MSW Application Tips Webinar

Hello, hello and good afternoon. Thank you so much for joining our MSW application Tips Webinar.

My name is Natasha Stanislaus. I am the assistant director of admissions here at Columbia School of Social Work. I am joined by a colleague that will also be presenting later. Our Sociate director of admissions, John Graham, and we are so excited to offer this webinar to prospective MSW students. So welcome.

And of course, be sure to use the chat area to ask any questions you have. We will do our best to answer and address your questions live. If we can't get to your question today, we may actually go ahead and just respond after the event. But keep in mind that it is a moderated chat, so some of you now have been very friendly and have said hello and good afternoon should see that all grayed out. If selected, your answer will become black, but know that we do see your questions and so no worries about.

Our work, if we've gotten it or not. And of course, if you are experiencing any technical difficulties now is a good time to refresh your web browser or go ahead and open the browser in a different window altogether in order to make sure that you can hear and view the presentation. So we'll just give another few seconds for everyone to be able to access and filter in.

But with that I think we can get started, but with the overview today's presentation will talk a little bit about our history and values as each school of social work will also talk about the application process and go over some next steps, especially for those of you who've already started your application. And here's John Graham. Now, if John would you like to introduce yourself.

Private missions here. Columbia please forgive my wonky and Matt. It's being a little fussy at the moment, which is why Natasha is gonna do the first part of this presentation and I'm going to do a second and hopefully kick this router back into high gear so that I can give the the latter part of this. But thank you all so much for joining us today and we can't wait to answer your questions. Give you some really helpful tips about the application process and potentially welcome you to Columbia, so thank you again for joining us.

You know, of course, we like to start with a quote, and this one is from the International Federation of Social Workers, the Social Work profession promotes social change problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well being. It's really important for us to of course thank you all for pursuing social work. It's definitely a long and storied profession, and it's important that students coming into the profession understand that there's so many different ways to achieve this goal. There are so many different specializations and routes you can take to help.

Others, but at the very heart of social work is the liberation of others. And so, as you're considering which pathway makes the most sense for you, it's important to, of course, think of ways you could promote social change. And now more than ever, it's needed in terms of the history of the profession itself. It's very much actually tide to the School of Social work. The first classes offered in 1898 here in New York City. And then what soon became the.

School of social work. Thinking of how to use the psychology of that day and time to help populations and in need and provide resources to them from that began. This kind of push to create schools of social work and then of course, graduate schools of social work and even doctoral education, of which Columbia has been a big part of the history of throughout the professions. History a number of notable social workers have actually graduated from our program.

And or have actually taught at our program. So everyone from Frances Perkins who became the first woman to be appointed to the cabinet of a U.S. President during the 1940s to Ada Deer, who actually became the first woman to be appointed Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, to even recently having some of the most cited women in social work like Doctor Kathy Shearer or Doctor Nabila El Bassel, whose work was awarded an incredible.

$86 million grant by the Institute on Drug Abuse to support research on opioid addiction in the New York State. And so as we're considering and thinking of the many ways that our own faculty and alumni have contributed to the profession, it's not too soon for you to start thinking about what you'd contribute as well. Maybe there's a population you can't wait to serve. Maybe there's a community that you're a part of that you can't wait to provide resources to or help dismantle different systemic issues that they face. And so.

This is again a very incredible time to join the profession and it's really important to understand history and the many ways has changed for the better of the profession you would be joining. One common question we do get from prospective students is what makes social work different. We also know that I guess fun fact. Most of our undergraduate students that pursue the MSW. They didn't study social work in undergrad. There's a select few, but many students actually join us from the social sciences like sociology.

Psychology may be pursued political science even, but you may not have actually studied social work in undergrad. And as you decide that you want to help others, there may be different related fields that you are drawn to. What makes social work unique? Is that framework on focusing on human behavior and the social environment and so very much to liberal arts perspective. Building on what you may have learned from a variety of different disciplines and.

Undergrad, but providing you the experience in the program to focus on both micro and macro level practice, this is different than psychology, where you might focus exclusively on clinical psychology or neuroscience or personality and really focusing on the diagnosis and treatment of psychological concerns and disorders or sociology, or you're thinking more of just social structure and institutions, or even counseling programs where you're just focus on counseling.

Theory social work is a very interdisciplinary degree and profession, where without a doctorate and just pursuing licensing you could pursue psychotherapy. Or you could pursue kind of how to, you know, help groups and communities at large. But that framework or focusing on both human behavior or the psychology of the mind and the social environment is definitely one of the things that makes social work unique. And what draws people to pursuing social work compared to other related.

Fields and of course the social work profession, is slated to grow. It is not uncommon, as social issues arise to turn on the news to view something online and to see, like the call to action for social workers. And as there is a need for additional social workers, I mean, this is actually from the Bureau of Labor Statistics before. If the pandemic, if you can remember. But what that was like and and and the insight that the social work profession was projected to grow 16%.

Which we imagine even now, if they were to recalculate, would probably be a bit higher, knowing that there's a need for public health. Or you know, individuals that are really providing resources and information that's only expanded, and in particular for a modern social worker thinking of how do you understand systemic issues? How do you understand the history of a community? How do you understand social issues and social justice concerns while serving said population makes all the difference in.

Our communities and others getting the help they need. So with that, we'll talk a little bit more about what we're looking for as a school of social work. Now that you've got in your overview of the profession and in general what we like to say is that every single component of the application is tailored to giving us insight into your capacity for graduate social work, study, and professional promise in the social work profession. So every single part of the application, whether that's thinking of your essays or your transcripts or.

Your references it should be to let us know that you could handle the coursework you would succeed in the classroom, but also in the professional social work you have an understanding of what to expect and what pathways you may not exactly have a crystal ball. Know exactly what you're pursuing, but you're certainly headed in the correct direction for what is in store for you in the profession.

And there are essential attributes and values and traits of a social worker. A number of these probably are not new to you. If you've done your research, you'll see that there are several lists of attributes and values on our website on the National Association of Social Workers website, perhaps even on the Council, social work education website. It's really important for the profession to put out there. The type of skills and traits that we're looking for.

And so it is important to be committed to the social work profession. There's always the need to make sure we're using the best and latest evidence based practices. There's always new information. It's also important to be humble and to be accepting of the need to continue to grow professionally. You don't leave this program or any program, and then that's it. There's no more learning to be had. There's no more professional development or continuing education to pursue. In fact, as part of licensing, you are required to do post MSW and post Graduate School work so.

It is important to remain kind of committed to not just the profession but also the communities and individuals you'd be out there serving. It's important to have a level of self awareness about your positionality about the power or sort of a hierarchical relationships. Even socially, you bring into an interaction or dialogue, it's important to be aware of your blind spots and the implicit bias areas, and also to remain objective. How can you serve?

Yeah.

A community or an individual that may have had a completely different life and social environment than your own. And how do you push yourself to make sure that your understanding and empathetic to their situations while also maintaining a commitment to social justice and inclusion? A number of these communities and individuals are not.

Accidentally without resources, there are long, sometimes even decades long or centuries long kind of social relationships that have led to certain communities or geographic areas. Being without resources, how do you understand and work with people in those communities that have already been trying to push for more resources and advocate for themselves, right? How do you step in and and work alongside?

Others that again may be different in terms of social or personal personal identities, from yourself and interpersonal skills. It's important to be able to function well in a workplace. It's important to be able to function well again, and an organization. Maybe you're working in a number of different areas. Maybe you're working in a very specific area, but as you develop and grow those skills, it's important to be able to showcase those soft skills and not just maybe more hard kind of traits in.

In being successful, and of course again in terms of the application, there may not be an explicit place where you say I have a commitment to social justice, but the hope is that as we evaluate your application that this comes across that you are a mature professional or soon to be professional in the field that you have a level of self awareness that there's room to grow and that you have an understanding of the profession and what things are really important to us.

And now before we keep going, we do want to kind of just quickly point out in cases the questions have already started coming in. We are in partnership with a number of schools here at Columbia University as well as affiliated institutions to offer dual or joint degree options. They're not available to advance standing or transfer students, because of course, if you're in either of those pathways or with us for a short amount of time, as is that we do want to be very clear before we start diving into application requirements that we can only speak to the MSW components.

The other programs that we are in partnership with May change their admissions requirements. They may have different deadlines from us. They may use different systems we don't meet over lunch to chit chat about the progress of your application, and who's doing what, where it is totally separate. We won't even know what you submit to these other schools. We hope that you of course let us know what your intention and goals are. We think it's actually really illuminating to what your path and your goals are. It makes sense for certain applicants to really pursue these dual degree programs.

But the same way you're taking the time out of your day to learn more about our program, what we value, what's important in the profession we do hope you're taking the time to do this with the other partner schools as well, since the admissions process requirements and financially for each of these programs are separate.

And in terms of our program, hopefully you've all attended an information session and you will have learned about our seven different program options on two different campuses, so we do have students that pursue all their coursework here in New York City and in Morningside Heights campus, and they're able to attend courses in person. You know, understanding that there's a global pandemic, and sometimes things need to change, and sometimes there are classes that might be a bit more hybrid to kind of.

Address a variety of concerns compared to the program where all of your coursework is expected to be done remotely and online within the United States with their field work expected to do to be done in person local to you. So the two year program, the 16 month program Advanced Standing part time to full-time, the one year residency for working professionals, transfer, and five Term International. Those were seven programs. They all have very similar requirements, so we'll take the time to talk about.

Each of those requirements, but I guess just a quick overview. If you're unaware of the differences between the two programs, the two years are most popular pathway. Those students start every fall. They join us for four semesters of coursework as well as field education that's two academic years. The 16 month is the same thing, except you only start in the spring, which is you know, starting in January and it's the condensed option, so you're forced semesters are actually back to back, so spring summer.

Cold Spring advance tanning. You're joining us from a CSWE accredited school of social work. Not sure if you count for advance standing. Probably a good sign that you're not advanced standing. Advanced standing students are at Bachelors of social work programs that are pursuing the necessary coursework as well as field education requirements to kind of leapfrog into year two of our program part time to full time. Perhaps the idea of pursuing a full time graduate degree is daunting. You have.

Other competing obligations and you want to ease into your Graduate School experience. This allows you to stretch out the degree requirements over three years, maybe four, and really just delay your sort of field education so that when you are in field, you are full time, but at a reduced course load. So you're stretching out those degree requirements. You're starting part time, but you are finishing the program. And what is considered a full time course load one year residency for working professionals? Similar concept.

You are stretching out those requirements. The difference is one year is expected for field education because you are a working professional, so that's what's being reduced. That's the residency, the time that you're spending in field education because you come to us with at least two years full-time direct practice or social kind of service experience. We know and trust your abilities you've been vetted or perhaps even working alongside or under a social worker as is. And now we're accommodating that by reducing the amount of work.

Or sorry, the field experience you're doing because your work is more or less in tandem with field and you can actually directly apply what you already learning in the classroom. The transfer program you are joining us from Axxel accredited Masters program. Sorry things are not to your liking. I think probably one of the more common reasons students transfer is that they're looking for a program that's particularly rigorous in terms of the academics. It's so you're joining us after, or you know, in time to complete.

Your first year of academics and field work at this other CS accredited Masters of Social Work Program so that you're joining us in time for year two. So not just a handful, of course, is not just a few field hours, but specifically the requirement for a full year in five term international. Perhaps you are not a U.S. citizen and you have not pursued undergrad in the United States. Maybe you don't quite have insight into the American social welfare system.

There's a lot going on, and so because of that we add an additional semester of preparation before you start field education. So you're actually with us fall, spring, summer, fall, spring. So that was a very quick overview of our Southern programs. This is all on our website. This is all in our brochure and it is explained in detail in our information session, but we'll go over kind of the application requirements for everyone as well as some of the nuances for some of these program options.

In terms of the application requirements, John and I are going to go over each of these components so you are submitting the application online. There is very little, if anything that should be going through the postal system to our office. Fortunately, because there's a global pandemic and we're not there or we're not there often to check the mail and so everything should be submitted and uploaded to this system, you are able to submit the application fee.

Online, you'll upload a resume or a CV explaining your prior academic and professional or even volunteer experiences. We need 3 letters of recommendation which will be uploaded by those recommenders, so we'll talk about that as well.

3 essays, academic transcripts, as well As for non Native English speaking applicants, TOEFL IELTS or dual Lingo scores and for advanced standing or transfer students, we'll need a field evaluation. Again, we'll go into some further detail. One thing very quickly before the question comes up, you'll see that we did not ask or list any jewelry scores as part of the admissions process. They are not required. They have not been required for years. Now. It is not a secret requirement where we're secretly.

Hoping you send your rescores, there's no part of the application where we expect or request your RE scores as part of your application, so hopefully that that helps with some of the anxiety in the chat.

In terms of the resume, we do hope that you're providing US1 maybe 2 pages based off of your lengthy experience if needed at that talks about your professional history as well as maybe your have course any degrees or professional certificates you've pursued. We also hope it lists and ivolunteer experience, but the piece of advice that I have for you.

Some insights.

Is that it is listed in hopefully reverse chronological order. I know sometimes applicants ask if there's some sort of a template they can use for the resume. There is not, but we do want you to be able to have an organized document organized of your professional and academic experience. It's really important for us to be able to get some insight into what you've done, what groups you may have been a part of, what?

But maybe research projects you've done? That's a great place to list that as well. And if your resume either is completely unorganized when things are not in order, if it lacks detail, so we don't actually know what you did at a particular organization or in a particular role, what's another pet peeve when perhaps you overemphasize the need for style? I think fun formats, fonts, colors, even pictures are great.

And fine, but if they distract from actually understanding your professional history, it's going to be a problem, at least for me. I don't know John if your internets working if you wanted to chime in, or if there were any other kind of questions about the resume in the chat that you wanted to elevate.

Just in terms of getting a solid understanding of what you do and the number of years that you've been doing it, and whether or not this is full time or part time, we do like to look at experience both full time professional experience and in addition to your volunteer experience. So you should put both of those on your resume and try to be as detailed.

And specific as possible. Again, you know, fun formats are always great, uh, and you know visually appealing, but for us we're really just looking at the content. We're really looking at making sure that we can.

Accurately determine the number of years of experience that you have and and so if something was part time, we do encourage you to put that and let us know how many hours per week you did work there. If it was a volunteer experience, you can be less specific 'cause we know most people volunteer.

Convenient to them, you can't really dedicate yourself fully or full time to volunteer experience in most cases, but letting us know how many years with the kind of work it is that you did. All of that is really very helpful to us, and these things don't need to necessarily be tide to social work. We have many people who are career changers. I see people asking questions like that in the chat for the resume. We're really looking at professional experience and we're looking at the actual number of years.

For essays and all those things, as soon as we get to that particular side, we're definitely going to give some specifics on kind of how to stand out and how to you know. Set yourself apart from other applicants, so a lot of questions are about, you know, tips for just standing out, and we are definitely going to get into that, I promise.

Thank you John. I will also just put.

Out loud just 'cause I see the question coming up in terms of professional experiences. Even if they were maybe funded research positions at an institution or with an organization like the things that you would probably put on a resume if you were applying. It doesn't necessarily have to be strictly social work. I think there's a value to having professional experience in a variety of different fields and disciplines. We also again have career changers. We have students who join us after decades in business or finance or law.

And they weren't explicitly in, you know, a social service agency that is totally fine. I think for us we want to get a sense of your professional experience. We want to get a sense of your commitment to particular roles as well. How long were you at an organization? How many hours did you work? And if at all necessary just because one or two people have mentioned it. If you feel like you've already submitted a CV or a resume, just let us know. If you think you need to provide an updated version, we don't want to.

Ever think of this part again? We just want to make sure that because we don't know you, we're finding out as much as possible. The wonderful things you've done in your professional and academic career.

I also just want to quickly states if I haven't already. The admissions process is very much an exercise of discretion. This is an opportunity for you to show us that you have solid judgment and that you are able to make the best of the choices in front of you, and so we are providing this webinar as an opportunity to give you an overview to give you some insight into our process, but we won't be able to like review essays and resumes in advance.

Uhm for for much other than maybe generic fit for the program. We wouldn't be able to give you feedback on crafting an essay, but what I will say if you are currently enrolled in undergrad or if you are a graduate of an institution that provides a career services to alums, you are able to perhaps find a way to submit your resume or CV or essays to them for feedback. That's also a great way just to get some if you don't want to share with your friends or family.

You might be able to get kind of a professional evaluation of that.

I think that's most of the questions in the chat. Hopefully you were all able to hear myself and John, so let's just move on to talking about references.

Excellent Frances.

I think a lot of people have many questions about references. They get very nervous about references and.

We do have some guidelines. If you have graduated within the last five years, we highly encourage that two of your three references be academic in nature of structure that has instructed you perhaps an advisor that has mentored you, somebody who can speak to your academic ability, the quality of work that you have done during your undergraduate institution, and then one of those can be professional in nature. And really again we are not focused on, you know, career references that can speak directly.

Two, you know your experience or what you have done as it relates to social work. Really, we're trying to get a sense of you know what is it like working with you? What kind of person are you to collaborate with?

Are you somebody who, UM, is a team player? You'll be doing group projects. This is a very human centered field, and so if somebody can speak to you know your ability as an individual, your compassion, your organization, and and with those amic references. If they can speak to the work that you've done, that's all fabulous. A lot of students are applying and have psychology or sociology majors, and so obviously there's academic references are very applicable.

And they can speak directly to social work and your ability as a student as it relates to a social work curriculum. But there are others who did not major in in areas like that.

We have many students who have majored in business. We have students who have majored in Communications, media Arts, theatre. It really runs the gamut and so really what we're looking for is your ability as a student rather than as it is. You know, directly related to social work specifically, and so you don't need to have them coached or, you know, speak about, you know qualities that you know direct that have a direct relationship with social work or the field. We're really just looking at your ability as a student.

Your ability as a as a an employee and and what you were like as an individual and for those of you who have graduated out, you know longer than five years ago. Like myself, having references that are, you know, former employers. Current employers absolutely fine, even if this position has nothing to do with social work. Even if you are working in tech or you're working in whatever industry, we have many people who are career changers.

Uhm, and they.

Have wonderful experience. Work experience is always helpful, especially when you're working in any sort of organization or pursuing, you know, a mature discipline like social, where you know people's lives truly are at stake. Given depending on the kind of work that you do post graduation. So as long as they can speak to your commitment as an employee, your responsibility, the work that you've done, it kind of, you know.

A team player that you are all these things are very, very helpful for us so you don't need to. You know, run out and you know. Do volunteer work right now and something that is related to social work to try to enhance the application. If you have, that's great. Certainly ask somebody from that organization to be a reference for you, but you don't need to have prior background for most of our programs. We'll be talking about the essays a little later, but you will be able to convey what motivates you to pursue social work in your essays. And there's a very large.

Qualitative component to the application review process where you talk about why you are choosing social work, what has drawn you to this field, if there are populations you hope to serve, we'll talk more about that as we get to that, but there will be a time when you can definitely tell us. OK, I've been working as a business consultant for the past 15 years, and I'm done and I want to do something where I give back. I interacted with this individual in this capacity and it was extremely rewarding and able to now.

Learn myself and I want to pivot careers. Authenticity always is the best option. I'm letting us know what truly draws you to this so.

There's no need to really panic if your professional experience does not tie to social work.

Thank you so much John. What I do also want to of course stress 'cause I see the panic in the chat in terms of the professional versus academic reference debate. It is so important that your references are relevant and timely. So yes, we would love to hear about academic references, but if it's mid more than five years since undergrad doesn't quite make sense for undergraduate professors to continue to write letters. Even if you know they had essays.

Her letters for on your behalf locked in a vault somewhere waiting for you to apply to grad school right? We want to hear a little bit more about what you've been up to recently and use your best judgment. Maybe the further out from undergrad, the more balance there is between like a professional versus academic letter representation. You also want to be careful about who provides those references. Is it a current or previous supervisor, or is it a colleague that's more of a peer? Is it a faculty member that you worked?

Closely with her research, or is it a faculty member that may have not seen you as much in the classroom as the TA did, and so just be mindful of exactly what that reference would be able to share about you. You might need to take the time to speak to them. You might need to take the time to prep your references, pick up a phone, send them an email, chat with them on zoom or Google meeting. I don't. I don't want to show preference to one meeting software more than the other.

But take the time to chat with them. Share your resume, share your essay, talk about your goals. The application allows you to enter their details as you work on the application and it just sends them an email where they can upload their letters.

Ideally, the letters would arrive before you click submit, but they can completely come in after you click submit and then we would like those letters to be in sooner rather than later because we can't review your application if it's incomplete, but there's no penalty for it to come February 16th. But that being said, that email, they get that you would like them to support your application to Columbia School of Social work should not be the first time they've heard that you're pursuing an MSW. Ideally, they've already been prepped. You've chatted with them, they are looking out for the link.

They check their spam folders. Everything is being troubleshooted and like we're there to help, but you don't want to be in a situation where your references don't know what to say and it's you know this student was great I guess. Let me know if you have questions and the letter has no substance. And then of course there are a number of concerns when your references aren't from a solid source, I'd say so, no bartenders, no yoga instructors unless you also teach yoga.

And this is like the head or directing yoga instructor know personal friends know colleagues that may you've talked to socially or personally and they just wanna, you know, reflect and share that. You're a great person to talk to.

Else what else? What else you should not have a letter from anyone where you've been in the client or a patient relationship with, so not someone where you were the client or the patient, or that person was your client or patient not a great idea, but again, in general, if you stick to a current or previous supervisor or a faculty member or kind of academic source, you're in a good place for who provides those references. And if you feel like you know I'm working on my application, I'm not quite sure if I have someone that fits that spot. Maybe it's a good idea to start volunteering, take on an internship.

Find something where you would be put in a position where someone could really comment and reflect on your strengths. As a potential member of the program.

Any?

I definitely want to echo reaching out to the person first to ask, is it OK if I put you as a reference?

Because the general reference will say no if they feel they can't write a positive reference for you.

And there's nothing worse than having a bad reference or one that's very clearly. You know, this person asked me. I said no, and they persisted. We've read that. Definitely, if they're saying I don't feel comfortable, it's better to ask somebody else.

And I also wanted to echo the.

People who are.

Non supervisors, if you work with somebody in a capacity you know that is.

Really like a A colleague I I do highly encourage you. If this is a professional reference for them to be somebody who is supervised you I do think that that's stronger. I think that that it makes for a stronger reference if you don't have somebody that can do that, relying on those academic references would be better, but having anyone that has any sort of personal contact with you in in terms of like friendship or family, relative or anything like that, or you know.

They were my best friend at work for us. It really is much better to have somebody who is supervised or work who can speak to your ability in those capacities rather than somebody who can say.

They were just, you know, lovely to work with. It really is a a more. It's a. It's a stronger reference if they can say I supervise that individual from this year this year and they are, you know, ready for this opportunity. For these reasons we had questions about how to submit them when you enter in the contact information of your reference on the application, they will automatically get a link where they upload their letter and you are completely out of the process. You are not allowed to be a part of the process, so if.

Somebody has sent you a letter and then you send it to us. We can't accept it. It must come directly from them via the link that they will be provided once you enter in their contact information. There was something else I wanted to mention my my my brain like my Internet is not working great today.

I.

I know, right?

It's it's Friday, I think Mercury is in retrograde. Something about Venus. John be kind to yourself in the mean time I do wanna say someone asking about mentors. Our mentors are good fit and that I want to be very again. I just want to repeat what John has said. It is the reason why one of the reasons I should say faculty and former current supervisors are a better fit for references is because they've actually been in a position where they've had to evaluate you. They've actually maybe taken notes. They may have even had assignments or projects of yours.

Where they've had to kind of really comment on your ability to to handle follow instructions works, work with others, and while mentors may know you personally, they have not in a position where you were actually responsible for something. Maybe you've previously worked with them, and in that case I'd consider them also previous supervisor. Do you want to be very careful because sometimes mentors or references? Again, they just say you're you're just the nicest and any program would be lucky to have you.

But because it lacks detail, it's just not as strong. And consider that they're going to be applicants that come in as well on February 15th that are submitting applications where there are references could really go into detail about certain class conversations, or you know certain instances at work where you just showed such amazing amounts of leadership and a mentor might be able to talk and reflect on your goals and what you're like as a person, but it is stronger to have a few more examples from either the workplace or the classroom.

Absolutely. And if for whatever reason your reference.

Is not able to meet the deadline, you know we are not sticklers about the reference letters. It's great to have them by the deadline because we like to read applications as soon as possible, but this is kind of out of your control, so we don't hold it against the applicant ever. But if it feels like your reference is really not going to be able to get this letter in in a timely manner, definitely let us know so that we can potentially replace that reference with somebody else that you've asked that has happened before. That happens. Some people you know, life happens, and so they just are not able to provide the reference letter that you had previously asked. And they said OK too.

And if we need to change, that's totally fine. You can just let us know this is something that you need to do in the back end and so meaning we would have to do it. So just let us know and we'll replace him with the with the new email and the contact information. Also, we accept 3 references we ask for no more than three. We are reading a lot of material. We read all of your essays, we read all of your reference letters. Your resumes is a very holistic review process. We really are looking into your motivation and what drive and what draws you to this.

Built and we pay very close attention to why it is and what you write. So once we get references, we're not reading more so it would be who've you to ask. The three references that would provide the best letters of reference rather than.

Quality versus quantity is my is my suggestion. It's just it's all about quality and three great references is much, much better than 4.

Good references.

Right?

Yeah, I think that's yeah. Hopefully you've all taken in that feedback. You've processed it. We're going to continue moving on with the presentation. Of course. Feel free to keep asking your questions. The essays John, Do you have anything you want to share about the essays?

Absolutely so something that you should be mindful of is that your S prompts will not appear until you answer a few different questions on the application. The first being the second being the program that you are interested in doing, so that would be a two year program or the one year residency for working professionals. These are different programs.

Cater to different populations but very different kinds of experience and so new essay prompts appear based on what it is that you are going to apply for. So if you're not seeing essays right now, definitely go back to the beginning and answer all of the questions that lead up to the essays. That's really the best way to organize how you do the application, and then you will be able to see those essay prompts.

When it comes to the essay, I would say though, that.

Overall, the one that seems that is the you know the common essay among all of the different programs is really what draws you to this. And for me, specificity is.

Great if you know about a population that you want to serve or a kind of social issue that you hope to ameliorate. If there's a very specific thing that draws you to social work, I wanna know about it. I wanna know if it's you know something that you have experienced dealing with in some capacity. If you volunteer work that relates to this and This is why you do it.

This is a program that's very driven by social justice, connecting individuals to resources to enhance Wellness.

Everybody, most people want to help. That's wonderful in a very noble goal, but that does not a strong essay. Make specificity in how you want to contribute to this field, what you hope to do graduation and why Columbia will help you do it is really, really helpful, and when students ask me just for like a kind of like a template, I always let students know that my go to for any sort of you know general introduction essay is.

Where are you? Where do you want to go and how this program help you get there and within that specificity and how you want to get there and what you do is really is really crucial.

Yeah, you know, I I. We've also had gotten some advice from other members of the team. I know our associate Dean of a rolling management likes to say, you know, remove the prompt from the the top of the essay if that's something that you you put shirt with the friends and see if they can figure out what the prompt was. See if you're answering those questions directly just to make sure, again because you know what your goals are, right? Hopefully you've done the self reflection. You're on your journey of self actualization. You've put the time into your essays.

And we just want to make sure what you're passionate about. Why social work? Why Columbia School of Social work? Why? Now? We're hoping that comes across you don't wanna get so off track in in addressing the essay that you forget to talk about what population you want to work with, what type of we're gonna zation. And again we know you don't quite have a crystal ball and you can't quite tell the future 100% and goals do change, but it does require a bit of insight into, you know the program attending an information session, review on our website or our brochure.

It's understand like, well, This is why I particular I. I'm intention. My intention is to pursue a particular specialization, but I might change my mind, but I still know that I want to work in direct practice in some way. I want to work directly with people I know. I love working with young people. I can't wait to be at either a school or organization. Those type of details really helps your application stand out again for the right reasons, because we're hoping that throughout the essays, regardless of prompt, that we are, we can see some insight.

Into where he'd be in the program or after the program? I don't think there's anything better than reading an application and just knowing that this student is going to be an amazing student leader of maybe the clinical caucus. Or maybe an amazing student leader like they could totally get involved with social work votes. I can't wait to tell this professor about this student who's coming in, and this is how we start to get a sense and really piece together the other components of your application to see where you fit.

Absolutely, there is a 500 word essay limit 500 word limit for the essays. Again, we don't count, but we highly encourage you to kind of, you know, adhere to that guideline mainly because we are reading so many applications and you know if an essay goes on for 17 pages at some point we will just lose the bandwidth to continue reading and we must move on. So adhering to that 500.

Word limit is really great and it is enough room for you to be, you know, specific in how you want to. You know, convey what drives you to the to, what would motivate you to pursue this field. We do highly, highly encourage you to to adhere to that to that guideline.

But yeah, I think really the essay is it's.

For me, it's the most important part of the application, and so I do encourage you to take to have people take a look at your essays. You know these can be people who you know who you trust in terms of their their editing skills, who you know may have done, you know academic work, but having a second set of eyes, you know whether that's a partner or a friend, I think is always beneficial because it can really help to gain some insight. And if they get it and they understand and they're like, yes, I totally.

I understand what it is that you wanna do and where you wanna go and how Columbia can help you then that's great and you're off to a good start so I always encourage you to have somebody edit it and vet those essays just so that you are presenting the best information possible to us. 'cause it's a very large component of what we're looking at whenever we're reviewing applications.

Yeah, and and hopefully you know, it's clear that John and I are just normal people reviewing applications and there are other members of the team that review applications as well. It is, you know, not the biggest deal in the world. If it's 501 words, we're not going to, you know, print out your application just to Chuck it in the bin like we're not really like the people, but we will will be very apparent to us if it's drastically shorter or drastically longer than we expected as an essay.

We also you know of course do feel free to list the different populations or type of work that you're interested in doing, and they're just to be very clear. There are three different essays with three different prompts that you, as an applicant will see. Depending on your choices you make earlier in the application, and so the third essay you might see 3A or 3B or 3C. There are variations depending on which pathway you choose. So what's in the application is tide to what choices you've made.

Almost like a choose your own adventure sort of kind of so if you feel like you've gotten to the part of the essays you see the prompts and you feel like there's no way I can talk about direct practice experience, there's no way I can talk about a field placement in social work. I've never done one. You might want to call our office. You might want to email our office, but there's a chance you selected the wrong program earlier on. But again, we're always here to help troubleshoot as any issues arrive and you know in terms of I see a.

Few questions if there's an issue or concern with your specific application. Maybe if clicks you know submit and you have very specific concerns all of a sudden now that you hear us speak, it would be best to send a separate email to our office so that we're able to assist you.

Could multitask Johnson an excellent excellent typer, but we can only do so much at once so we won't be presenting and answering. Very specific application questions. And so if you have a personal concern or issue be sure to reach out by email separately to our office and very very very quickly in terms of the assays. If you have a personal or or I should just say you know, maybe even a physical or a health reason for.

Your grades, or maybe you weren't able to pursue as much student life given there was a global pandemic. Maybe certain student organizations were on hiatus. Maybe you wanted to do a research project you were selected and it was put on hold. The essays are such an amazing and wonderful place to provide context that your resume or your transcript probably won't provide on its own, so we'll get the information from your resume will get the information from your transcripts, but we wouldn't.

You know the essays are going to be able to go into a level of detail where we're hearing from your own voice, and so be consider that in terms of like the real estate of your application, the parts you can't change, you can't go back in time and change what you did freshman year where you accidentally decided that because you wanted to help people, you would be premed. Your grades tanked as soon as you took organic chemistry and you can't change it, but then eventually you found psychology and now you're pursuing soldier, right? You can't go back in time and change that, but you can't explain that in your application in your essays.

So that we understand your academic history.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Now for transcripts, transcripts from each previously attended institution are required as part of the application. They should be uploaded to your application, which would make them unofficial.

Right, and so unofficial transcripts are.

Totally acceptable for the admissions process and so versions of the transcript, which some institutions let's let you download where it actually says unofficial right on it. Maybe there's some sort of student portal where you could just log in and get one. That's great. That's amazing. Some schools have something a little bit different where there's a print out of like your schedule or course records. That's not quite a transcript. A transcript provides us with a lot of really important detail that you know us in higher Ed know about.

Right, you know, understanding your registrar university information may be a key or a scale for your particular institution. Some schools have completely different grading systems. The transcript gives us insight into your courses, credits, and grades in terms of being offered admission, we'll need an official transcript and that official transcript should be electronic. There should, hopefully, you know the year 2022 be a way for you to input our information for official transcript to be sent directly to.

To us, but that's only needed if offered admission. Some students do decide to jump ahead and send an official transcript. Now will talk a little bit more about like the post MSW or application kind of steps you can take to be as prepared as possible, but in terms of transcripts, you should be able to just upload a copy of your transcript, and hopefully that's mindful of any kind of cost concerns you may have in terms of just sending official transcripts to every institution. John, do you have anything you wanted to add about transcripts?

So yes, definitely you don't. You don't need to send the official transcripts for the application, and that would be the same for international students. So there are some international students that you know, should you be admitted, we will ask that Westworld education services do an analysis of your transcript just to ensure that you have the equivalent of a US bachelors degree. They will also let us know what the grades are if they use a grading system that's different from AUS based grading system.

And we're familiar with a lot of grading systems throughout the world, but there are some that are trickier than others, and so we do ask that, you know, once you are admitted as an international student, that you have your credentials set sent through West to be evaluated so that we know to be facts. You have a US bachelors degree, the equivalent of that, I should say, and this is what your GPA is, but it is expensive. We know that, and so you don't need to do that for the application process. I will say we do need to be able to read it.

So if it is not in English, we do ask that you get a translation. You can do it for the application process and that's totally fine. But we do need to have some sort of translation so that we can actually review what it is that your grades are so that we can really see that. And once again, once you are admitted, you will then need to send it through West. They will confirm what the grades are and then we'll be able to go from there.

And we're skipping ahead just a little bit because I see the question popping up in the chat. You may be in progress of completing a degree. Maybe you're in undergrad. Maybe you started a different graduate program. You'll be graduating in May. We would like an in progress. Unofficial transcript for the admissions process and if offered admission, we need an official transcript that also confirms the final grades and the degree that was conferred. So we'll be repeating this later. But if you graduated, may and you're so excited you were offered admission that you sent us a transcript in March.

Maybe your degree won't be confirmed until September or August. You'll be able to have that conversation with our office then.

We're going to need you to send an official transcript later that actually shows us that you have the degree you're working towards, that the grades that were in progress before have been confirmed, and so in that case you may actually want to to wait before the admissions process. We expect that you can just upload an unofficial transcript. We will provide a deadline for admitted students to provide an official transcript, but there are some nuances, so if you have special kind of considerations because you're at.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

There is one thing I wanted to mention about essays, sorry I'm just gonna go back really quick. I I know some students were saying, you know, I'm not quite sure yet or you know, I I that might change. You are not tethered to anything that you select in terms of what it is that your area of interests are on your application. For us, it gives us an understanding of what it is that motivates you, what draws you to social work, and that you've done your homework and you know a little bit about the field and what you hope to do, but you'll have an entire first year for most of our programs.

We're taking jet course is having a direct practice field experience and you may change. You may find that you don't wanna do the direct practice work you really wanna do something more macro with policy you wanna shake the system. All of that is totally fine with these things in the essays and the application do for us is just show us you know what motivates you to pursue this field. So don't feel that you need to. You know be committed to that if you get here, you'll have a lot of time to really figure that out.

Oh, right.

Yeah, I think we'll move forward 'cause we'll be a few things to talk about. Transcripts, especially again for students. After they submit the application. So we'll keep an eye on the chat, but we'll continue with a few of the application components that are unique to international applicants. Of course, if you are a non native English speaker, the TOEFL or Duolingo scores are needed, the minimums of which are listed on our application, but they're fairly standard in terms of those test score minimums. There's also an.

Online interview which is very unique for our social work program or for any program honestly, but it really allows us to make sure that advocates that are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents or citizens of non English speaking countries are able to meet with a member of the admissions team. Maybe even the member of the Office of advising and speak to us about what their goals are. Social work is a very, very different context, if at all in other countries. And so we find that it's really important to take the time.

To make sure that a student who is not from the United States who may not have any reference point of how the social welfare system works here has just a little bit of more insight or some understanding of what they're getting themselves into before they enroll or offered admission to our program. It also helps us get a sense of whether or not they'd be a better fit for that five term program I spoke of earlier, versus if there are a great fit for the two year, so it's all about making sure that students are as prepared as possible.

Or have inside have a chance for their questions to be answered and that's something that should be invited to after the review of your application. So if you get invited to interview, it's totally normal. That just means that we need additional information. We just want to make sure we're all on the same page if offered admission will also need West or CZC evaluations done of your transcripts. I believe these can be sent electronically, at least for West, but again, generally speaking, the university does not receive quite a lot of paper transcripts as it once did.

And so if you have any questions about sending official transcripts as an admitted student or official evaluations, you may be able to actually have them just sent electronically to our office, which in all cases would be preferred. But if any of your credentials cannot be sent electronically as an official kind of transcript from that issuing registrar, or from a transcript system of some sort, you do need to let our office know in advance. There are university wide guidelines that we are following. We are, we are rule followers in that way.

We'll break out the rules, but this is important, and so if a transcript is only available in my paper, or maybe you know some schools have really unique requirements, may be at the physically be in, you know at that registrars office to get a paper transcript, whatever nuanced particular school has just being contact with our office, provide that insight to us in writing so that we're able to support you.

And to be clear, there are no other interviews as part of the application process, so domestic applicants permitted residents would not be invited to interview, used to know in the future if one day everyone gets interviewed or they're more interviews. But for us it's just really important to make sure that if placed into the five term international program, then it's the better fit than the two year.

Some.

John, did you have anything you wanted to add about international applicants?

Some students were asking about the TOEFL. Uhm, I also Duolingo requirements. If you studied at an undergraduate institution that is US based and your entire entire language of instruction is in English, there will be a question where you can actually answer yes to that. And if that is the case, you will not be prompted to upload English language proficiency exams.

Uhm, the same goes for if you you know live in a country where the one of the official languages is English. If you answer yes to one or both of these questions really you you will be exempt. You will not see on your checklist that there will be a need for any sort of English language proficiency examination and just to also clarify about the interview process. It is automatic for anyone who who lists that they are a foreign national students.

And that is only for foreign national students, not permanent residents, not, you know, new newly U.S. citizens. It really is for somebody who indicates foreign, national and then after that we do a very holistic review and it really depends on the area that you are located in. Information that you provide in your essay you will be.

There will be outreach whenever we invite you to an interview and so you will know you will be invited. You will have a place to sign up for that, so there's no need to worry and there's no need to worry if you're not being asked to interview. It's really something where it's. It's based on, it's it wouldn't make sense to interview a national student who spent the past four years studying in the United States. You do have an understanding of what you know.

Social work potentially from a US context is you are familiar with a variety of different things as it relates to social work and so it may be waived and it may not be so. It really is something where it's like they will ask you to participate. It is not a bad thing if they do, and it's not a bad thing if they don't. So I think a lot of students get very concerned about the interview and it's really nothing to worry about. It's really for the associate Dean of enrollment to have a conversation with you. More insight into your goals.

Uhm, and that's really all it is.

Yeah, I think we've answered most of the questions. And again, sometimes I think our application system is smarter than us. So if you go into the application and you answer those questions and you don't see that all you know it's not asking you for a TOEFL, it's it's not asking you for a particular document like the JIRARI scores then that's because it's not required and we just do not need to evaluate it and so that is something to of course. Keep in mind that the process will that the application itself will very much be very specific what you need.

There are no secret side documents or or side components that are just not listed. You know to keep it fair, it's built into the system, so it's all there.

For advanced standing and transfer applicants, those who are joining us from Council of Social Work Education accredited schools, which again if you should know that acronym. If you're coming from a CSWE accredited school. If you've never heard of that until this webinar, it's OK. Yeah, just not advanced standing or transfer applicant for those students again because you're joining us with previous academic experience in social work within the last five years. So either.

You've completed this component or you're in progress to complete this component in time for the time that you join us, we do want to make sure that in your essay your third essay. There's a very different prompt for you because we want you to talk about your field education. We want you to talk about your experience in the field, and we also need a field work evaluation form from usually a faculty member that is in an administrative role. Supervising and making sure that your field experiences are.

Up to standards and of, you know, several accrediting bodies and completed. Sometimes, if there's a separate field evaluation that the school does, they'll add to the application.

Uhm?

We just really need them to complete the form if they want to add more, that's fine, you won't be penalized if they add more information. Sometimes it's helpful to get a sense of what your responsibilities have been in more detail and what work you've done. Other than that, there really wouldn't be the need for any professional evaluations. So maybe if you've gotten an annual performance review at work, that's not necessary to be added as part of your reference, but the field work evaluation is separate from the references, we would need 3 references in this form, which is.

In the application you will see you'll be able to download it and email it to the appropriate person and they would get all the instructions right on the form for what they should do. We also do ask in the application for you to list your social work courses. This is because there are very specific requirements we need to make sure that you've taken the required equivalence of one year with us.

Which as a CSWE school, is fairly standard, but sometimes they're different course names. We also need to make sure that you have a B or better, and all of those required social work classes. So in general, for all applicants, but you're better is a good place to be. We know things happen with your braids occasionally, there might be an incident, a moment of, you know, maybe a rough semester, or maybe a rough year. Maybe you switch schools you realize in particular college was in the best fit, but for social work courses to count towards your degree time here.

It's important that you have that B or better in your social work classes and in that regard, as you're coming to us from a social work program, it is advised that at least two of your references be from faculty and at least one from that social work program. You have a unique I'd say advantage because you've studied social work because you work closely with social workers, either faculty members, administrators, or maybe in field placements.

You are able to actually have a social worker that's taught to you or manage your field. Education experience provides you with a reference. The disadvantage of that is that you know you're held to a slightly different standard because you do know about social work. You've been in the field placement, and there's this expectation that you understand a bit more than maybe someone who didn't study social work or have access to social workers that could provide a reference. So just keep in mind that this is to help you in your application. It's a good idea.

Do not be an advanced standing applicant that only provides references from non social work sources. This is a great opportunity to make sure social workers are supporting our application and aware of what you're looking for.

John, did you have anything else you wanted to add?

No, it's a fantastic will. Definitely be, you know, looking at what you've put on the courses that you've taken. But then we will also be looking at your transcripts and just let you know. We do require that you have a B or better and the necessary classes in order to either transfer or to begin as advanced standing student. So if there are certain specific courses that comprise part of the generalist curriculum that you may have gotten a great, that's lower than it be, you would need to retake those.

So just be mindful of that whenever you are submitting your material and of course will let you know of all the classes that have been accepted and what you would need to take in order to satisfy the remaining courses should be committed.

OK, so we'll just keep moving on John's doing a great job of answering some questions in the chat. Some of them we've also answered verbally, but we'll try to double back. There are some special components for those applying to the one year residency for working professionals. Again, we are reducing the amount of field education hours and structuring so that it could be completed in one year as part of a three or four year experience. And so we would need your third essay to be specific to your time.

In the profession of social work and to the direct practice and professional experience you have, so your essay automatically would be a little bit different and we also would like at least one of your references to be from a currency or advisor, I think.

You know, sometimes applicants come to us and say they're a little bit concerned about letting their supervisors know that they're applying to Graduate School, but especially since part of this program is designed to be done in tandem with the work that you're doing, having the support of your current supervisor is really important, so be sure to if you can find the time to make sure your supervisor can support that application. And again, we are looking to get a sense of your professional experience in social service agencies or human service organizations.

And hopefully you've been there at least for two years, usually more full time and are able to lend that experience in the classroom. But overall, for everyone we want to get a sense of what you're hoping to achieve. We want to encourage you to run a self audit before you pursue grad school. It is, you know.

It definitely I, you know, very common and popular, especially with the pandemic to go on social media. Turn on the news and it's you know, the question of why college, why Graduate School? Why pursue education and we believe that we do provide a return on the investment and so we want to make sure that you're taking the time to consider that as well. What am I looking for? Or what are the things I'm looking for in a Graduate School? Realistic? Do I need to do more reflection before applying? But also, how can I make sure as I complete the application that I show that I?

I've done what I needed so that I'm able to take advantage of the Graduate School experience, right?

All things you know go well, you're only a student with us. 2 maybe three years. If you're in the extended option and then you're in a lump for life, and so we want to make sure that those moments you join us, you're able to make the most out of your investment of your time and your resources. You understand the course offerings you understand the specializations you we offer, and what makes us unique. You understand the campus. What makes our campus resources different than other places. And of course, the wonderful.

An engaging and dynamic student body that you would join our information session does go into additional detail about all of those things. There's also a lot of information on our brochure and on our website, but we do hope that as we review your application, we get a sense that you've already thought about this. You've thought about what campus you'd be joining, whether it's online or in person in New York City. You thought about what classes you would take. Maybe you've already looked up some faculty members. You read their research, you've watched their YouTube videos online, and you just can't wait to meet them. Those are all the components and not just make you a stronger applicant.

But also really make sure that you're making the most of your Graduate School experience and that your experience is as fine tuned as possible before you even step foot through the door. Let's just double check if there's any comments at all. I think we can keep going. John. Did you have anything to add about goals and kind of what you put into the application?

You know, I really think that.

The goal is really help us to determine what it is that you hope to contribute to the field, and I think thinking about it that way is something that's a is a really great way to kind of guide. You know how you present the information to us and how you talk about it in your essays and and and how you you know kind of organize your own thoughts as your crafting your motivation for why you wanna do that. And and within that I I do think when it comes to thinking about your goals, thinking about how Columbia can help you come and take a look at the different research centers that we have available.

Take a look at the faculty members. The work that they're doing and the research they're conducting. If you can talk about some of the things that they're doing, or some of the research that's been going on here at Columbia School of Social work and how you want to participate, that's excellent. It helps in application, and it also helps you to organize. Once I get here once, I get that admissions letter. How am I going to organize my time? Who am I going to talk to? 1st? Which faculty am I gonna reach out to? And you're going to have a plan. It is 2 years which actually goes so much faster than you could possibly imagine.

And so, taking advantage of all of the opportunities and the resources available, and you have access to all of them, you'll have access to the entire university, not just Columbia School of Social work, but taking advantage of all of those different resources and really participating when you feel it's fruitful and will help your career endeavors is just a great way to really figure out. You know. How do you make the most of your time here?

We also want to of course make sure that you're thinking of what to do after you click submit on that application, and of course making sure it's complete. It's a really important step as much as you put into the application and you can't wait to just slam the laptop shut and walk away from the computer all together. Make sure you pay attention to your emails. The email that you served your application with, we will reach out if anything is missing. Things do happen. Sometimes you upload the wrong essay twice. You know, sometimes the reference letter doesn't come through, whatever it is.

We want to make sure that your application is complete. That's the only way we could begin to evaluate your application. If offered admission, we would need electronic and official transcripts.

OK, if offered admission, your transcripts would need to be official, meaning from the issuing registrar directly to our office without you in between to download a document or to open a piece of mail and we would like it to actually be electronic. Again. This is a university wide guideline. If there is a limitation where you know maybe that institution just does not provide electronic transcripts, though usually have like a blue seal or ribbon on top and they're very clear that they're official and when it was.

You know, shown or or provided from that registrar. If your school just does not do that. If offered admission, you'll have the opportunity to let our office of admissions know in writing, and we'd be able to assist you from there. But there is a global pandemic we are not presently on campus. Don't know if you could tell, don't know if you can tell at all. Never we're not in the building, and so if you've mailed something, we'll get to it. Question mark. But we also want to make sure that your transcripts are legit and show us.

Who you actually are, and so it's important that you go through the proper systems if eligible, which is on the federal. I believe financial aid website. We do want you to complete the FAFSA. It is important for getting need based aid and required. So sometimes students compare what they got in undergrad to Graduate School. We'll talk a little bit about financial aid in that process in a moment, but the FASA is the first start, so once you click submit on your application, take a day to relax. Make sure your references are in, but also.

Make the time to submit your FAFSA before you even get a decision from us. That way, if offered admission and you're already getting a financial aid package, we do want you to stay up to date on vaccine requirements. This is not part of the admissions process. There is no point as part of the application where we're going to ask you about your vaccines and and your your health in that way. But we do want you to be mindful again. Global pandemic. There are certain requirements that have been put in place to make sure that our students, faculty, staff.

And community members are safe. They do change as necessary to make sure again that we are able to continue with our classes in person. There are also some vaccine requirements that predate this pandemic. OK, public health is really important, and so even before you're offered admission, maybe after a few weeks of submitting your application, it doesn't hurt to just check what are those New York State health requirements. We have a whole immunization compliance website. Maybe there's a document somewhere where your pediatrician

kind of stamped all the vaccines you took.

Go find that now the edges are frayed, but maybe it has the information we need. You don't want to wait until after you're offered admission. After you've submitted your deposit. After you have reached out to our students to learn more about the program you're about to Click to register for classes. And Nope, there's a whole 'cause you never submitted the documentation necessary, so again, you may not feel the need to get additional vaccines or require vaccines now, but it doesn't hurt to be aware of what those requirements are, and definitely be aware that.

Within eight weeks of the admissions deadline, which will explain in just a moment, that's when we hope to provide you with an admissions decision. I know John is an amazing application reviewer, but there are slowpokes like myself that also review applications. Every application gets multiple reads. It is a process we want to make sure you're a great fit for this program. So if it's within eight weeks, it's totally normal. You might hear back at week seven. You might hear what echo week six, but there's no need to call our office and let us and say like I haven't heard back yet.

I would just take a moment to review those applications, so be mindful of that.

I just wanted to add that there is an office that will be reviewing all of your vaccination requirements.

They are.

Composed of people and so.

They review these documents for the entire university, so submitting them sooner rather than later will really benefit you when it comes to being able to register for classes. Because if you don't have the vaccination information approved by this department, you won't be able to register, and we do find that students who are in this situation.

Are extremely nervous and we totally understand it, but there's really nothing we can do to help. It really is, you know. Another offices responsibility to review these documents. We can't expedite anything because we're not involved in that process, so it is good to have these documents on hand. Now, if you are very seriously considering Graduate School because every Graduate School most likely in the country right now will be asking for these. Columbia does require, you know, not only the COVID-19 vaccination, but also the booster, and that will be for all students regardless of campus.

So if you are an online student, you will be required to submit these as well and you will not be able to register and are submitted. So just be mindful of that and I think that's all I wanted to add about that, but it is. It is required for students in both campuses.

Just bear that in mind.

Yeah, and we do have a handful of slides left, but I do want to be. I just want I just want to repeat what John said. There's a human being in the immunization Compliance Office, several actually that are reviewing each of these documents and the forms you submit manually and verifying the information so sometimes students do. Maybe under think what the process includes and think, oh I'll just type something up on word and send it to them. And surely the hold will be lifted in the next two hours for me to register.

That's not a thing, and so this might be us being a little overzealous, but we do know that students are eager to join our program and eager to register. And so we feel that if we tell you now. Hopefully when you get the good news that you've been offered admission, you already have either a plan for when you're completing those vaccine requirements, which I just shared in the chat, or you already had the documents ready to go. Sometimes even your undergraduate school, you know you had to submit them specially to submitted. If you went to undergrad in the United States and you could just have them.

Fax over or or or provide you with a copy of that for you to upload, so that's important. I do see some questions in the chat about particular if your vaccines are not were were administered in other countries, or if you have that information.

We're not. We're not the ones processing this. We are not health folks. We're not medical professionals, and again, this is just to be as prepared as possible. So when offered admission, you can either know exactly which website to go to, or maybe you're already taking the time to check the FA Q to find the answer to those questions. But we do want to very quickly take the time to talk about the financial aid process. We do know that attending Graduate School is something that.

A lot of students just dream up your first generation college students like myself. You know, maybe you didn't consider Graduate School when you started undergrad and now all of a sudden you're thinking about the process and you're so hyper focused on the essays and the references that you forget. Wait a minute, I need to make sure that this is feasible for me, and so we want you to think about again now in advance. How do you make sure that you're making the financial aid process work for you? In addition to applying for your MSW and filing your FAFSA, you should then be looking at.

Additional funding and creating a financial plan of some sort. You should start thinking about supplemental scholarships. Maybe you're in our one year residency program and your employer supports your education and is willing to do so financially. Maybe there are special scholarships you're applying for. Maybe you've read our emails right? Maybe about the Klein. Hopefully that doesn't sound foreign to you and you've heard about that option from our program. We send things out all the time, but the idea is that you should think about.

The financial aid before you even enroll and so that I do want to stress that we do a lot to support our students at. This is something that we're continuing as every year. I think, for the last four or so academic years, we've actually reduced the amount of loan debt our students have taken on to pursue our program this past academic year. 91% of our students who filed a FASA for the 2020 to 2021 academic year received aid with over 14.8 million in institutional.

Funding awarded to our students. This is a number that has grown every single year for the last three or four years and and we're on track this academic year to grow as well, and so the facet is important for determining the aid. I do not want you to assume that because it's not undergrad, you don't need to submit the FAFSA. You may have been told that in the past maybe people were referring to Pell grants or maybe specific like tap aid that is only for undergraduate students, even to get.

Institutional funding from us. You need to submit the FAFSA so be sure to start with that. As far as your financial aid journey, you can submit the FAFSA before you apply to our program. You can't submit the FAFSA before you get your admissions decision, but obviously as an admissions office, I'd like you to submit your application first. I think. Let's not put the cart before the horse. We're also not going to be able to access as an admissions office that financial data, so it really doesn't even make its way over to the school until you've been offered admission. And so we just we just want it to be there when we reach out.

For it, does that make sense? We just want it to be there when you're offered admission. We want to start making a financial aid package for you, and so this is required for federal and institutional aid. It is something that needs to be resubmitted annually and there is some information on the FAFSA website fafsa.gov in terms of what materials you can use to complete it is going to be a little bit different than the undergraduate experience. Some of you right like myself first Gen college students. We had to submit our own FAFSA is great. We had to provide. We had to find that tax documents we had to.

You know, harass our parents into doing that on time and submit it. You know, on our own behalf, and then there are others who have never actually seen the facet before, and all already panicked about it. So you do want to take the time to get to know the system they've done a lot to simplify it for you. It should be fairly straightforward and you even have opportunities to provide. I believe the previous and John's board, the expert than I am the previous years taxes in order to complete that form.

Yeah, they'll be asking for prior prior year. That is now the new policy and there is a very if you have submitted your information.

Through the IRS and they have this information, there is a mechanism called the data retrieval tool which will just auto populate most of what is required on the FAFSA. I highly encourage you to use that if for whatever reason you have an amended tax return or something needed to be changed that will not work, but the DRT is a very helpful and useful thing to kind of expedite the completion of the facet 'cause we know it can be lengthy, but it is required for us to be able to determine need, which is part of the financial aid awarding process.

At Columbia School of Social work.

There's no course for financial aid in general. It's not just going to be the aid that you get from the School of social work, it's not going to just be the federal unsubsidized loans or even federal work study, which works very similarly to how it did in college. There are also additional funding sources that you should consider, especially if you're an international student and you may not be submitting the FAFSA. There are other private loans you may be pursuing, maybe even loans from your home country there are.

Employer assistance opportunities. Many students are using their savings as well, specifically savings that they may have even put in 529 or education plans. But we do want you to consider the gamut of resources available for you to pursue Graduate School and to not be too hyper focused on the application that you forget that it's important to create a financial plan you want to make sure you're taking the time to check your credit reports to make sure that if you did have loans from undergrad that you are aware of. What process.

You know progress you've made on them. There have been different opportunities because of the pandemic to delay making payments. Maybe you continued, maybe not, but you want to make sure there are no loans that are defaulted in your name, and you might, especially if you're in the United States, want to pursue the different credit reports from different bureaus? There's also additional grants and fellowships and scholarships that you can apply for. I cannot stress that enough. Do not wait or anticipate a particular school will give you this dream free ride to Graduate School.

Some schools are able like ours. We can provide some funding that would cover full tuition, but the more a singular scholarship is, the rarer it is. So it is not the vast majority of students coming to our program that are getting this large lump sum. They may be getting smaller scholarships that add up to a substantial amount. And how better to prepare for Graduate School than to have supplemental funds to add. You also want to consider supplemental loans. I know loans are scary. I know loans can be overwhelming to think about.

And I also know that loans in these United States have gotten out of control, but there may be supplemental loans that you could consider. Either they have a friendly or interest rate. Maybe they have repayment options that you're more in line with. Maybe you're eligible for different types of loans just at least consider them and do their research necessary and play it for those indirect expenses. If you go to our website and look up the tuition and fees, you'll see that there's some fees that are not actually specific to the School of social work. You, unless you're pursuing Columbia housing or not.

Paying rent to Columbia University books, food, clothing. We're not actually anticipating that you will literally spend that amount, nor are we requiring you to. We want you to be prepared, and either you'll take that amount out in loans, or you're going to be able to start budgeting for that amount in advance. But there are things that are not tuition and fees that just come with being a living human being that needs things right, like shelter that you want to make sure that you're considering in advance before Graduate School.

And some sources for additional scholarship. There's pivot funding, the NSW or the National Association of Social Workers Foundation does have some scholarships. You may be able to pursue as a Council on social work education. There are some forms of aid that are limited to those pursuing Graduate School or even doctoral programs, or even for incoming students. They'll be very specific, but even just Googling for aid there's some aid that's not specific to social or programs that you could just use for your education, or you can search our website and find all forms of.

We especially, even as international students, again that you might be able to apply for and use for your Graduate School experience.

So with that our deadlines. Oh sorry John, yes.

I've never missed.

One more thing about financial aid. We also have a final form, so if the scholarship that you were provided was not sufficient, we definitely encourage you to submit that to let us know current circumstances are so we can if there's more funding that we can provide, and when we hire international students to submit that form, because that is essentially how we collect your income mission to determine need based eligibility. So that is essentially the process for anyone seeking additional aid or for international students seeking scholarship funding as a whole. So definitely.

Do not hesitate to reach out to us if there's financial limitations and you want us to do anyway, we can revise the eligibility. We want you to let what the circumstances are we, we will. We will determine if more funding can be provided, but you don't know unless you ask. So definitely take this opportunity to trust in my advice and do not be a fitted. It is is not going. You've already been admitted at that point. We can't rescind it. It's not. You will never be looked upon if you let us know that you would need.

More funding, whether or not we can do it, we will let you know once we review the the material. So for all students that is available. But yeah, these scholarships and the link I just put in the chat area. Excellent resources funds you don't have to pay back and we will also be emailing you with other scholarship opportunities, either through Columbia through the the School of Social work and typically or through external agencies that we are familiar with. So keep an eye on those in your inboxes.

Check is will be sending those out periodically throughout the year.

Thank you so much for sharing that advice because I totally forgot and it is important to take advantage of that appeal process. We do have a special form, which is why we don't put it on the website because it's actually unique to you as an applicant or admitted student, and so these are our application deadlines for submitting the application. We would like the application to be complete by these dates as well, including the references, but we do understand that sometimes it takes a moment for additional components to come in again. Just friendly reminder we cannot review.

The application, unless it's fully complete with those references and all required materials, so we won't actually start reviewing until then. And so as you are going through the admissions process and you click submit, if offered admission, you may then submit an appeal of your financial aid package. That's the timeline you may be admitted to other programs. You might have additional circumstances that weren't obvious enough *** if, for instance, maybe you feel like it wasn't taken into account. But as John says, we are, you know, committed to.

RE evaluating financially packages as we can you know, and you if you're offered admission, you have been offered admission. You were not be at all penalized, which is an unfortunate but common questioning concern seems have, but we are normal, reasonable people, I promise, and we want to make sure that we're helping as much as possible. So these are our deadlines. Our priority deadlines simply means that those applications were reviewed 1st and notified first of their admissions decision. The final deadline for fall term entry is February 15th.

And again, we would really like for you to click submit by that time. 11:59 PM because midnight becomes February 16, right? So remember that don't click submit right at 11:59 and then it takes 2 minutes for your computer to load and then you want to call us panicking again. We're reasonable, but it might be in your interest for your Peace of Mind to not wait to the literal last second to click submit, and if in the future you decide I would prefer to start in the spring, either for the 16 month program.

For the part time to full-time option or the one year residency, the application usually comes out sometime in August for in October submission, but the application is available now. You can actually go to socialwork.columbia.edu/apply and either start your application or log in and continue working on it. Maybe apply some of the tips we shared with you. Again for anything that you don't see, we ask where we don't ask for a GRA. We don't ask for a 4th, 5th, 6th reference letter unless it is from.

A pop star that you know we love. There's really no need for additional references, but everything that you need to submit is built into the application. But at any point you have any specific questions please, please reach out. You can just pick up a phone and call us during normal business hours on the East Coast. So nine to 5212851 two 2400. You could just call us. You could also set up a phone appointment with us. We have a calendar where we're constantly adding time so you can make an appointment in advance or just email your questions again.

We're totally normal people, so you could just send a quick email if you have a concern or question. I'm not going to answer what pop stars I liked. That was not me fishing for references from pop stars, but next try.

Haha.

It's been an absolute pleasure of presenting with you. John, thank you for sharing your wisdom and insight into admissions and financial aid will stick around for an extra couple of moments to answer any questions, but if we missed your question, please reach out to us. Email or call us and best of luck in the admissions process.

Well, thank you Natasha. You're always amazing. I love presenting with you and I like getting to see you.

This is like one of those moments. Now when we get to see each other. So this has been a pleasure. Thank you and thank you everybody for coming. Today I am dropping one more time. This amazing little website that Natasha and I put together mainly Natasha that is about our specializations. Don't think we don't love empty advanced generalist practice and programming. We're just in the process of getting the audio transcript edited so that we have the closed captioning available. But this is a website that will have all of our specialization.

Webinars that we held during the MSW Open House when our series this past fall so will just give you some more insight into the specializations and hear from students, alums and faculty members. And once again, if there are very specific questions you have about your application, anything at all definitely email us. We can find a time to chat one on one and we look forward to reviewing your applications.

Alright thanks everyone.