Welcome everyone! My name is Lauren McGowan, and
I am the Director of Recruitment and Admissions for the UB School of Social Work.
Today, I'm going to be talking about our different MSW program tracks
and the curriculum.
Hopefully, by the end of the session,
you will have a better idea of what makes
our MSW programs unique,
what the curriculum and field placements entail,
and which track is going
to be the best fit for you. So, let's get started!
First, I want to talk a little bit about what makes UB's programs unique.
So, I'm happy to report
that our program is highly regarded.
We are actually ranked in the top ten percent of
CSWE-accredited social work programs
by US News and World Report.
CSWE is the Council on Social Work Education
and it is the accrediting
body for all social work programs in the US.
In addition, we have tuition rates that are relatively affordable
as compared to many
other institutions. We are a state school.
So, we do have differential rates for
our in-state and out-of-state students,
but even the out-of-state rate at UB
is less than the in-state rate,
at some other major public universities in other states.
Our students benefit from having the resources of a large university,
but class sizes at the graduate level are quite small.
Our average class size is about
25 students and this includes
the large majority of our online classes as well.
So, you're really able to form connections with your
instructors and your classmates.
And for those of you who aren't from here,
but are considering coming here for school,
Buffalo is an ideal location to train as a social worker.
We are a large, diverse city with a large number of
educational, healthcare, and community agencies
for students to complete field placements with,
as well as many research partnerships.
Buffalo has a very low cost of living as compared
to many other major cities its size, as well.
So, that definitely helps our students.
And as far as our MSW curriculum goes,
we have a fairly unique setup here.
Instead of forcing students to choose between
set concentrations or specializations, we really
let you decide who and what is most important to you
with kind of a "choose your own adventure
style" advanced year curriculum.
So, this means that students can generalize or specialize
to the extent that they want,
and because our faculty have a diverse range of expertise,
we're able to offer many different kinds of electives,
advanced interventions, and advanced
topics classes.
So, if you have not already, I would definitely encourage
you to take a
look at all of the advanced year courses we offer
on our website under the curriculum section.
Finally, and perhaps the most unique aspect of our curriculum,
is our trauma-informed and human rights perspective.
So, since trauma plays such a huge role in our society,
and the lives of clients, we really want to make sure that
all of our social work students
leave with the ability to effectively and empathetically
help individuals who have experienced
trauma, and not re-traumatize them.
And become the leaders within their agencies to create
safe spaces for everyone.
We do this by infusing trauma-informed
and human rights perspectives across the curriculum.
It's really the lens through which we look at
many other issues.
This is an added component to our program that you
won't find at many other schools
and it really uniquely positions graduates
to become trauma-informed social work leaders.
So, that's the pitch for why UB,
now, let's get into our different program tracks.
So, we have two main MSW programs here,
our traditional programs and our
advanced standing programs.
We do offer other doctoral and dual degrees,
as you see here, but I'm not really going to
go into those too much today.
So, if you're interested in any of those dual degree programs,
or our doctoral programs,
feel free to let me know, and I'm happy to talk with you
about them offline.
For now, let's discuss the difference between the
traditional and the advanced standing tracks.
So, there's some very straightforward criteria to determine
which of these tracks is for you,
and here it is.
So, anyone with a bachelor's degree can apply to our
traditional programs,
but students can only apply for advanced standing
if they have a bachelor's degree in social work from a
CSWE-accredited program
and graduated within the past six years,
an overall GPA from that BSW degree of 3.0 or higher,
and they must have a B- or better
in all of their social work major courses.
So, if you do not meet all of this criteria,
then you would need to apply
to the traditional program.
It is a very small subset of students that actually
meet the advanced standing criteria. So, don't feel bad
if that isn't you.
Most of our students are in our traditional programs.
And for each of the tracks, there are three different programs:
a full-time, on-campus program track
a part-time, on-campus track,
and a part-time, online track.
We do not have
a full-time online track for reasons I won't get into here.
So, hopefully, you know at this point if you will be
applying to the traditional
or the advanced standing program.
So let's compare and contrast these three different
tracks a little bit more.
So, here's a really quick flowchart to get you thinking
about what track might be the
best fit for you.
So, first, you're going to need to decide
if you're applying to
an online
or an on-campus program.
And so, the big question here is:
are you currently living within 50 miles of campus
here in Buffalo,
or are you willing or able to relocate?
So, if the answer is, yes, you
really should consider applying for an
on-campus program.
If the answer is, no,
then you would be limited to our online, part-time program.
I want to mention
that the 50-mile radius here is not arbitrary.
The reason I mention it is because we do prioritize seats
in our online program for
students who live more than 50 miles from campus.
So, if you are a local student,
I would highly encourage you to consider
an on-campus program
instead, and we'll discuss what that looks like
in just a little bit.
So, for those of you who are applying to one of our on-campus programs,
the next question
for you is going to be part-time or full-time?
And so, the big factors here are work and other commitments.
So, if you need or want
to work while attending school,
then the part-time program is going to be the best fit for you.
Some full- time students are able to work a little bit
while they're in school, but definitely not full-time.
The other thing to think about are the other non-work-related
commitments you may have,
like family obligations or caretaking responsibilities.
If you have a lot of additional
commitments and you're really not able to cut back on them
or get additional support with them,
then part-time may also be the best fit for you, as well.
The bottom line here is that being a full-time student
is a full-time job.
So, let's take a look then
at what an average week is going to look like,
for each of these different tracks.
So, first, full-time students usually take
four classes every semester,
plus field placement.
So, full-time students are expected to be available for class and field
during daytime hours.
Between class, field placements, and
preparing for class, and assignments,
it's about a fifty-hour week commitment
for the full-time program.
Part-time students,
on the other hand, only take about two classes at a time
and on-campus, part-time students
get first choice of the evening class sections that we offer.
Online students may have a synchronous session or two
where they have to log on for a live video chat type session,
but many of the courses are completely asynchronous,
which means that you would need to create
time in your own schedule to get the work done
when you can.
So, part-time students, on average,
should plan to spend at least 12 to 15 hours
a week between class and assignments,
regardless of whether they're in the on-campus or online program track.
I want to highlight just a few additional details and differences
between the tracks.
So, here's a snapshot of the traditional curriculum tracks.
The traditional program is 60 credits, and
the full-time track is 2 years, while
the part-time tracks are stretched out to 3 years,
and the curriculum sequence is quite rigid.
So, what you see here is exactly what you would need to take
each semester of the program.
You cannot speed it up or slow it down at all,
you really have to stick to this curriculum.
You'll also notice that the traditional programs both start
in the fall semesters only and
that traditional students, complete two different field placements,
which are the underlined
classes that you see here that are marked as "Field."
So, here are the advanced standing curriculum tracks.
The advanced standing programs
are 35 credits total
and the full-time track is just one year, while the
part-time program tracks are a year and a half
or 5 semesters.
So, you'll notice that the full-time, advanced standing program technically has one
part-time semester,
which is the first summer semester.
I also want to point out that the
advanced standing programs only begin in
the semesters shown here.
So, the full-time program begins in the summer only,
and the part-time programs begin in the
spring semesters, only.
Advanced standing students complete one field placement
during the last
two semesters of their program.
Again, those classes are highlighted on here,
and I want to mention all of our curriculum
tracks are posted on our website for your reference.
So, don't feel like you have to
memorize this--feel free to check it out on our website.
And since the programs all start during different semesters,
the application deadlines are different
for each program.
So, here are the deadlines for this year, which is 2020
and you'll notice the traditional
part-time, online program has an earlier deadline
than the other traditional programs.
And that is because it is especially competitive,
so the deadline is earlier.
So, make sure you're checking information on our website
about the application process,
or watch our application video
for a little bit more tips and tricks
about how to submit
a strong application for any of the programs you may be applying to.
And make sure that
you check the deadlines page of our website because
we do sometimes extend deadlines for
some of the programs.
And if we do that, we would post it on the deadlines page
of our website.
So, finally, let's talk about field placement,
which is a really big part of all of our MSW programs.
Field placement is an intensive internship
in an actual social work setting.
Every field placement is different.
It could be at an educational setting,
maybe a healthcare setting,
or a community advocacy group,
among many, many others.
And at these placements,
you'll be practicing your basic and advanced
social work skills
that you're learning in class.
There is a real focus on supervision
and self-reflection, as part of your placement, and
you're going to learn how social work agencies function
and hopefully also what is or
is not a good fit for you,
so you have a better idea of what you might want to pursue
after you finish the program.
I mentioned before traditional students
must complete two different field placements,
a foundation placement, which is a more general placement
practicing basic social work skills,
and an advanced placement, which is a more specialized placement
focusing on advanced skills.
Advanced standing students, on the other hand,
only need to complete the advanced placement,
since they have already done
a foundation placement as part of their accredited BSW program.
And during the field placement semesters,
it's about 15 to 16 hours a week
that you're expected to be at your agency.
And these are typically completed during
normal business hours.
So, we always tell students,
especially part-time students who are working full time
and doing school at the same time, not to expect to get
an evening or weekend field placement,
because there are very few agencies who have these kinds of off-hours.
So, you may need
to rearrange your regular work schedule to
fit in the field placements during those semesters
during the day.
So, online students actually complete their field placement
at an agency near where they live
and they are expected to do a bit of initial research
into agencies in their area
that they would like to complete the placement with.
So, it's more of a collaborative effort
to identify those agencies for online students,
as opposed to our on-campus students.
And I also do want to mention for those of you who are planning on
working and doing
the part-time program,
that your job cannot count as your field placement.
That is not allowed.
However, there is something called an employment-based placement.
This is a totally different job description
from your regular job, under a totally different
supervisor than your regular supervisor,
that just happens to be at the same organization
you currently work for.
So, this may work for some people, but certainly not all.
So, if you were interested in this type of placement,
there are more guidelines on our
field education section of our website
and you can check out to see if an employment-based
placement might make sense for you.
And that comes to the end of our presentation here,
so feel free to look around our website,
take a deeper dive into the curriculum, if you want,
and our advanced year courses.
And certainly, if you have any questions about the program
or the application process,
feel free to reach out. Thanks for joining me today.