
So the second thing that you want to consider is specialization, so you want to think about what social problem, what issue within society? Within your community or within your cultural group, do you want to focus on working in so you want to think about what are those things that cause you frustration or anger, or you just don't understand why things happen to certain communities in the way that they do And you want to play an active role in advocating for change in those areas.
Now again, that's a very micro level focus. So you want to think about the level of specialization that you want to enter in within the field. So, within your specialization, you'll have the opportunity to work within a school, a hospital, a community mental health agency, a non-profit organization, an after-school program at the government level. So the possibilities are endless. It'S all a matter of where your skill sets lie and the impact that you want to have within the community and within a particular group.
The benefit and the beauty of having an msw degree is that you have a range of things that you can do. So if you were to do more of an administrative track, you would have more of a leadership capacity, so that means you would be a program coordinator program director, a community engagement manager or a program manager. The third thing you want to consider is: do you want to complete an online program, an in-person program or a hybrid, which would be a mix of the two so really think about the location and the area where you're located and whether an in-person program or online Program will be best for you. Also. What you'll need to take into consideration is the program that is in your area.
Do they offer the type of specialization that you want, so every school doesn't have the same type of specialization, so you're going to have to look at different programs to see what they offer. So when you're thinking about in person or online, you really want to think about your learning style.
What is the best way that you consume information? Do you like working in groups when you're able to have interactive conversations in a cohort and able to meet with your classmates face-to-face, or are you an online learner where you can handle self-paced work now that might require a little bit more reading a little bit more Opportunity for you to work on your own um, so you really have to think about what learning style do you have and then choose the program that best fits that now, regardless, if you choose an online program or an in-person program, the coursework is pretty much going To be the same, i will say, whichever program that you choose deciding to start an msw program requires a time commitment and it requires dedication, so really think about your life.
Think about the capacity that you have think about all the roles and responsibilities that you have going on currently and decide whether or not this will be a good option for you, because what you don't want to do is to start the program.
Then, to stop the program and start again and stop you really want to think about. Do you have the time to commit now, just because you stopped the program that doesn't mean that you can't pick up later. I just know from my experience of talking with and working with, msw students, it's always harder to start a program again once you stopped so really think about. If you have the time to dedicate to this now, what i did. I went into my master's degree program straight from undergrad.
I knew that i didn't want to take a break. I knew i didn't want to do a gap year. I knew that i wanted to go straight from undergrad and finish my graduate degree, so i could go straight into my career four, and this is the most crucial phase. You want to ensure that the program that you select is an accredited program. So what that means is you want to ensure that your program is accredited with cswe?
So cswe is an accrediting body that ensures that your program has met a certain level of rigor, and this is what 98 to 99 of employers are going to be looking at. Did you get your degree from an accredited program, so you definitely want to check to make sure before you apply for your program that the program is accredited. Accreditation is also important when you're looking to transfer or move to another state. It makes it a lot easier to transfer a degree from an accredited program to another state than to try to transfer one. That'S not because the accredited degree is going to ensure again that the program met those specific standards and it's going to be easier to transfer.
Those credits to a different state and lastly, i want to provide you with some application tips. So, when you're applying for your msw program, these are some things that you want to have in place before you apply, or that you want to be thinking about when you're ready to apply. So, first you want to make sure that you read through the full application for the msw program to ensure that you meet the gpa requirements and that you're applying for the program during the time frame that's required for you to be accepted. You also want to think about the application fee that might be due so sometimes there's a waiver that you can get um. So you don't have to pay the application fee, but you want to have your money ready and prepared when you're ready to submit your application.
A few other things that you want to have in place is one you want to make sure that you have a resume two. You want to make sure that you have your undergrad transcripts now, if you owe any money in undergrad, it's going to be hard. You'Re, probably not going to be able to get your transcripts so make sure that you don't owe money because they won't release your transcripts. If you owe before you wrap up your bsw degree, you want to talk to key people at your college or university, or you want to think about the employer where you're currently working, who can provide a letter of recommendation for you, because that'll be something else.
You'll need when you apply so most often you'll need about two or three letters of recommendation so think about those key relationships that you've been able to build, and those are the people that you want to ask early to be able to sign your letter because sometimes It can take a really long time to get those back.
Some schools do require a gre, but when i applied for graduate school that wasn't a requirement so just check your program because that may or may not be required and then lastly you're going to have to write a purpose statement. So the purpose statement is going to be a short essay, letting the college know why you want to be admitted into their program. So you want to reflect on why you want to earn an msw degree. What inspires you or motivates you about the social work profession? What prior experiences have led to your decision to become a social worker and what qualities do you possess?
That can be a good fit for the field, so you really want to communicate your desire and your hope for social change again. What social issue in the world do you hope to impact in a positive way, so you want to be very concise, but also compelling, so those are just a few of the key things that you want to consider before you apply for msw program. Have these things in place have a clear plan in place on what you want to do, where you want to go the location that you're thinking about the length of the program is the program accredited all the things that we talked about today and i'm telling you If you keep these things in mind, it'll make your journey in path to earning your msw degree a lot easier. So, thank you so much for readingthis. article again, i want to thank the sponsor of this article socialworkdegrees.
be sure to visit their website, to learn more about your msw program, your bsw program to look for programs within your state and also to look up licensure information and i'll leave. A link below in the description so that you can check out their website. Thank you all so much for watching and, as always be well.
