I Submitted My Application – What’s Next? by The Admissions Team

The School of Social Policy and Practice (SP2) Admissions Team would like to take a moment to extend warm holiday greetings and best wishes for a Happy New Year to all of our prospective students. In this festive time of the year, we hope you can take the time to appreciate what is important to you.

We expect that many of you have taken (or plan to take) advantage of our reduced application fee by submitting your SP2 application by December 31, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Applications submitted before that time will have fees of just $25, compared to fees of $65 for applications submitted after December 31^st.

Given that many of you are looking forward to what the future has in store for you, we would like to let you know what to expect after you submit your application. Dr. Mazzola, SP2’s Associate Dean Enrollment Management and Global Outreach, wrote a blog in the past highlighting the Application Interview and what to expect. Since many of you are preparing for this aspect of the admissions process, we thought it timely to post it again, as you may find this information helpful in your preparation.

Wishing you a happy and safe holiday season,

The Admissions Team

The Admission Interview: What Applicants Need to Know!

The application interview is an aspect of our admissions process that differentiates us from most other professional and graduate schools. This is a requirement for all applicants who meet minimal admission criteria for the MSW, MSSP, NPL and DSW programs.  You will be contacted by the Admissions Office or by the staff of your program to schedule an interview if your application is complete and meets basic standards for admissions. The components of a complete application vary depending on program requirements but always include official transcripts and three letters of recommendation.  Interviews are conducted at the School or via Skype.

 

I am often asked by prospective students how they can prepare for the interview and what to expect.  The interview is a two-way process – it gives us the opportunity to learn more about you while at the same time enabling you to gather more information about the program, the School, and the University of Pennsylvania.  Depending on the program, you will be interviewed by the director, senior associate director, associate director, or a part-time member of the program’s faculty. Admission interviews are usually 30 to 45 minutes in duration. The interviewer will tell you about the program and ask questions pertaining to your application. The interviewer is responsible for anticipating questions from the faculty reviewer and /or the Admissions Committee who ultimately make the final decision about your application. Therefore, some of questions posed to you might be redundant to what you have written in your application essay.

How you can prepare for the interview

Although there is not a lot of preparation needed for the interview, I suggest you consider the following:

•      Review your essay and be prepared to discuss what you wrote;
•       Prepare questions to ask the interviewer;
•       Be on time (arrive at the School or sign into Skype a few minutes early);
•       Dress professionally (wear what you feel is appropriate for a job interview);
•       What you feel you bring to the program;
•       Relax and be yourself… really!

We wish you all the best as you prepare for your admissions interview at Penn, and we look forward to meeting you!

Mary Mazzola, Ed.D., MSW

Associate Dean, Enrollment Management and Global Outreach

My Experience as an International Student at SP2 by Yuyuan Liu, MSW 2012

I still remember my first month at Penn's MSW program as an international student from China. Feeling a little upset, overwhelmed, and anxious after the first few weeks of study, I began to ask myself: Is it a right choice for me to come and study social work in the United States?

 

Although having learned English a long time ago, I had never lived or studied abroad for more than a month. The four to six page application essay required for admission to Penn’s MSW program was the longest essay I had ever written in English. Therefore, I could not imagine how I would survive taking four classes a semester, with each class requiring at least three papers in a semester. I was also astonished by how fast people here at Penn speak in English; it was much faster than what I had been exposed to in China. I remember running into Dr. Mary Mazzola, the Associate Dean for Enrollment Management and Global Outreach one day after class. She greeted me and asked how I felt about my class and field placement. I told her that I had many worries and concerns. She calmed me down with a caring look and said "I know you will make it, you just need to try."

 

I doubted whether I would be able to make it at that time, but I knew that I needed to try, no matter how hard it was. I cannot remember how many times I stayed up late at night trying to finish readings or compete with a deadline and would still get up early for field placement the next day. Often times I felt exhausted, but studying at Penn's MSW program had been a dream for me, and I cherished every moment of it, no matter how difficult it seemed at the beginning. I kept trying and worked hard, believing what Hegel had said, that quantity changes would one day lead to quality changes.

 

After the first two months, things started to get better. As my foundation knowledge of social work grew and with more experience in field placement, things began to make better sense to me. I was very lucky to have found numerous supports from my professors, my peers in school, and other administrative staff at Penn and SP2. Finally at the end of the first semester, I realized I was "enjoying" my life at SP2. It was the first time that I realize how much potential existed in me. However, I experience many other “first times” as a student at Penn.  I gained many meaningful and significant "first time" experiences that included: my first time working with refugees, Alzheimer’s patients, and the LGBTQ population; my first time counseling clients; my first time co-facilitating a group for clients; my first invitation to a Thanksgiving home dinner from my professor and classmates; and my first time truly appreciating the social work profession.

 

I was amazed by how I could influence positive changes for clients by using my social work skills of listening attentively, being empathic with my clients, by having a non-judgmental attitude, by respecting the right of clients to self-determination, by connecting clients to relevant resources, by responding to and taking actions to promote inequality and injustice and by sharpening my professional skills. I was also pleasantly surprised by how much Penn’s MSW program has changed me.

 

I have gained a better understanding of loss, trauma, mental health problems, poverty, discrimination, and many other individual and social problems. I began to think more about how the social environment can influence human behavior. Instead of simply making a judgment about certain behaviors, I started to ask the “why” question. The more suffering I saw in my clients, the more I applauded them for their efforts, courage, strength and resilience. I also learned to take better care of myself, knowing that by having a balance in my life and caring for my own wellness I can better serve other people.

 

Before graduation, I was offered the opportunity to work with SP2’s Global Engagement Initiative. I worked under Dr. Mary Mazzola and Dr. Irene Wong to coordinate the China-US Health and Mental Health Social Work Conference in Beijing, to host summer exchange students from Beijing Normal University, and to assist with other global engagement activities and programs. I was part of the team, which built a cross-national and interdisciplinary partnership between Penn and universities in China. Being part of an interdisciplinary team, whose purpose is to connect social work education and practice between China and the US, was another dream for me. That dream has become a reality because of the opportunity and support SP2 provided, the perfect timing for Penn to reach out to global partners, and my continual pursuit of new dreams.

 

I do not know where life will lead me in the future, but I know I will proceed to make better changes to other people and myself. Looking back to the moment when I made the decision to attend Penn’s MSW program three years ago, I feel lucky that I made a good choice. SP2 to me is a place to grow and learn, a place to dream, and a place for dreams to come true.

 

(Yuyuan Liu, MSW, LSW is an alumna of SP2’s MSW program. In her role as the Global Initiatives Coordinator, she works closely with the Associate Dean of Enrollment Management & Global Outreach and the Faculty Director of International Programs to enhance the school’s global vision of increasing understanding of SP2’s global community, fostering mutually beneficial global engagement initiatives, and measuring the impact of SP2’s global endeavors. Yuyuan’s past experience has included working at Penn HIV/AIDS Prevention Research Division, Penn Memory Center & Geriatric Psychiatry and Nationalities Service Center. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at Peking University in Beijing, China.)

MSSP Program: One of the Best Decisions I've Made

 By Lindsay Lawer Shea, MSSP 2008

 

When I started the MSSP program in fall of 2006, I was unsure of where my education and my career were headed. I had 2 years of experience in research in the field of psychology, but I was really interested in the big picture or the “10,000 foot view” as I had heard it often described. I was really fascinated by how systems worked and who determined how they worked, but I wasn’t sure how to acquire the skills I needed to work this fascination into a career. I found myself volleying between law school applications and a research career, and given the wide range of interests and foci of the MSSP program faculty, the MSSP program was the perfect place to start.

Soon after I started the MSSP program, I found myself learning the answers to the questions I had started out asking. The good news was that each answer led to more questions. In the MSSP program, it wasn’t just about learning how programs operate or how they started, although these were critical program issues covered. The MSSP program was more about gaining the skills under strong faculty leadership to pursue a range of broad-based and specifically targeted policy solutions to help improve the world. In tandem with learning in depth about the plethora of social programs in the US and throughout the world, I found myself debating and being challenged to think outside the box about programs like Medicaid/Medicare, SSI and TANF. I discovered that there was a lot more to these programs than I ever expected and that these programs play an important role in weaving the social fiber of our country.

I was lucky enough to work full time while completing my MSSP degree part-time and I found this experience incredibly enriching. I would often return from a class and find myself in a meeting or generating ideas at work that I had been exposed to in the MSSP program. The application of the MSSP program curriculum into the real world was immediate for me and I found it very rewarding.  

 As I’m now completing my doctoral degree in health policy and managing a new public health institute focused on autism spectrum disorders, I’ve found that I dually use the information and the critical thinking skills I learned and practiced in the MSSP program on a daily basis. The big picture understanding of social policy has applied itself to my work in mental health policy unequivocally and in more instances than I can count.  Likewise, my command of the small details of these policies that I gained in the MSSP program helps me drill down on issues in innovative ways.

Choosing the MSSP program was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I still find myself going back to the books we read and notes I took both for my doctoral studies and in my professional life. I’m convinced that no other program could have so aptly and thoroughly prepared me to continue to pursue my goals. 

 

(Lindsay Lawer Shea, MSSP’08, is a Senior Manager at the Drexel Autism Public Health Institute, the first public health science autism institute in the nation. Lawer also serves as the Project Director for the Eastern Region Pennsylvania Autism Services, Education, Resources and Training (ASERT) Collaborative and is completing her doctoral degree in health policy at Drexel University. Her dissertation focuses on using national Medicaid claims to examine eligibility changes and service utilization among adolescents with autism as they age into adulthood and will be completed in 2013.)

Beyond the Rankings: Assessing MSW Programs

By Richard Gelles, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice

Sixteen years ago, when I began to explore an academic position at a school of social work, I bought a copy of the U.S. News and World Report issue on Best Graduate Schools.  I used the rankings to guide my search, prioritizing my applications based on the rankings of Master of Social Work (MSW) programs.  When I began my position at the University of Pennsylvania I was not surprised to learn that many of our applicants also relied on the U.S. News and World Report rankings to guide their own searches and choices.  It was not until I became the Dean of the School of Social Policy & Practice at Penn that I learned the reality about the U.S. News and News Report rankings. 

I was under the impression that the rankings of MSW programs were conducted in a similar fashion as the rankings of undergraduate schools and many graduate and professional programs such as law and medicine--in other words, that there were some objective measures applied to each MSW program.  I assumed that factors such as quality of the students, faculty/student ratio, and financial resources of the program would be assessed.  I also assumed that the rankings assessed the percentage of graduates who secured positions within 9 months of graduation.  

Well, I was wrong.  Shortly after I became dean I received a package in the mail from U.S. News and World Report. Inside were two forms and two return envelopes.  The forms were titled “Best Graduate Schools Assessment of Social Work Programs.”  On the following pages were listed, in alphabetical order by state, some 200 MSW programs.  I was to rank each program from 1 to 5 (“5” being “outstanding” and “1” being “marginal.”  I could also check off “Don’t Know.”  Honestly, I never heard of some of the schools.  More importantly, I had no basis for ranking the schools.  The forms included no data on the schools and I was not about to spend the next 6 weeks tracking down what I considered the relevant metrics.  I knew my own school, knew something about schools I had visited or been interviewed by; but for the vast majority, I had no basis for choosing a rating.  

I was asked to give a second form to one of my senior colleagues so there would be two rankings submitted by our school.  The colleague I approached was as dumbfounded as I was.  He said he could rank us, the school he received his MSW from, the school he attended for his doctorate, but really knew too little about the hundreds of schools on the list to provide a meaningful rank.

It also crossed my mind that were one so inclined, the rankings could be “gamed.”  In the most recent MSW rankings (2012), the difference between the top school and the school ranked tenth was six-tenths of a point.  Had I wanted to, I could have improved my own school’s ranking by simply ranking schools previously ranked in the top ten as “marginal.”  Had my colleague and I actually done this, we would have dropped the #1 ranked school to #3 or the 11^th ranked school to #16. In the end I filled out my form as best I could, ranking more than 150 schools “don’t know.”  Our program was tied with 8 other schools and ranked #16.  

There was one more answer I was looking for regarding the rankings:  Just how many of my colleague deans and senior faculty actually sat down and ranked MSW programs?  According to U.S. News and World Report the response rate for Master of Social Work programs in was 53%. 

So in the end, the assessment and ranking of Master of Social Work programs is essentially a beauty contest where half of the judges do not show up, those who do show up wear dark glasses, and the contestants stand behind an opaque curtain.  In a word, the rankings are worthless.  As an applicant, you will have to do the research U.S. News and World Report refuses to carry out.  When assessing MSW programs ask the following questions:

1.       What is the faculty/student ratio?

2.       What is the average class size?

3.       What is the average GPA of accepted students/enrolled students?

4.       What is the average financial aid award and is it based on merit, need, or a combination of both?

5.       What field placements are available?

6.       What percentage of students are employed in professional work within 6 months of graduation?

7.       What is the average salary of a graduate the first year after the graduation; the 5^th year after graduation?

8.       How strong is the school’s alumni network?

Funding Your Graduate Education: Questions Answered by Michael Light, Director of Financial Aid

               With all the changes to the federal budget as a result of sequestration, many current and prospective students have voiced concerns regarding the availability of financial aid.  These concerns are 100% valid and most students will be affected by cuts to the federal budget (see below).  While changes are coming down the line, students should feel assured that funding a graduate education will still be as possible as ever.  Below are some common questions current and future students have asked and their answers.

Will the federal budget cuts mean that I am less likely to receive grants/scholarships?

No, completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) determines students’ eligibility for federal work-study and federal loans.  The vast majority of scholarship aid available at SP2 comes directly from the school (over 95%).  The other 5% is almost all funding students have been awarded in recompense for some kind of service, such as AmeriCorps Segal Education Awards.  While AmeriCorps benefits may be affected going forward, Penn SP2 will continue to commit nearly $3M of our own resources to fund scholarships regardless of federal budget cuts. 

Will I have trouble obtaining federal student loans?

No, federal student loans will be available just as they have been.  However, the origination fees associated with 2 federal loan programs will increase.  The origination fee for the Federal Direct Stafford Loan will increase from 1% to 1.05%.  The origination fee for the Federal Graduate PLUS loan will increase from 4% to 4.2%.  The Federal Perkins Loan will continue to be free of fees.

Will work-study still be available?

Federal Work-Study funding will be cut by $86M.  This may mean that fewer students will be able to receive work-study but to what degree that may or may not happen is still unclear.  For our MSW students that would normally use their field placement as their work study job, SP2 would award an additional $1,000 in grants for any full-time MSW student denied work-study due to the reductions in federal funding.

While these cuts are not ideal, they have had no effect on the scholarships or loans that students can obtain.  Every dollar one would need to fund their graduate education is still available.  For students that intend on using the Pay As Your Earn Plan and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/understand/plans/pay-as-you-earn), the slight increase in fees may not even be incurred by the student; the total amount paid by the student may remain the same.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me at light@sp2.upenn.edu or 215-746-5894 should you have any questions.