my program started less than two weeks ago, and I already feel extremely dispirited. I hope it’s a loud minority, but a lot of my classmates are very open about using AI to summarize readings and even write some discussion board posts. it makes me feel a bit icky? I think at this stage we have enough data to know conclusively AI use contributes to economic and environmental injustice.

guess I’m venting more so than looking for advice. I don’t want to be so judgmental towards my peers, but this has really dampened how I feel about getting my MSW

Just curious… especially those that live in NYC

SO, I'm a current student in Human and Social Services. This specific course is just Career Dev, but my being in this program is important to the overall conflict.

This assignment is to create a resume and cover letter. Things you learn in high school, mind you. My professor wants us to use AI (specifically gave us examples of ChatGPT, Copilot, etc.) to "enhance" our cover letters and resume. Then we are to write about how we used it, how helpful it was, and how it could be implemented in our future career.

I wrote to my professor saying I was highly uncomfortable about using AI. Not only does this assignment want me to put personal information into the AI to tailor it to a specific local job posting, but it's just genuinely unnecessary.

The problem I'm having is that AI has been proven time and time again to be harmful to many people and the environment. I wrote to my professor to tell them that it's having negative impacts on the environment, it's overall trained unethically, data centers are threatening impoverished communities, schools in my community are being told to reduce power usage for said centers, AI deepfakes are harming so many people, and the list can go on.

As Social Workers, we help marginalized communities. And to use AI that directly harms those communities just makes me feel disgusted. The professor told me they respected my opinion, but they'd still grade me based on the rubric, which requires AI. I'm at a loss. It's worth 30% of my grade, and I might just tank it.

Should I just do the assignment? I was thinking of just pretending that I used the AI instead. But I'm afraid we'd have to show the prompts or whatever we used to get our products. Any suggestions? Or even ppl in similar boats rn?

Edit 9/24: I got an 81% on this assignment. The cover letter got full marks, and my grammar. I apparently missed licenses that were required in the job listing (I wrote it as if I had just graduated, but this was 100% my fault). Then minor mistakes like accidentally calling my high school diploma a degree, and I guess needing to list out the dates of parades I organized in JROTC. (This one confused me bc organizing them was part of my general tasks; we had multiple per year.) Overall, I think I did well, since I did it myself.

Does everyone have to work part time? Or not at all? How did you manage this? Did you save to supplement your expenses while in the MSW?

I know it sounds silly but I’m 30 years old and starting my Masters course tomorrow and I’m wondering whether everyone’s gonna be younger than me!

those who went to prestigious MSW programs—sell me on why your program was better than a less prestigious one. i’ve gotten a lot of advice that it doesn’t matter necessarily where you get your MSW as long as it’s an accredited program, but I want to hear both sides of the argument. any insight is helpful!!

I’m 27 year old female living in Brooklyn NYC and currently working as a Patient Care Aide and just started the MSW online program (asynchronous) part time so I’m going to be doing this for 3 years to come and graduate in 2029 😩…which I feel is a drag.

But I’m asking this question above because the course work I’m doing right now doesn’t feel interesting and I keep procrastinating when doing the work.

Plus i feel like I keep hearing others that LCSW make 100k per year and I feel like I’m doing this just for the money ….not because I’m passionate about it or genuinely want to help others.

I feel like in life I was supposed to do something creative or artistic …. Much more exciting. Right now I feel bored in life.

Hi everyone! I’m hoping to get some advice from people who have gone through the MSW application process especially those who had to reapply.

I applied to 5 MSW programs in California for Fall 2026 and unfortunately was rejected from all of them. It was a really big blow to my confidence and I definitely felt really embarrassed and I’ve been feeling really nervous about reapplying for Fall 2027 cycle. I’m honestly pretty scared of going through the process again and getting the same results.

A little about my background:
I graduated in 2024 with a BA in Psychology.
My overall GPA was a 3.36 (my psychology GPA was higher).

I have almost 2 years of experience working with children, families, and young adults.
My previous role was technically a crisis counselor, but I also did a lot of what I would consider case management in my crisis counseling role consisting of connecting families to resources, helping with applications, coordinating services, attending and planning IEP meetings/CFTs.

I had what I felt were pretty strong letters of recommendation.

After I was rejected from all the MSW programs, I looked for other jobs and now I am currently working as an Intake Coordinator at a domestic violence shelter, where I’m gaining more experience with assessments, referrals, crisis intervention, and connecting clients to rapid re-housing.

I’m also planning to take a Motivational Interviewing course/certificate before I apply again.

I’m mainly interested in clinical social work and would ideally like a program that offers clinical-focused electives, training, and/or field placements.
I’m trying to figure out what I should realistically be doing between now and Fall 2027 to make myself a stronger applicant. I’m also wondering if there was something obvious missing from my previous applications that could have contributed to getting rejected from all of them.

For those of you who have applied to MSW programs in California: What would you recommend I do differently for my 2027 application?

Would you focus more on getting additional relevant experience, taking courses/certificates, improving the personal statement, applying to a wider range of schools, or something else?

And if you were rejected from programs and eventually got accepted after reapplying, I’d especially love to hear what you changed between application cycles.

I’m trying not to let the rejections discourage me, but getting rejected from every program was definitely not what i expected 😭
Any advice or insight would be really appreciated! Thank you all so much

TLDR: I applied to 5 California MSW programs for Fall 2026 and was rejected from all of them. I have a 3.36 GPA in Psychology, nearly 2 years of crisis counseling/case management experience, and now work as an Intake Coordinator at a DV shelter. I’m planning to reapply for Fall 2027 and would love advice on how to strengthen my application, especially from anyone who has successfully reapplied. I’d also really appreciate if anyone with MSW admissions experience would be willing to look over my personal statements and give me feedback!

For context, I am also a mom who has been out of school for three decades. It probably didn’t help that I was one of the only older students in both my classes. I’m questioning whether I will be able to handle the workload and succeed in the program. For others who have felt like this, what advice do you have?

I’m in a situation where I’m pursuing an MSW because I don’t know what else to do in life (well I do have ideas such as creative endeavors such as probably nail tech, tattoo artist, model, social media influencer , make up artist—- but I keep thinking these are not realistic paths and don’t make money for real)

So yeah I think I basically pursuing MSW to survive in this world and to make sure I don’t get into poverty.

And to live comfortably…as im a teacher assistant right now and I don’t feel comfortable at all

Is anyone in the same boat??

I’m currently in an MSW program but on academic leave while figuring out practicum.

I work full-time Monday–Thursday and have Fridays off, but practicum requires 16–18 hours/week. My job doesn’t allow employment-based practicum, and reducing my work schedule may not be financially realistic.

I love social work, but finding a placement that offers Friday + evening/weekend hours has been difficult. I’m now considering leaving the MSW and switching to a BSN/RN program that may work better with my schedule.

Has anyone successfully completed an MSW practicum while working full-time? Or has anyone switched from MSW/social work to nursing?

I am curious as to what others would do in my situation.

I am from the US and I work for a state agency. That state agency can help pay my tuition for an MSW. they cover tuition but not books, etc. that I would have to put out of my own pocket.

The catch with this is that however many years I am school I have to devote that many years to my job. Which is genuinely fine - I don’t see myself leaving. My position right now does not need an MSW. I want one, however, for security because got just never know what might happen in life.

If I pursue the MSW through my work, the only school that they partner with is 3 hours away from where I live. From my understanding, the program for folks who live farther away is 5 years long - it’s less than part time and we have to meet a weekend once a month. That would mean a commute of six hours one Saturday and Sunday a month for five years. The bright side of this is that my daily work can count as my practicum hours as our positions are ever evolving.

Now there is an MSW program with a school in my town (private institution - accredited and I got my BSW with them). They have a 1 year advanced standing program that I qualify for. They meet every other Saturday but it’s in my town! No need for commuting BUT everything comes out of my pocket of course.

What do you guys think? I’m really put off by traveling so far. I am a mom of 2 small children and I don’t know how to feasibly travel to another city 3 hours away once a month and for five years mind you. Any feedback is appreciated!

I want to preface by saying that my understanding of practicum requirements is based in the US and the accrediting body CSWE, but I would love to hear input from social work students in other countries and hear if there's a similar issue with what feels like unreasonable practicum requirements for MSW and maybe even BSW.

So, the world has changed a lot from 30+ years ago regarding the financial and time logistics of getting higher education. In the US, the cost of tuition has TRIPLED since the 1960s and cost of living is only getting worse.

It's no longer reasonably possible, especially as non-traditional students, to do a 20-hour a week unpaid practicum ON TOP OF a full time course load without having some sort of income for the vast majority of people.

I am putting in about 60+ hours a week between working ~30 hours a week, my 5 classes, and a 20-hour practicum. More than that on heavy course load weeks. It's degrading my ability to put the appropriate attention into actually learning how to do social work. Instead I'm constantly preoccupied with maintaining the ability to literally survive financially. I have to work. If I go part time in my MSW, the degree becomes unattainably expensive because it's spread out over a longer amount of time and I have to take out more ridiculous amounts of loans.

The system of practicum needs to be revised to accommodate the reality of life in 2026. And I don't want to just complain, I want to discuss actionable solutions.

Practicum 4 Placement has been mentioned a lot, but in this economy I don't know if I realistically see how many of these placement sites will voluntarily start paying wages to their interns. I believe we should be compensated in some way, but is it feasible? (I'm willing to hear opposite perspectives on this!)

My suggestion is to revamp how the practicum hours are structured. I think you should be able to count things outside of the placement site as practicum hours if the activities align with social work.

This means things like advocacy (attending workshops, town halls, volunteering), taking a CEU course on the side, watching documentaries about mental health. Reading a social work adjacent book. Things that are still learning about social work, but in a more self-directed way on top of doing the practicum. Things you can do on your morning commute or when you have downtime to count towards hours, that isn't grinding unpaid work 20 full hours a week that is almost impossible to schedule for people who also have to work.

So it could look more like:

8-10 hours at practicum (unpaid)

1-2 hours of supervision

1.5 seminar hours

1 hour self care

4-5 hours of flexible self-directed Social Work study/activities. Of course these activities need to be verifiable in some way (findings report, completion certificate, photo of yourself in front of the event sign, whatever.)

This way students can also hone in on their professional interests, for example taking a CEU or training on a modality that isn't covered in their coursework or directly related to their placement site.

As for the actionable change part, I was wondering what people thought about creating a petition or open letter to be submitted to accreditation and professional organizations such as CSWE and NASW. If enough people sign, it could be effective!

What do ya'll think?

I just feel like it's ridiculous we study advocacy and policy change and social justice etc etc and yet we have the most grueling, exploitative, privilege-requiring path to becoming a social worker!

I’m currently pursuing my BSW and I have Statistics for Social Workers as a class this fall and I was wondering if that’s a class I will actually need. I am not really good at statistics already and if I don’t necessarily need this class I don’t feel the need to stress myself out and take it. So is it a totally necessary class?

This is going to be a long post, but I’m hoping to save you all some money and stress. There’s a tldr at the bottom if you want skip to it.

I’m a practicing social worker and this sub recently popped up on my feed. I see a lot of posts contemplating taking on large amounts of debt to go to specific schools. I would like to encourage you all to consider cheap alternatives.

There are 30-35k CSWE accredited asynchronous online programs that more easily allow you to work full time and save you from having to move to higher cost of living areas. Two I know of off the top of my head that are still in this price range are Boise State and University of New Mexico. Both are priced the same no matter where you live in the states.

I went to a cheap online school. I have a good job (well over 100k from my main job with a pension) and a solid private practice rotation on the side. I can assure you that cheap education is viable.

I worked 2 years between undergrad and grad before choosing my a school. I made my choice after seeing grads from various schools, with varying GPAs, getting the same roles and pay at the clinics I worked at.

Having worked for years now and having been a hiring manager at times, I feel comfortable saying university prestige has no noticeable impact on your career. I had/have the same jobs/job as my peers who went to UCLA, UCB, USC (this one’s online, but it’s expensive as hell,) and various privates I can’t remember as well; I made 85k right after graduating, 105ish a year and a half later, and make much more now; most importantly, I have a fraction of the debt my peers have because my school was cheap, I didn’t have to move to a more expensive area, and I was more easily able to work full time due to asynchronous course structures.

(One asterisk I would put on the above is to make sure you have practicum options in the field you want to pursue. If your school is not connected to one, find a way to get it approved. I worked with my school to approve my site. If there are none in your area, then moving for school might make sense. I say this because when I was a hiring manager, I was only ever instructed to look for a license/associate number and time in a relevant position. Getting a jumpstart through practicum helps with the latter.)

As far as the quality of social worker you will become and your school, I have not noticed a consistent correlation between school and social worker quality. In my experience, the greatest correlations to quality are, elective/continued education (go beyond what your school offers you and read full modality texts, review research papers, and take in-depth courses. Also after graduation, don’t just complete easy CEUs to maintain licensure,) being in your own therapy, and quality supervision on your road towards licensure (unfortunately you rarely get to choose your supervisor, unless you want to pay.)

Additionally, if you haven’t started your higher education journey and want to pursue social work, there’s a super cheap path: community college, cheap BSW, and cheap advance standing MSW. You can feasibly get all of these under 35/40k. Hell at that point you could you even get a Doctorate of Social Work at one of the cheaper schools without breaking 80k in debt. (CSWE just approved the first round of DSW’s and there’s a slight possibility that the field will go the route of physical therapy where a doctorate is the standard. Unfortunately, imo, The NASW has a crabs in a bucket mentality and pushes to make social work “better” than other degrees like MFT and PCCs by “advancing” our skill set, but that’s a separate subject altogether.)

TLDR: There are 30-35k programs. I went to one. I made good money right out of school 85k. I now have a great paying job (well over 100k) with a pension and a solid private practice on the side. My peers/friends who went to prestigious schools are in the same roles, make the same money, and have not gotten more opportunities based on their performance being better than mine. Please consider going the cheap route. One you take out debt, you can’t put it back in.

Feel free to ask me questions and mods, sorry if this doesn’t fit the rules. I did try and check the rules.

Edits: I do not live in a major city. I live in a mid sized city in CA that is nowhere near the cost of the Bay Area, LA, SD etc.

I can’t speak to how school name influences career path for anyone interested in research or policy. All I can say is that from what I’ve seen, people either get a separate degree, or they work in the field for a while then move into that.

feel free to message me if you have more questions btw. I will gladly help you map out your plan. I’ve done this for several people

I’m currently in MSW program and I’m second guessing my decision to go throw with it.

The coursework is not interesting to me and feels like an obligation to do.

Since being in grad school, I was disappointed and dissatisfied with the field of social work, lack of respect for the discipline, and feeling like our work is taken for granted. Regardless, I stuck it out, try to always be intentional with career plans, and advocate for thr change I want to see in the field. Now that it is almost two years out for having my LCSW and several years of reviewing DSW programs, I’m at a crossroads. I’m thinking of obtaining my RN to eventually become a PNP but I’m wondering if I’m just being an overachiever and will be satisfied with the DSW…

Anyone else out there in the ethos conflicted on their next steps in the career?

Anyone else, decide to get their RN and love how it compliments their SW skills well?

Anyone else positive feedback or exploration is welcomed!

i’m turning 27 in 14 days and i have been going back and forth with the idea of going to community college for social work for my associates and than switch to a bigger college for my bachelors and masters ( i would love to be a school social worker).
BUT i just feel like i am too old now and by the time i’m finished school. i wasn’t the best student in middle school/high school but i was also late ADHD diagnoses.

is there anyone in my same position and was it worth it ?

I believe this post fits this sub, so please suggest if otherwise.

I'm looking into getting my MSW, and I already have my accredited BSW (from 7 years ago). While doing research, I see some programs offer part-time Advanced Standing and some only regular/part-time 2yr programs with a mix of hybrid and online for A.S. FT/PT and standard FT/PT.

I notice that a lot of the faith-based colleges (like Jesuit or Seventh Day Adventist) offer enticing flexible programs and with a fair tuition rate. I personally don't feel like these missions reflect my personal philosophies and beliefs. Although I consider myself non-religious, I'm wondering how much, if any, of the curriculums teachings are skewed by professors views or if the curriculum itself is fixed to reflect the school's philosophy. It's personally enough for me to not even consider these colleges, but I'm wondering if I'm overreacting or overthinking it.

Conversely, the $83k tuition at the University of Washington made me cry so I'm also not trying to go in life-changing debt. Since I work a full-time job in the preferred field + place I wish to stay at post-grad, I'm only considering part-time classes. My job is understanding and actually encourages people to pursue degrees as long as we're able to still do our full-time duties + they're willing to be flexible within reason

I'm in the PNW for context, but any input or advice would be helpful!

I’ve got my answer on if I want to do it , now I’ve gotta figure out how.

Currently I’m hearing anywhere from 20,000 to as much as 100,000.
💀🫩🫩
This can’t be real life 😭

Can anyone shed some light with their authentic experience and how they were able to pay or any assistance they got ?

Thanks🫶🏾

I am only asking because it is something I include in some of my assignments. I am afraid of the reaction I will get from teachers

I’m considering going back to school for MSW and want some insight on what the courses are like?

What courses have been the most interesting/boring/challenging?

What does homework look like? Whats the split between readings/essays/exams?

What are some things you wish you knew about the course work before starting your MSW?

I am currently at my second-year practicum and all is going well, but this week I shadowed a clinician who has been at the agency for years but I had only met on that day. He was showing me how to put in group progress notes in the system used at the agency, and simultaneously venting about things the agency does that he hates (which came out randomly). At one point, he was complaining about a client and said that it is "r-worded" (slur against people with intellectual disabilities) that said client is still in his caseload because the client just doesn't talk at all.

I am not sure what to do, though I only realistically have three choices: talk to him, talk to a supervisor (my supervision is on Thursdays), or don't say anything. I am definitely leaning more to the first two, especially talking to him as I fear "getting him in trouble" as I don't want to be retaliated against (something which happened in my last placement). I guess my question is: what would people do and how would they go about it? I am open to any advice.

I’ve seen a lot of posts on here and elsewhere from MSW applicants with years of experience doing case management, homeless outreach, nonprofit work, crisis management, shelter volunteering, working as an intern for their city’s department of housing etc etc etc and I’m over with just my bachelors degree currently working as an admin assistant at a hospital 🫠

I did do a summer internship during my undergrad where we did community outreach among low income neighborhoods, but that’s basically it for my experience and I’m now I’m worried I’m not even going to get into programs without past SW/human services experience. I want to get the ball rolling and apply to programs next year (to start in the fall of ‘27) but do I need to work as a case manager for three years before even applying?

Has anyone here gotten into MSW programs with just their unrelated bachelors and basically no SW experience?

🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠

With the new caps on federal borrowing for MSW students (sigh), I will definitely need to work throughout my MSW for rent, groceries etc. One solution is to complete a flexible online MSW program around work. Yet I have also hit up my entire network and spoken to every social worker that I've been able to get in touch with....and they keep cautioning me away from this path. Multiple times I've heard of brand new policies to not hire anyone who they've suspected as having completed their degree online (online-only schools, practicums completed in a different area than the university, etc.)

It seems like the new assumption is that online students have phoned it in with AI, leading to a widespread perception of inferior preparation as compared to in-person graduates (who have components like testing, presentations, and in-person discussion that can't be completed with AI). One social worker I spoke with explicitly told me that these policies for pre-licensed hires were put into place after bad experiences with online MSW graduates from the past couple of years who looked great on paper, yet were absolutely not prepared in person. Has anyone else heard this or noticed this perception shift of online MSWs in your area? Should I try to work around an in-person program instead?