Emily Dennis
01:00:28 PM
Hi all! We will get started momentarily
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our information session specifically for admitted students to Columbia School of Social Work. So we'll go over the masters of social work a bit and some of the things that you need to be mindful of moving forward. We will get started. I think most if not all, of our.
Our guests will have joined us, but there will also be additional ways to learn more, but of course it gets started just to be very clear. Again, this is an information session for students admitted to the school social work and it's hosted by the Office of Admissions. My name is Natasha. I'm joined today by our Assistant Director of Admissions, Emily Dennis, as well as our director of Admissions, David Stevens, and I believe our associate Director John Graham may be joining us as well, so there will be more events featured and hosted by.
Other offices, but this is an overview of sorts for things to just be mindful of moving forward. It does help if you've already seen or participated in one of our virtual information sessions, but we'll go over the admissions checklist today.
We do want you to use the Q&A area. We'll do our very best to address any of your questions live, but there may be some questions we won't be able to get to due to time constraints. There may also just be questions that are really personal to you, and in that case, depending on the inquiry, you may be encouraged to email us instead. Otherwise our number is available. We are accepting calls you can always reach out to us if you have any questions. But just to get started.
Congratulations, congratulations, Congrats. Congrats, Congrats. We are so excited to have offered you admission. It gets a little bit tougher every year. The admissions process is quite rigorous for a school of social work. So in case you are having any doubts, know that multiple people reviewed your application and came to the agreement that not only would you do well academically in our program, but we also believe that you have something to offer the profession.
So I do hope you keep that with you. Of course, we do know that you're we hope you're excited to join the profession in the school. And again moving forward will be answering questions in this moderated chat to to help set you up for success.
Here's some information about the previous entry in class, UM, just about 20% of our students identify as first generation college students. We also have about 20% of our students that identify as first Gen Americans, so that's just some really important context that so many of our students probably make some really rough assumptions about where our students are are coming from. I can also say that, statistically speaking, most of our students are joining us from.
The New York University UM system or the state of New York University system so Sunnis cooneys a great deal of our students are joining us from public institutions, but specifically those. I think sometimes students assume that all of our graduate students are coming from Columbia College, and that's not quite the case. The fall entering class tends to be a little bit larger. I think the fall 2021 class was around 5:00.
50 There's expectations that that'll be probably similar, but there is definitely some room for for nuances to that number, because not only do we have an in person class, we also have an online campus.
Students are very much citizens of the world with over 37 countries represented in the fall 2021 entering class. This is fairly high for not just a Graduate School, but a Graduate School of social work specifically similar to the profession. Most of our students identify as female, but there are certainly students that are gender diverse and identify various amount of ways the average age of our students is close to 26, so there is some room for some work experience joining the class.
And hopefully you can see the data that breaks down the race ethnicity of our students. Again, always a work in progress. It's a really important internally for us to be mindful of these numbers, but again, for a school of social work in the top one of that, these numbers continue to improve and move in the correct direction.
Hopefully you know. Again, you've taken some time to learn more about the school you've explored the research centers, but you've also taken the time to learn more about faculty. We have some of the most cited faculty in the field of social work, ranging from social policy to health policy, to clinical, to working in communities, to all sorts of ways to help better run organizations, and so we hope that you've taken the time to learn more about Elwin Boo or Nabila El Bassel.
Or Rob Hartley. I see a number of great faculty members here. Some of you may even be already interested. The DVT program, so maybe you're familiar with Andre Ivanoff and so more and more these faces and these names will become more familiar to you, but hopefully you've taken the time on your own. As you've learned more about the program. So really think about what makes the most sense for your your goals, but also just to be excited about the academic community that you're joining.
Now I will just put out a friendly reminder that when it comes to our curriculum, your first year is generalist in nature and this is of course speaking mostly to the two year students. But the way that the program is built the first year is journalists in nature and the second year you're really honing in on a particular specialization. This is something we'll go into more detail in. Essentially, we hope that you have an idea of what you would like to study, and of course get excited about who you would study with, but you have some time.
To make changes to those choices as we go.
We are leader in online social work education. The online campus has been developed in house by faculty members and alums. Faculty members that teach on the online campus actually have to go through a rigorous training and and pass it in House kind of institute of sorts before they actually are approved to teach online. So it's something we're very proud full of. You can actually Google and find all sorts of different.
Sam G.
01:08:16 PM
Are there housing assignments specifically designated for oir
I publications about our online program, not just how it's set up, but also just the studies that have been done in house to ensure that our program is as accessible as possible and to ensure that our online campus is is really meeting the appropriate learning outcomes. The online classes are live. They are not a particularly asynchronous, they they, they're live. You have to log in at a particular time. The classes that would be listed when you register are listed in Eastern Time.
So that's something to be mindful of, but we do have a wide range of class times, and of course the pandemic continues to throw a wrench in plans, but the expectation more more is that we'll be able to continue to be hybrid if not in person in this fall. But for those of you who are.
Purely going for the online campus and will be studying from other states or may change your mind to different campuses. Know that there's an online campus that has the same resources as the in person campus and that's really helped us be some level of successful during this pandemic.
Now for the admitted soon checklist. Hopefully these items are not foreign to you. You should be aware that there is a nonrefundable tuition deposit that is required by a particular deadline. Why? Because we want to make sure that we keep a space for you in the class. We also want to make sure that we are moving you forward through the enrollment process, whether it's field, education, or thinking of how many courses we need to offer.
Especially again, if you're on the online campus in different time zones, we really need to move forward so you have any questions about the tuition deposit. If you have any concerns about the tuition deposit, do not keep them to yourself. Please make an appointment to speak to a member of the admission team or just call us again. We are here to help and we want to make sure that we're providing assistance as much as necessary.
David Stephens
01:10:14 PM
Hello Sam, No, the building will be all graduate students at CU, but can be from any of our schools. And if you select a shared unit it's a possibility that your suitemate may be from a different CU school.
Yan Tung L.
01:10:39 PM
What should I do if I've not received my UNI?
Official transcripts will need to be sent electronically to our office. It is quite common to get a lot of questions about the official transcript, but just be again aware that we have the admissions checklist. You'll see that dreaded red X if something is missing. Essentially, we need official transcripts for each and every unofficial transcript that was provided during the admissions process.
So for the official transcript, it needs to come from the issuing registrar of the other institution directly from us. It should not come physically by mail. Our office is hybrid at the moment, but we also have university guidelines that we are following. Your transcript should be electronic. If you have a concern or an issue or a problem with getting electronic official transcript sent, please email our office. We would need your concern in writing.
And we are here to help, so hopefully that's clear, but you will from time to time get an email from us if your transcripts are missing.
If they're missing for you on your checklist, they're missing for us, and so we want to make sure that we're processing them as they come in, and we appreciate your.
Dena T.
01:11:39 PM
Forgive me if this is a silly question, but have we all already chosen our "specialization"programs, like AGPP, Clinical,etc? If so where would that info be found and if not, when must we make that decision by?
David Stephens
01:12:01 PM
Yan, did you attempt to claim your UNI. Feel free to email our office if you're having difficulties claiming your unit and we can connect you with our systems administrator.
Assistance on the matter by submitting those official transcripts as soon as possible, we do recommend joining the Facebook group. It's a great way to get additional information. It's a great way to meet your incoming peers as well, and so reminders like the transcripts like the deposits will probably be posted on that Facebook group as well. But do know that all important details are sent to you by email. For the most part, as you begin the enrollment process through the.
David Stephens
01:12:10 PM
cssw-admit@columbia.edu
Email address we have on file that you applied with, but then it goes to your line mail to your Columbia email address so it is of the utmost importance that you activate your uni. If you do not have a uni yet. If you never got an email from us. That said, hey, your uni is available and here's a list of things that you should do moving forward.
Allison Q.
01:12:26 PM
For students with two bachelor's from the same institution, do we need to submit two copies of the same transcript? It requested two to be submitted on the application, so I wasn't sure. thank you!
Emily Dennis
01:12:30 PM
Hi Dena, which ever specialization you selected on your application is not set in stone. The program pathway you are pursuing will determine the date by which you need to finalize your selection.
Feel free to let us know, but you also had to have submitted a deposit again. The deposit is the way we and the university can plan ahead for your enrollment and actually know that you're about to join us so you are issued a uni that you then need to activate and then you get access to not just logging into systems with your uni but also at that email address where our colleagues and other offices will begin to send important updates and information to updates like your immunization compliance documentation.
Zaira W.
01:13:17 PM
If we are still finishing up our degree should we wait to submit our official transcripts until the end of the school year or should we submit those now?
So Columbia Health only, I believe emails. The Uni email address directly when they have concerns or or questions. It is of the soul important of most importance that you are submitting your immunization compliance documentation. Without it you are not permitted to register.
Emily Dennis
01:13:37 PM
Hi Zaira, please send your transcript after your degree is completed and all of your grades are included on the transcript
In terms of waiving requirements, we can't help in terms of expediting materials. We can't help, and so if you are excited to join Columbia and you're already thinking of what classes you want with time of day, your classes will be what faculty member you get to learn with. Do your best to submit your immunization compliance as soon as possible. If not this week.
Gianna S.
01:13:50 PM
Is there a deadline for the submission of our official transcripts? If we are graduating in May will there be an issue?
Do not delay. Why because things happen. Maybe there's a dose missing for a vaccine. Maybe you your your doctor has its stereotypical doctors handwriting, and Columbia Health can't read it. These are really important medical documents. Our office has no hand in in the immunization. Compliance is processing this for the entire university. Just a heads up. You were some of the earlier admins for fall 2022.
Emily Dennis
01:14:28 PM
Hi Gianna, transcripts should be sent in as soon as possible, but students who are still working on their degree should wait until they have finished! (Your transcript will need all of your grades and must show your degree conferral)
You cannot ever call Columbia Health and say, but my registration date is this day and needs to be processed. They they cannot and will not exploit just for you. So do not make a lack of planning on your part become someone elses emergency. That's that's my wish submitted. Advice will be sure to share the immunization compliance link in the chat if needed, but you'll also of course have gotten several emails from us of things to keep in mind in your checklist.
Brittany E.
01:14:44 PM
How long does it take for our checklist to update after submitting our transcripts?
We do want to make sure you're planning on how to finance your MSW. If you're eligible to submit the FAFSA, you have to do so in order to get a financial aid package from us. I'll also say that if you're concerned about your financial aid package, or if you're an international student, you're welcome to submit what we would consider an appeal for financial aid and let us know your background. We can always do our best to try to help make attending Columbia school social work more of a reality, but we also have a webinar coming up to go.
Emily Dennis
01:15:20 PM
Hi Brittany, it varies but transcripts sometimes take several days for us to process
David Stephens
01:15:23 PM
Allison, if all the courses from both of your degrees are on one then you only need to submit one transcript.
Over a financial aid, we do a handful of these throughout the summer. You also should be looking at external funding. There's so many ways to fund your MSW education, including institutional aid, but if you have not already.
And you're just waiting on getting information from us. What is probably lacking would be that that FAFSA, so be sure to do so we won't be able to generate a financial aid package automatically without it.
We do want to make sure that you're also submitting the field education placement form. My Intel is that the forms are not available just yet.
Orlane D.
01:16:00 PM
in terms of housing, are students required to live in a CU building or can money from the financial aid be used to pay for off-campus housing? how would that work?
Emily Dennis
01:16:12 PM
Hi Orlane, more info on housing is available here: https://socialwork.columbia.edu/admitted-students/housing-options/
Laurel S.
01:16:19 PM
How do I access the portal that shows me what documents you all have received? I have gotten my UNI and LionMail. However, I don't know how to access the portal that is being referred to.
I am sure one of my colleagues will panic, text me and tell me if I've missed something, but my understanding is they're not ready just yet, but this is our offices way of just making sure that you have the insight and understanding of what priorities are. Once the field placement form becomes available again, I believe they're going to send it directly to your line mail and once once it's there you should submit it as soon as possible.
Amanda P.
01:16:30 PM
Where do we find the field education placement form?
Emily Dennis
01:16:33 PM
Hi Laurel, the "portal" is the portal where you submitted your application
Within reason, of course, if you feel like you have a concern with the field placement form, like you don't know where you would like to complete field geographically, maybe you're still considering what state you'll complete the program from. You should absolutely have that conversation with your signed field placement coordinator or assistant director or Associate Director of field, but otherwise the form is fairly straightforward. You should submit it as soon as possible once you receive it, otherwise the.
The more delays you add to completing the field placement form, once it's available, the more likely, UM, you're going to have an issue with with securing your field placement. There are a lot of moving parts with field and we'll talk about that in just a moment, but you wanna make sure that once you get that form you're not waiting for it. And again, you want to make sure you're also joining us for events. Will have several events where we go over additional next steps. We'll have a lot of events where we go over what to expect. I believe my colleagues will also be inviting you to events as well.
And provide clarifying information, not just in kind of a large, uh, virtual gathering of sorts, but specific to you and your pathway so you know, of course, keeping in mind that when it comes to certain requirements.
They they're for everyone like immunization compliance documentation, some requirements, not so much if you're not starting field just yet, you're in the part time to full time program, then your field placement form would likely not go out to you. This year will be the following, and so just be mindful of that. The uni should take about, I think at most three to five days to five business days to generate from submitting your.
Dena T.
01:18:34 PM
do part time to extended students need to fill out the field education placement form at this time?
Deposit, but if there's any kind of concern that it's not received yet, just feel free to let us know. I'll be frank I'll be transparent and saying a lot of the admitted student checklist is a lot of hurrying up rushing to submit your requirements and then waiting, waiting to make sure it's processed. Waiting to make sure there's no follow up questions. And so sometimes I don't want to instill any level of panic or in ciety to complete these items. But you wanna make sure you're not ignoring them?
Once they become available to you.
Emily Dennis
01:18:49 PM
Hi Dena, no, you will fill it out prior to starting field education in your second or third year
Laurel S.
01:19:00 PM
Ok, thanks! I have tried logging in. However, since activating my LionMail and UNI I have not been able to get in. I will email CSSW directly to figure it out! Thanks!
We do have several students support. Office is here to help you throughout your in support you throughout your academic career. There are a number of offices we take the time to kind of talk about in the information session for prospective students. These offices, some of them will also make an appearance at coffee chats, or perhaps in their own webinars to have to go over certain details. But I do want to be very clear when it comes to the online campus.
Emily Dennis
01:19:21 PM
Laurel, try logging in with the same email and password you used to submit your application!
Every single office has a function for working in person with current students or virtually or remotely for online campus students. That that's existed, you know more or less prior to the pandemic and his only high end as so many of our students are in many different spaces.
Brittany E.
01:19:51 PM
How long after receiving admission should we expect to receive our financial aid package?
David Stephens
01:19:56 PM
Amanda, if you have paid your enrollment deposit, you will receive an email from the field education department to your "columbia.edu" email with instructions on your to submit the field education form. These emails have not gone out yet. The field education department is hosting a webinar on field education next Friday, March 11 for all students who have paid their enrollment deposit.
Talk a little bit more about advising and DI and field education, but I do want to point out the social work library is one of the largest of its kind to have our own social work. Focus library in house in the building, it's part of one of the largest I believe the 5th or so largest library system in North America. And would you also have access to throughout Columbia campus will be able to provide additional kind of insight into our writing center as well.
Emily Dennis
01:20:16 PM
Hi Brittany, it usually takes a week or two after being admitted. If you haven't already submitted the FAFSA, it will probably take longer.
Emily-Faye D.
01:20:21 PM
I submitted my deposit about a week ago and have not received my uni/lion mail. should i contact the office?
Which is ours I meant is only for MSW students. I don't know if they'll be joining for webinar later this summer, but there's certainly. You know I did wanna shout out those two offices as well as I'd say career services. Just because career services will likely not be presenting a webinar over the summer, you know, Full disclosure with the social work library and career services at the writing center have in common is that you do not have access to them until you officially matriculate, so that's.
David Stephens
01:20:43 PM
Yes, Emily-Faye. Please email the admissions office at cssw-admit@columbia.edu
Really orientation and after and so there's only so much information those three departments would would likely provide at this stage, but know that they're excited to welcome you to the campus and provide relevant information as it becomes available.
So about advising we're able to offer individualized advising from licensed social workers. Fun fact or office of advising, as well as our Field Education Office almost entirely or I believe, entirely social workers that are licensed. And they're there to provide you with really academic as well as field, and even in some cases they're built in mentor of sorts and provide you that experience and insight.
Zaira W.
01:21:35 PM
When do the waiver exams take place approximately?
That only a licensed social work practitioner can provide. So as part of the program as you have questions, you're able to of course, speak to an advisor here able to reach out to an advisor, but there are advising seminars that are required as part of your time in the program. There's also advising webinars that will provide for you as an incoming student.
David Stephens
01:21:55 PM
Zaira, please email Student Services regarding waiver exams. swstudentservices@columbia.edu
Richelle M.
01:22:05 PM
How do we know who our field placement advisor is or who to reach out to if we have questions about the field education placement form?
Now, if you've checked our admitted students event page, you might already have had some level of access to last year's webinars. If you want to, you can watch them, but Full disclosure things are subject to change between years. Our curriculum has not changed dramatically, but it's always good to just be mindful of what current course offerings look like.
I know that there's sometimes I think this is ever so slightly outdated, but most of the people here are still with us.
I know sometimes there's a little bit of anxiety about exactly what classes you need to register for and exactly how to you know complete their registration process. What I will say is that it is a lot simpler than it looks. It is certainly not meant to the registration process is not particularly complicated at all, and the study plan is a great way to just kind of understand and explore what your course requirements will look like.
Moving forward so you have that insight, but they will be joining each program for their own individualized or focused webinars. If you really are eager, you can email them a question. If you're really are eager, you can make an appointment. If you have a uni, but just know that most questions are answered by the study plan and most concerns are when students are over complicating the curriculum, it's straightforward, I promise.
David Stephens
01:23:33 PM
Richelle, your associate director of field education will contact you. No students have been informed of their field education advisor except in situations where a student has been connected with field education to set up a placement at an agency that the admitted student has brought to us.
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was founded in 2017 to provide schoolwide programming and services and was the result of a really student demand. There was a feeling that rather than assume diversity, equity and inclusion is existing in different parts of the school, have a standalone office that is there to focus and provide resources to students. So Carmelo, who's been with the School of Social work quite some time, worn a lot of different hats from student services to financial aid.
This helped recruit through the school, knows a lot about the school, continues to provide resources for students. Her office really works to develop the prop curriculum. That's power, race, oppression and privilege. It's it's part of your foundation course, which we've renamed decolonizing social work Practice and really just take the time to ensure that we're thinking of what does it mean to decolonize social work, and what ways can you ensure that decolonization is not just a metaphor.
Abigail P.
01:24:57 PM
I must have missed it. When do receive the study plan?
So as part of coursework, curriculum requirements, you can choose different topics within the prop umbrella. But this is a work in progress. It's brought up a lot of growth concerns. There's been a lot of changes, we take a lot of feedback, and so the office is heavily involved in ensuring that it's as successful as possible, and it's really ambitious. It's fairly ambitious as not just an individualized course, but also.
Recently working to make sure that it's a framework that we can suffuse into pre existing courses. There's also professional development in self awareness training which all students who are entering a field this fall will do as part of their orientation. There's a lot of great.
David Stephens
01:25:29 PM
You can access our study plans for each program on our website.
Exercises activities that you do with your peers. It's facilitated by staff, students, alums in even some faculty members. Just really as a way to as a small group, have really important conversations while also looking inward. And so it is. There's a lot of events at the office does. There's a lot of kind of programming it provides, but there's also ways that it's built into your time as a student, and if you have any questions, concerns, or interests that you wanna share your welcome to join.
Uh, well are now associate Dean of D icor, meloetta, Deans coffee chat. There's there should be some coming up. We'll be sure to share the events link in in the chat. You'll be able to define coffee chats with either denlow or Dean Michael Laglio, who works with enrollment management, similar faculty, Deans. We we continue to add new coffee chats so they're a great way to ask questions directly.
Student life is incredibly important, so to not just focus on your in classroom experience, but to focus on the larger Columbia culture as well as of course, the culture of New York and so student caucuses are great ways to get involved. Those are our student organizations. These student Life blog has a list of different organizations. I know there's a hope that our student caucuses are able to join for different students. Chats this.
Upcoming spring and summer. So there'll be ways that they introduce themselves to you and get you excited to get involved. There's also a university wide resources and amenities as a Columbia School of social work student, there are other events. There are other panels, there are other working groups, task force that you can get involved in. Again to be able to really make sure that you're having a robust Co curricular experience as well as extracurricular experience and the school does sponsor quite.
Number high volume of events, especially for a school of social work with field education that tends to be a bit of a barrier to focus, and so we're always grateful to be able to be mindful of what our students are doing outside of the classroom.
For field education, our field Education Office partners with over 800 field agencies. Many of these are really long standing relationships with the School of social work way back when when the school was first formed as really an opportunity to offer some coursework in social work in 1898. A number of these agencies have have actually existed just around that time as well, so it's actually quite interesting some of the.
Oldest agencies and organizations, whether they're philanthropic or nonprofit in New York City, who usually have some tie to Columbia School of Social work, this allows us to provide quality experiences to students. But do be mindful that it is the goal for the school as well as the you know, the Field Education Office to make sure you're getting a quality field placement experience that is installing the proper skills that you can use moving forward. I know students really.
I sometimes get anxious about the which organization they work with and the name of the organization and if it. You know it's really important, more so.
To trust the process of it to work closely with your associate director or Assistant Director of field so that you're able to answer any questions or concerns they you have. I know they have a number of webinars that they've said that they will be able to share with admitted students shortly so that you can learn even more about the field process. But your first year field and I'm speaking generally for our two year students are five term students. Even part time too.
Full time extended students when it is time to enroll in field, your first year will be generalist in nature and the goal is that you have a say and where your field placement is geographically. You let us or the field organization or sorry the the Field Education Office know where you will be completing field from. If you're in New York City, if you're on the Upper West Side, if you're an online student and you're in a different state, you'll let the field.
Organized field Education Office no. And then they'll be able to help us work with field.
Orlane D.
01:29:54 PM
are any of the field placements paid or is it required that it is unpaid?
Emily Dennis
01:30:08 PM
Hi Orlane, nearly 100% of our placements are unpaid
We should seize and organizations that have the proper supervision and could provide you with the resources and experience you need to set you up for year two. Year two is actually where you're locking into your specialization of choice. It's actually where you're ranking a belief. Now it's three options for what your field placements are and, and so it really is important that you embrace your first year experience. It's it's a lot of moving parts. There are organizations and.
Ruthnaomi Vitaloka L.
01:30:34 PM
Hi, for international students, can I use J-1 visa to attend this field practice?
Agencies that have their own needs and what they're looking for in a field intern. And of course we want to ensure that your your meeting all the learning outcomes necessary. Do you see a question in the chat with whether or not the field placements are paid or not? The vast majority of them are unpaid or another way to say that is you should expect them to be unpaid. That way you're pleasantly surprised if there is a stipend. If there's a travel allowance. If there's some benefit that monetarily they can provide.
Emily Dennis
01:30:59 PM
Hi Ruthnaomi, all international students complete field placements, no matter what kind of visa they have.
But it is up to the organizations to provide a said resources. And so, as these are resources that, as you know with social work, our catering and and and working to enhance the well being of those who typically lack resources or access at these organizations are not able to provide those those type of.
Resources to to field interns. What I will also say is that when it comes to your field placement, statistically speaking, our career services team has found that most students are finding their MSW or their post employment not at where they do their field work, but through their field work.
Surveys have come back and students have said because of my supervisor at my field agency because of the network I've built because of the project I worked on, I've been able to secure and find my post MSW employment. So while I completely understand that there's sometimes, but it being ciety about what to expect with field on the field, Education Office has said that they will be providing further detail, a kind of in terms of like what to expect and what it looks like.
So we do want to make sure that you are aware and marking your calendar for orientation. I do not believe orientation has been confirmed yet, but I am sure one of my colleagues will confirm will clarify, or at least it's not on the academic calendar on our website just yet. There are two different orientation weeks. You don't have a choice. You've got advanced training students that are starting with us, usually sometime late or so July and your orientation will be this summer and then everyone else.
Joining us in this fall will be joining us probably late August, and so it is important to be mindful that at times my my colleagues for their staff, even current students might refer to orientation. But depending on what program you're in, your orientation might start at a different time of the summer.
Orientation will cover presentations about student support. Offices will provide opportunities to meet faculty and administrators with the pandemic. As of right now, this moment staff are still hybrid or remote and visitors that have not.
Matriculate it just yet have not officially enrolled in courses, and started the program are not able to access the building, and so part of orientation is also providing even optional ways of meeting people in person and getting to know your peers and to also get to know your your peer leader for orientation or your orientation leader, and that will be a current student that will be helping you through the orientation process.
In terms of what to expect, expect professional development and awareness training. Expect it to happen over 2 days. It's usually is not two full business days. Usually it's about two or three hours or so sessions, but that is usually through orientation week again, once it's confirmed. I'm sure our offices will clarify if it won't be, but the expectation more or less is that orientation begins the process of becoming a full time graduate student.
And so usually it's almost a full week. Usually it's almost like a full Monday to Thursday a programming and and requirements that you'll have to to complete with some nuances. Sometimes the PDS a days don't have as much to do during the business day, but the exact schedule is usually available the week before orientation.
There's also preparation for the profession, which is a special seminar that's facilitated by your advisor in the office advising to provide students who are entering field with an overview of expectations and requirements for success in your internships. So this is kind of the last and kind of final touch point of advising of field as part of orientation to make sure you're ready for students who start field this upcoming fall. They're field very much starts in the month of.
September or October depending on your field organization. This is probably one of the more challenging aspects of field education is that every single situation is different. Your organization might have a different start day. Your organization might have different kind of requests in terms of what they're looking for in an intern. Your organization might reach out to interview you over the summer. Your organization might reach out as soon as you submit your field. For him, there's a lot of moving.
Parts, but this is our way of making sure that regardless of exactly the minute you start field that you have a moment to really reflect with your advisor.
The other thing with advising is that we not just have the full time advising office. There are also part time advisors that are licensed social workers that would be helping you through your advising seminars so that that is something to to be mindful of that there's a full time office you can always go to if you have questions, but there may be an individual that meets with your small group throughout the year.
And there's also office of University Life tutorials that are mandatory. Why am I telling you about this now? They're probably not even available. Well, fun fact, if you don't complete your office of university life tutorials, you get kicked out of your uni every single day and you're forced to create. I believe a new password every single day until ultimately you're unable to enroll so.
Abigail P.
01:36:42 PM
For online students, is orientation in person?
Emily Dennis
01:36:54 PM
Hi Abigail, online students attend orientation online
Rather dramatic but effective, and so once you get that email that your university life tutorials, which they're fairly brief, they should not take. I believe much more than an hour to complete once they're available, do your best to complete them right away. Do not wait otherwise.
Gets a little rough in terms of being able to access everything and for all of our requirements for.
Mira C.
01:37:07 PM
How feasible is it to have a part time job outside of field experience?
Admitted students, if they're for the online campus. It is online. If it's for the on campus residential students, you know.
I would have expected to be in person or hybrid. Uhm, these I will be transparent in saying the most recent orientations we have offered have been mostly virtual versus mostly online, but have in person components that may be optional, mostly to give students additional time to move to New York to settle to New York to meet any kind of waiting period or isolation period.
A kind of quarantine requirements, but as.
Emily Dennis
01:38:11 PM
Hi Mira, lots of our students work part-time while attending the program full-time. However, everyone has a different bandwidth, so whether or not this is a realistic schedule depends on every individual person!
Lauren-Jessica H.
01:38:19 PM
Is this information session recorded?
Require or as standards begin to change as more students are vaccinated. As more New Yorkers are vaccinated and other states have, you know, their own levels that we expect a lot to change over the summer. So I know that it's hard to sometimes know exactly what to expect. But for now, I feel fairly safe saying that if you're going to be joining us in person, that there's going to be at least in person components. You'll be interested in, even if it's not the entirety of orientation.
Emily Dennis
01:38:28 PM
Yes, this session is being recorded!
So 91% of our students who filed a FAFSA for the 2020-2021 academic year received over 14.8 million in institutional funding awarded. My understanding is that for this academic year 2021 and 2022, we're over 15 million if not approaching 16. This was not easy. This is a reflection of the hard work of the Office of.
Olivia Z.
01:39:10 PM
For online students, how do we receive student ID?
Emily Dennis
01:39:21 PM
Hi Olivia, it will be mailed to you
Our financial aid, as well as even our own office of admissions, even external relations and alumni support securing additional funding, finding additional ways that our institution can help students is what has allowed for the average loan debt of our students to go down over the last three or four years. And so it is important that, again, it's your mindful as a student of what is available to you once you submit the FAFSA.
And that you do not hesitate to submit the FAFSA, but you also want to make sure that you're looking at external funding and attending the financial aid webinars and learning more every once in awhile. I'll hear students say, uhm, I didn't want to submit the FAFSA because those afraid I wouldn't get any aid except if you don't submit the FAFSA. You you don't get any aid. More students usually get a little bit more than they expect because.
Graduate School generally would not include your your parents taxes, which is different than undergrad. You're more or less filing the FAFSA on your own. I've also heard students occasionally say, well, I was told there's no financial aid for grad school. There's no Pell Grant, there's no.
Tap Grant and so I don't need to submit the FAFSA. That's that's not how it works either. There are certain states, especially New York State, that have certain resources for undergraduate students of a certain CSS or income level or demonstrated kind of financial need as part of the financial aid process. Those forms of aid may not exist in graduate admissions and graduate enrollment, but our own institutional aid.
Does take into account need as well as? Of course, any federal loans or any federal options that you would be looking to pursue as well.
So when it comes to submitting the FAFSA, make sure you are submitting the the faster for the appropriate academic year. UM, you know, every once in a while student might.
Have submitted the wrong one. Or maybe you're currently in college, so you already did the 2021-2022 FAFSA. It is important that you send it to the correct institutional code so that we have it. Our financial aid team usually beats the three business week mark of when they get their FAFSA to providing you with the financial aid package, but sometimes it does take a few weeks and so we do want you to be mindful of that. And of course to qualify you would have.
To be enrolled full time, including field work, and have valid US citizenship or permanent resident status for most of our institutional aid. So for full details and to find the correct institution code and find the link for submitting the facts that you'd be able to follow that link, as well as to learn more about our checklist items.
Brittany E.
01:41:55 PM
Do online student have the option to attend orientation in person? Also, are online students allowed to visit and utilize on-campus resources?
Registration opens for all new and continuing CSSW students later this summer. Again, you might think, wow, why all of these reminders for things that don't quite have dates yet.
We want you to get ready now, so if you have any questions, the most recent study plan which is provided via QR code on this slide. Most smartphones you can go right to your camera app. I'll stall just a little bit to give you time, but you'll be able to go right to your camera app and hold it up to the QR code and it should give you the option to open in your browser of choice and take your right to the link necessary for you to learn more. And so again, it's it's great to know and have a clear understanding.
Emily Dennis
01:43:00 PM
Hi Brittany, online students attend orientation online. I am unsure if exceptions will be made for online students to attend in-person this year, but more info will be available as we get closer to the summer. Online students have full access to the campus and campus resources.
Of what to expect in your upcoming semester for incoming first year students. So much of the social work curriculum is set by our accrediting body to ensure that from coast to coast social work students are studying at least the same type of curriculum. Whether it's social welfare policy or human behavior, the social environment, what makes our program of course difference are the opportunities for really robust.
Direct practice in your first year in the sense that your coursework is already taking into account how you would work directly with individuals as well as really the rigor of our program. So hopefully I've stalled enough and give you enough time to look up our most recent study plan, essentially as an incoming student. When it comes to registration, you would then be registering for each of those courses, but choosing a specific class day.
In time, which makes a little bit more sense when you actually step through the registration process. But again, there is a method to all of this madness. It all works out and so hopefully you're not too anxious about registration. We also will always do what we can to ensure that you're registered for the classes you need, that there usually is a later round of registration closer to orientation, and so this is an ongoing process that will be provided with.
Updating, I'm sorry with with with further updates throughout the the leader of the spring in the summer, but we do want you to also be aware of any waiver exams. There's usually.
Emily T.
01:44:26 PM
Hi! Can you repost the dates for orientation?
Emily Dennis
01:44:37 PM
Hi Emily, the exact dates have not yet been finalized
Look, it's not. It's not my email, there's usually an email that goes out, and it's incredibly long and it usually has a document that's even longer, and it has almost every answer you can think of regarding registration. And so once that goes out, that of course all of our teams will have the proper information, but some of you may already be asking about waiver exams. Maybe you've already taken social work policy or human behavior.
However, not pardon social policy, social work research or statistics, and you would like to waive out of that, you would be able to do so via waiver exam. There's also usually a form that gets sent out as part of this email that also includes a way for you to let us know if you've taken statistics recently, or if there's another social work graduate level course that you would like to to wave based off of your background. This is all these are all processes handled by our Office of Student Services. They may or may not be able to join for a webinar moving forward, but just be mindful that this is.
This is to come this then nothing. You haven't missed anything yet. And of course when it comes to those admitted student webinars, there are so many different ways you get to learn more about my colleagues and other offices. Meet students, meet alums, meet faculty. Please go to apply.sw.columbia.edu/portal/admin events for you to learn more about the admitted student events, attend our admitted student welcome webinars, join us for a coffee chat. They're great, small group opportunities to learn more about.
The program at large and to just remain excited about joining the program.
If there are any other additional opportunities to to meet up with your peers or to learn more about kind of a matriculation requirement, usually we host a webinar or an event to share it. This particular webinar will be recorded subsequent admitted student information sessions will likely be recorded as well, but of course as as time goes on and uh, these dates get finalized will be providing them.
In writing via email, posting them probably on the website, sharing them on the Facebook page and also sharing them at these events so you haven't missed anything just yet, but a friendly reminder that registering for events will definitely keep you on track. Checking your email is important. Also feel free to just make sure you're checking your spam folder. Sometimes I forget that I shouldn't probably assume that this generation coming in is more tech savvy than than all the rest, but check the spam folder.
Make sure you're adding columbia.edu that domain as a safe sender. Just being mindful that your financial aid package or maybe even a link from another office if it was sent to your personal email address. It could have gone there, but we'll also be able to share different admitted student invitations in the upcoming weeks ahead.
But with that I do want to say thank you for for joining a friendly reminder to make sure you're completing your checklist. If you go to the link on this particular slide, you'll be able to see a checklist. If there's red, X is for you. Again, Red X is for us over here, so feel free to reach out and if you feel like you've sent a document and we haven't processed it just yet, I will say Graduate School like life favors the most prepared and so we wanna do our part to make sure that you're as prepared as possible for deadlines.
Come for requirements to come. We hope that you are excited again to join this profession and we hope that you know as the the the spring joins us as the weather gets nicer you are as excited as ever for joining our program and for learning more about us and for completing your immunization compliance documents. So if you have if you have any questions please call.
Orlane D.
01:48:34 PM
Where would we get the form for the financial aid appeal?
Please email us. You don't need to make a phone appointment to speak to the office admissions. You could just call during normal business hours, but if you leave this webinar with.
Emily Dennis
01:48:43 PM
Email us at cssw-admit@columbia.edu
Quite you know, just wondering what you should focus on next. If you haven't deposited, you should deposit. It does take some time to generate your uni. It does take some time to generate your Columbia email address and if you have already deposited.
Quincy W.
01:49:02 PM
IM SO EXCITEDD
Emily Dennis
01:49:08 PM
US TOO!!
Or you're about to deposit and you're thinking what else should I be up to the FAFSA? If you're eligible as well as those immunization compliance documents, I'll be sure to share the link before we close out in the chat so you have it, but otherwise, I'll be will be here to answer additional questions as they come in. We're so glad you're excited we are too.
I think Graduate School is such an important step and and there's there's always the question of of sorts about.
Allison Q.
01:49:22 PM
Can we submit the immunization form before paying the acceptance deposit? I haven't accepted due to financial constraints.
Emily Dennis
01:49:44 PM
Hi Allison, the deposit has to come first. Once your deposit is received and you get your UNI, then you can submit immunization docs.
Graduate School and MSW programs and it's so important for the communities you care about. The individuals you care about, the the social issues you want to help solve and work towards that. There's trained professionals that have a robust set of skills and transferable skills that they can reapply into different scenarios and situations. And we are really excited. I'll also shout out. There's some really unique situations I see in the chat.
It looks like at least one of our incoming students or a dual admin for a school social work in the MPH program. Congratulations, it's quite a big accomplishment to get accepted to two graduate schools at once. Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to email us. Apologies if there's been a delay, we're still reading applications over here. We're doing our best and the waiver exams, I believe are usually online and virtual.
Louisa H.
01:50:26 PM
What’s the Facebook group called?
Again, because we've got an online campus so things have to be accessible.
Emily Dennis
01:50:30 PM
https://www.facebook.com/groups/csswfall2022admittedstudents
And yeah, I think that's that's really it. I'm we're going to stick around for a little bit more questions in terms of motivational interviewing and advanced standing. That might be a better question for advising. I'm not sure if motivational interviewing is built into the second year experience as much, but usually there's a component of motivational interviewing as part of your orientation. Just a bit of it, but that might be a better question for advising 'cause I believe.
Motivational interviewing is part of US training our students who are about to enter field for the very first time ever. And if you're advanced standing, this is not your first rodeo, so do be mindful of that. And in terms of I see another question as popped in again for on campus classes.
Look, I have a crystal ball at home. It doesn't tell the future. It's mostly decorative. I would imagine it's safe to assume that on campus classes will be hybrid.
I, I think that's a really safe assumption that they will be hybrid, because if they're not hybrid, they're in person and you'll need to be in New York anyways. They would only be 100% online or mostly online if you know. Unfortunately, something terrible has happened in New York with the numbers, and so be mindful of that. I also see that there's a student who in the moderated chat has just shared a GroupMe for students of color that's so exciting. I hope that you're using that too.
Marianne A.
01:52:24 PM
There's also a GroupMe for students of color! Join here: https://web.groupme.com/join_group/85755100/fNvDfEHP
Form community, if you have ensured that already on the Facebook group page, go for it up. I think that's that's wonderful as well. It's really great to not just think of ways that we can help you for community, but to reach out for you on your own. Create group means groups, Facebook groups, Facebook message each other. Have at it. These are your future colleagues or future Co conspirators, your future allies, and we're excited for you. So thank you so much for today.
That's in the shared it. There may be one for current students I'm I'm sure.
As a staff member, I I try to stay out of that one, but there's there's all sorts of different ways using social media that our students and incoming students interact with one another, and so we always start in courage Ng students to do that. But with that, I think the questions are really.
Wound to town and so yeah again, reach out to our office if you have questions. If you have questions about appealing your financial aid, reach out. We could share the link. The link is usually a bit customized to the term of entry and the students and so we like to email that out directly. And if you have concerns, please don't hesitate for just even reaching out to us. If you want to reach out and say I don't even know which office to start with, feel free to reach out. We're here to help with that.
Remember you you were admitted for a reason, and, uh, we are lucky to have you as part of the incoming class. Stay safe and welcome to Columbia school social work.