MSW - advice on how to get in?

leavingtown
Wed, 10 Sep 2014 21:20:02 +0000

Hi everyone! I am obtaining a B.S. of psychology at a state liberal arts school.

Some info about me - I am interested in the clinical track, because I want to be a licensed therapist after I graduate. I have a 3.9 GPA (may go down a bit). I am currently involved in in my school’s chapter of the nonprofit leadership alliance to prepare me for a future potentially in the nonprofit field. I plan to join the AmeriCorps after graduation for a year to get some real volunteer work done and human services experience. I am in my school’s Honors Program, but I honestly doubt grad schools care about that very much.

I have looked into NYU and Columbia, but I know they are extremely competitive programs. I also probably won’t be able to pay for them.

Some questions: How can I prepare myself adequately for an MSW? What are some things I should be doing to pad my resume? What are my chances for some of the bigger name schools? If I can’t get into any of those, what are some other reputable schools in the NYC area I should be looking into? Also, how important are GRE scores?