Virtual Open House Master of Social Work Transcript

George Mason Online Admissions: Alright, thank you again to everyone for joining us this evening. We are excited to get started. My name is Denise. I am an admissions representative for the online masters of social work program.

George Mason Online Admissions: I am here as a resource to give you guys information, answer any questions, walk through the admissions application process. If this is something you decide you want to move forward with. I’m gonna go ahead and go over the agenda for today.

George Mason Online Admissions: so I will go ahead and introduce you to the faculty. Why, Mason’s master of social work.

George Mason Online Admissions: they’ll discuss the mission and outlook. What makes this unique

George Mason Online Admissions: curriculum details?

George Mason Online Admissions: Primarily it is a asynchronous learning, the practical education.

George Mason Online Admissions: Learning outcomes the stipend programs, admissions, requirements.

George Mason Online Admissions: and Q&A

George Mason Online Admissions: before then, just want to let you know how you can participate. You have your chat.

George Mason Online Admissions: You can raise your hand. There’s also gonna be a section towards the end for QA.

George Mason Online Admissions: And I’ll go ahead and introduce you to Dr. Daphne King.

George Mason Online Admissions: We have

George Mason Online Admissions: Gn. Booth. She is not with us tonight, but then we have Melissa Hansley. She’ll go ahead and discuss the practicum education portion.

George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. King, if you want to go ahead and introduce yourself.

Dr. Daphne King: Alright. Good evening, everyone. I am excited. To be here with you all tonight. Thank you for joining us for our open house, for fall semester. I am Dr. King. I am the program director

Dr. Daphne King: for our online Msw program. I am also an assistant professor in the Department of social work. I primarily teach courses related to our clinical or clinical practice with children using family specialization. As well as the first course that students take when they enter the program, our foundations of social work and social welfare. So I look forward to sharing this space with you all this evening.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you for that, Dr. Daphne. King Melissa Hensley. If you wanna go ahead and introduce yourself, please.

Melissa Hensley: Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining. I’m Melissa Hensley. I’m one of the assistant directors and a department or practical education

Melissa Hensley: program. Here in the department of social work, and it’s great to be here. I look forward to talking with you a little bit about the practicum process and the requirements, and hope to work with you in the future.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. I’ll go ahead and transition into social work and the mission and outlook.

Dr. Daphne King: Alright. So

Dr. Daphne King: the Msw program here, George Mason. Our mission, our values encompass the values of the social work profession as outlined for us through our professional organization, the National Association of Social Workers. And so, as you see on the slide here.

Dr. Daphne King: our mission encompasses, you know the ideals of service and social justice, and really working to address the needs of those that have been historically marginalized and oppressed in our country as well as those that are living in poverty and as social workers we don’t we work on behalf of and with these individuals to empower them to impact their communities as well.

Dr. Daphne King: We look at how each individual is interacting within their own social environment. As well as society at large. And you know again, our mission here. In our Msw. Program

Dr. Daphne King: encompasses those ideals of social justice advocating for human rights and service that are encompassed in the values of the social work, profession, and our professional organization in Asw.

Dr. Daphne King: and, as you can see from the statistics included here on this slide. The profession of social work is fastly growing. We are meeting the needs of mental health within our society as well. And so the profession of social work is, you know, really slated to meet those growing needs of a mental health services within our society.

Dr. Daphne King: This next slide just features some information about what makes our program unique. Our online program has been ranked in the top 10 by Forbes as being one of the best online Msw programs of 2,023. Our program also prepares students to apply for

Dr. Daphne King: or sit for licensure within the State of Virginia.

Dr. Daphne King: and for students that may enter in from other States as well. We do prepare you for licensure. One thing that we do have students make sure that they check is the license and requirements for their particular state. But our program does prepare you to apply for

Dr. Daphne King: and set for licensure. We are accredited by the Council on social work education, which means that we meet all of the criteria that they have set forth for a rigorous academic graduate program. We have faculty

Dr. Daphne King: that come from very diverse areas within the profession of social work. We have faculty that are engaging in research and publishing, and students have an opportunity to engage with faculty and work alongside faculty with their research through our swirl lab, which is our social work, integrative research lab. And so these are some things that make our program unique.

Dr. Daphne King: This next slide just talks a little bit about our curriculum. And, as it was stated earlier.

Dr. Daphne King: our program is primarily asynchronous learning. So your classes are not necessarily scheduled for a certain time or certain day, but there are due dates connected with each of your assignments, as the slide says, here our program is 60 credit hours for our traditional program for students coming in under advanced standing. And that means that you have a bachelors of social

Dr. Daphne King: work from an accredited university. That’s 33 credit hours to complete.

Dr. Daphne King: We have 2 specializations. One is children, youth and families. The other specialization is adults and healthy aging within both of those specializations. Students will engage in clinical work as well as some macro or policy work to understand providing services to both of those unique populations across various stages in the life cycle.

Dr. Daphne King: This slide also just features an example of what a course plan could look like. One thing to keep in mind is that for our traditional

Dr. Daphne King: part-time program.

Dr. Daphne King: our semesters are divided into 2 8 week sessions. And so students will take one course in each of those 8 8 week sessions. We do have an accelerated option where some students opt to take 3 classes a semester. So that means in one of those 8 week sessions you will be taking 2 classes together. But what is laid out before you just a sample of some of the courses that are offered within our program.

Dr. Daphne King: As you know, we stated earlier, our program is primarily asynchronous so you will engage in the courses according to your own schedule, on your own time, just making sure that you, submit the assignments according to the due dates as posted in your course. There are some courses, such as our practicum seminars

Dr. Daphne King: that do have a synchronous component to it, so you will have to log into zoom at a certain time to engage in those class sessions. Some instructors will also offer synchronous class sessions that will give you an opportunity to engage with your faculty and classmates. Again, via zoom.

Dr. Daphne King: in a little bit more of a structured setting.

Dr. Daphne King: Your instructors will also offer virtual office hours. This is, that is a time where students can meet with their faculty individually to talk about their assignments, their grade, and of course, or any other items that may come up, or even just to connect

Dr. Daphne King: students also have faculty advisors that will also offer you know certain zoom sessions to connect with your faculty advisor and receive support in that way. So while the program is primarily asynchronous, there are some synchronous components to help build community with our students and to connect and engage with students on a little bit more of a deeper level. That isn’t always possible in an virtual format.

Dr. Daphne King: Now I’m going to turn it over to Melissa.

Melissa Hensley: I guess, taking myself off mute would be helpful.

Melissa Hensley: helpful. So the practicum is a large component of the program. We could talk about this for a very long time, so we’ll try to

Melissa Hensley: and keep it pretty succinct to go through the slides here.

Melissa Hensley: So just wanted to mention this as you’re, you know, thinking about coming into the program.

Melissa Hensley: we have actually just announced the change of our name for the internship program. So you may have heard about field education, and some universities are still using the term field. George Mason has switched over to practicum education. So we’re the pep, department or pep team

Melissa Hensley: And so

Melissa Hensley: so really, that’s to you. I’ll just go through the points here to elevate the experiential learning focus for the internship

Melissa Hensley: as as a practicum. So it is hands on applications theories and concepts, and really is

Melissa Hensley: and combination. It’s not just a matter of going in and learning. You know, one particular skill or one particular job in one particular setting. It is very

Melissa Hensley: It’s a comprehensive experience. And so you also will receive supervision. From a social worker who’s approved by the program and meets the accreditation requirements. There is a deliberate, structured, intentional, interactive learning experience, that is, of your practicum experience. And so

Melissa Hensley: just wanted to. Let you know that we are the practicum education program. So you may see some places where a field is still there. But we are transitioning to the the practicum education program.

Melissa Hensley: So the practicum as Dr. King mentioned. Some of the classes are 8 week sessions, but your practicum is not it is the signature, pedagogy for social work education, and it is a full academic year.

Melissa Hensley: And it’s really the opportunity to transform from you know everything that you’re learning in the classroom and through your coursework and be able to put that into practice and see the social worker role. You know how how it works in the in the agency setting working with clients, client systems and the community

Melissa Hensley: and it’s really to, again, you know, provide that opportunity for you to apply your knowledge skills, values, ethics, and everything that you’re learning into professional practice.

Melissa Hensley: and so there is an evaluation component.

Melissa Hensley: Your your park to come is

Melissa Hensley: comprised of both the practicum hours per week that you do with the agency. There’s an evaluation there. There’s also a seminar component of your practicum, and that is asynchronous for the most part. But, as Dr. King mentioned, we do have a couple of sessions that are synchronous.

Melissa Hensley: The the practicum seminar is

Melissa Hensley: technically, it’s a class, but it is really designed for engagement, discussion, and kind of connecting all the dots. Students are in such a variety of agencies. And so but you’re all working on the same skill set this

Melissa Hensley: same codes, the same standards. And so I’m just wanna make

Melissa Hensley: make sure that have that opportunity to really discuss that bring any kind of ethical dilemmas, that sort of thing to the class, and and be able to connect everything together. The practicum is for

Melissa Hensley: the traditional, the non advanced standing track. There’s 2 practice comes through general this year, and then specialization year, and when we say year, that means August through about the end of April early May. So it’s your traditional academic year.

Melissa Hensley: fall and spring semester

Melissa Hensley: for your general as year from August through May, you’ll stay at the same agency. And you know same

Melissa Hensley: seminar course as well. Your generalist year is a total of 450 h, and so per semester even though you’ll stay at the same agency for fall and spring. It’s 225 h for the fall, and then 225 in the spring, which breaks down to about 16 HA week.

Melissa Hensley: It’s the same structure and setup for specialization. You’re accepted 600 h.

Melissa Hensley: Which is 20 HA week. So just wanted to highlight that first, because it is a very large time commitment. It is a lot of work.

Melissa Hensley: and just wanna point that out, because sometimes, you know, just be thinking about what that means for you.

Melissa Hensley: So your schedule on your family. And so, you know. Just be thinking about that early on

Melissa Hensley: We do work with students individually on identifying the agency. You know, figuring out

Melissa Hensley: like what agency is gonna be best for you location and I can talk about that in a minute. But during your 16 or 20 h per week. If you’re advanced standing, you’ll go straight into your specialization year.

Melissa Hensley: But no matter what. You’ll have an hour of weekly supervision with an approved social worker on site

Melissa Hensley: or externally. But you’ll have social work supervision.

Melissa Hensley: Students will also have to demonstrate competency and

Melissa Hensley: all 8

Melissa Hensley: areas. Macron’s may have

Melissa Hensley: macro only, or micro only but we really wanna make sure that students have a well rounded experience and have an opportunity to really practice at the micro meso and macro levels. It’s really hard to be exclusive in any of those with a social work role.

Melissa Hensley: So just making sure that you’re getting the most out of your practical experience.

Melissa Hensley: And then for the generalist year. We sometimes describe it as like a bird’s eye view. Where you can really kind of see? The social worker role be able to. You know, you’ll still be interacting with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. But maybe not so much of that will be direct service practice.

Melissa Hensley: it’s about half and half, and then your specialization year would be a little more clinically focused. We’re about 75% of your time would be in direct service with

Melissa Hensley: clients and client systems.

Melissa Hensley: Most agencies are you know your Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 and to be able to be available during those times.

Melissa Hensley: We really wanna make sure that students have the full experience that you’re able to participate in meetings. Have access to your supervisors and get the most out of that. However, we do realize that social work is 24, 7, and so occasionally we will have partnerships or opportunities and places like crisis centers, shelters, hospitals, and that may have some alternative hours. But students.

Melissa Hensley: no matter where you’re placed, students are expected to be available

Melissa Hensley: during the the times of operation. That the agency can offer for the practicum.

Melissa Hensley: And

Melissa Hensley: again, we do work with agencies wherever students are we do have some remote opportunities as well. Ever since Covid, there’s been a little bit of a shift for agencies to be able to offer some virtual and remote placements. However, we can’t guarantee that. It just kind of depends on what’s available

Melissa Hensley: and social workers. We’re always kind of changing and adapting to the community needs but we do partner with agencies all across the United States, and we’re always looking to add new partnerships as well. So sometimes if we’re working with a student, who’s in a new

Melissa Hensley: great for us, definitely get out there and explore and see what’s available. And we do our best to match with agencies that are going to be of interest and are gonna help students and their long term goals. But also you know, definitely. Keep it

Melissa Hensley: and open.

Melissa Hensley: Mine is what your opportunities. We have hundreds of agencies.

Melissa Hensley: That we’re currently partnered with and like, I said before, we work with students individually to kind of match you with agencies that are gonna help you be successful in your practicum and make sure that it’s a good fit.

Melissa Hensley: Make sure that they meet the requirements and maintain the integrity for our program.

Melissa Hensley: And so a traditional placement, usually students don’t have any relationship with that agency. So it’ll be something new. And then we do have the employment based practicum for students who may already be employed with a social services agency that may be able to provide the practicum opportunity for you as well. So we do have to go through an application process for that. But if you are currently employed with a social services agency and we’d be glad to talk about some options there.

Melissa Hensley: We need to make sure that they can meet the requirements of the program. Provide the supervision and support that you’ll need and we really

Melissa Hensley: focus on making sure that students have the opportunity to be a student if it’s an employment base, because sometimes it’s very easy to kinda keep doing what you’re doing. But you really need to branch out and grow and make sure that you’re getting the most out of the Msw. Program and setting ourselves up for success post graduation. So

Melissa Hensley: I am going to add our email in the chat

Melissa Hensley: and we are still in the process of updating our email. So it does say, social work field. But that is our

Melissa Hensley: our email for the practicum education program. If you have any questions, I, you know would be glad to answer here. Or if you wanna put them in the chat throughout the open house tonight, or if you wanna send us an email, we’d be glad to answer your questions.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you, Melissa, and I’m gonna

George Mason Online Admissions: back to you, Daphne. Dr. Daphne.

George Mason Online Admissions: didn’t I go.

Dr. Daphne King: Alright. So this next slide just talks a little bit about. You know some of the roles that social workers may engage in in various areas within the field of social work. And this is just a snapshot. This is not an exhaustive list of just the various roles that social workers engage in.

Dr. Daphne King: but some of them listed here. Include family services working in child protection which I started my career as a social worker in working in foster care and adoption, housing, homeless homelessness programs, health and mental health practice.

Dr. Daphne King: And again, you know, our, our public school systems, social workers are working in counseling centers at universities, working for various companies working in entrepreneurial pursuits. So it is. A very vast field and very diverse

Dr. Daphne King: with the roles and areas that social workers fulfill.

Dr. Daphne King: So one other thing that makes our program here at George Mason, unique is that we have 2 stipend programs. And our stipend programs are a way for students to engage in some additional training as well as to receive some additional or funding for their graduate school education. So the first program is the child Welfare stipend program.

Dr. Daphne King: With this particular program, students will receive some specialized training specifically to work in the child public or the public child welfare arena

Dr. Daphne King: students within the Cwsp program will receive a $10,000 stipend per academic year. But there is a work requirement connected to that. So once you graduate, I believe it’s within

Dr. Daphne King: 6 months you would have to secure employment with a Virginia Department of Social Services. We do have a a coordinator for the Child Welfare stipend program that will work with you. On, you know, provide. Finding that employment on securing a practicum students can apply for the Cwsp at any stage in the program. Generalist and specialization.

Dr. Daphne King: Then our second stipend program is our behavioral health program or cap. Bh, this program, specifically, is was created to

Dr. Daphne King: address the behavioral health workforce shortage by providing some more specific training. To Msw students, to be able to address complex issues like untreated trauma and exposure to violence.

Dr. Daphne King: This particular stipend program also comes with a $10,000 stipend. There is not a work requirement. For this stipend program. However, students can only apply to this program. When they are going to start their specialization courses. So these are our 2 stipend programs that are available within the department of social work.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you very much for that, Doctor Daphne King. I will go ahead and discuss now the admissions process before we get into our QA.

George Mason Online Admissions: The steps for the admissions is we do have some prerequisites. You would have to have a bachelor’s degree with a minimum of a 3.0 Gpa.

George Mason Online Admissions: We will also need a transcript.

George Mason Online Admissions: We’ll need a resume and any volunteer work you have you have done. Please include in your resume. We’ll also need 2 letters of recommendation.

George Mason Online Admissions: A personal statement

George Mason Online Admissions: usually would start that by addressing social work justice.

George Mason Online Admissions: and also as far as the classes for prerequisites, you do need to have had taken a statistics class.

George Mason Online Admissions: an English composition course, a government one on one history or government course, and a social science course. If you have not had a statistics. Course, you can’t take one through Gmu to satisfy this. And there’s also another way you can satisfy. That is the supplement through Linkedin, which we would provide you that information. If that’s a route you wanted to go.

George Mason Online Admissions: If you have any questions regarding these steps, as far as like start dates, application materials.

George Mason Online Admissions: anything like that. Please reach out to an admissions representative. If you don’t know who your advisor is, I’ll be sharing the main number on the final slide, your advisor will be able to address anything you are missing. As far as like application fees, start dates any questions you have. Now let’s go ahead and jump into the QA. Go ahead and put any questions you have in the chat, and we’ll be more than happy to address those.

George Mason Online Admissions: I’ll leave this slide here while we go over the Q. And A.

George Mason Online Admissions: You can grab that number.

George Mason Online Admissions: I’ll go back to the other one with the admissions process. So we can go over the questions that you guys have.

George Mason Online Admissions: One of the questions is, what is the committee looking for in regards to application.

Dr. Daphne King: So you know, the committee is really looking for all of these items that are listed on this slide. To be addressed.

Dr. Daphne King: You want to make sure that you have that minimum Gpa, or provide an explanation. If your Gpa is lower

Dr. Daphne King: with the personal statement, you want to make sure that you are addressing each of the prompts. One of the prompt, I think, asked more about your personal aspirations. But then the second one specifically asks you to identify a social justice issue. And you really want to make sure that you are addressing both of those prompts because those prompts. Also let us know what you understand about the profession of social work and advocating for social justice.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, thank you.

George Mason Online Admissions: Another question, what kind of students do you typically see.

George Mason Online Admissions: are coming into this degree like, what are the similar backgrounds? You see.

Dr. Daphne King: In all honesty.

Dr. Daphne King: I see students coming from all walks of life. I really can’t pinpoint

Dr. Daphne King: you know, a typical, a quote unquote typical student. You know, we see students that have come the traditional route where they’ve, you know, finished undergraduate and are moving directly into grad school. We see students that have taken 10 or more, or even 20 or more years away from school. And they’re not coming back. We see students that are career switchers. So it it really varies.

Dr. Daphne King: Okay.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. And in reference to having a lower than the minimum Gpa, do you recommend, aside from the explanation that you mentioned, that they take a course

George Mason Online Admissions: or more work experience to give them a better chance at being accepted to the program.

Dr. Daphne King: We have had some applicants that may have had a lower Gpa that did take some additional course work, or or take some additional courses to show that they could handle

Dr. Daphne King: The rigors of a graduate school. Have had some applicants to, you know, really demonstrate an understanding of working in the profession of social work through volunteer work. So really, it depends on the

Dr. Daphne King: totality of the application is not just isolated with one factor. But it’s really looking at all of the factors combined.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay, thank you.

George Mason Online Admissions: Another question. Are there additional scholarships available.

Dr. Daphne King: So one of the things for graduate school is that it is often not as many scholarships available as you would find for undergraduate.

Dr. Daphne King: If you go to our college, you know the College of Public Health, there is scholarship information available there. Some of the that scholarship information is geared towards students that are already admitted into one of the programs within the College of Public Health.

Dr. Daphne King: I believe George Mason University.

Dr. Daphne King: you know, also, has scholarships available. But again, those would be things that you would be looking at, you know, once you were accepted or admitted. I do know that the National Association of Social Workers

Dr. Daphne King: have, you know, a scholarship program. But honestly, when it comes to graduate school, it really is a little bit more challenging to find scholarships, and that is something that you just may want to research on your own or start thinking about how

Dr. Daphne King: you’re going to fund your, you know, graduate school education. You know. Again, we have the 2 stipend programs available in the department. But it would really be up to you to look at what else is out there and available to fund your graduate school education.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you.

George Mason Online Admissions: Another question that I have is how important is having a research background and undergrad when applying to the program.

Dr. Daphne King: Having a research background is not a requirement. As I said earlier in tonight’s presentation or open house that we do have a research lab. But any student can apply to be a graduate research assistant to work in the swirl lab. And you don’t need to have research experience to do that. You know it definitely, you know, is a benefit. But it’s not a requirement.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you. And is the admissions process different for advanced standing.

Dr. Daphne King: The advanced standing process is a little bit different. The Gpa requirement is a little bit higher. So for advanced standing you need to have a 3.2 Gpa. You have to have a bachelors of social work from an accredited university.

Dr. Daphne King: And you also have to submit your Bswcom evaluation as part of that process. There’s there are 2 steps to the advanced standing application process. One is completing the application materials. But then the second piece is an interview, if you are invited to interview. So the advanced standing is a little bit of a different process.

George Mason Online Admissions: Okay? And the next question is, what are the deadlines for application? And are there multiple time? Start options? I can answer that, Doctor King, if you would like. There are.

George Mason Online Admissions: It’s gonna be dependent on the start term. And yes, we do have 3 start terms. We have our

George Mason Online Admissions: spring term which usually starts January. We have our summer term usually starts in May, and then we have our fall term that usually starts in August. Usually the deadlines, for everything is a month beforehand. That gives you enough time to get everything in, and it gives the admissions department enough time to review and make sure you have.

George Mason Online Admissions: or your line or your ducks aligns for that, and if there’s something that you need to submit, you have plenty of time to take care of that

George Mason Online Admissions: as far as like.

George Mason Online Admissions: for example, our next term is the fall term classes start August 20, sixth, and then we have our spring term that we just opened classes start January thirteenth.

George Mason Online Admissions: and as far as like deadlines to have everything into us for the online program for fall, you would have to have everything in by July first, and then for the spring term. We’d like for you to have everything in by December first.

Dr. Daphne King: So the July first deadline for Fall semester is for advanced standing. There is a a different application deadline for anyone applying for the traditional part time program.

Dr. Daphne King: But the July first date is the date for advanced standing.

Dr. Daphne King: I believe, for fall semester. The application deadline is either August first or August fifteenth.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, August first.

George Mason Online Admissions: for the regular one. That is correct. Another question that I have.

George Mason Online Admissions: What skills are being learned in the program.

Dr. Daphne King: So you know, the program, of course, is preparing students to practice as professional social workers. So you are learning those basic skills.

Dr. Daphne King: That you know social workers possess. You are learning about the profession of social work, our core values, our ethical principles and standards.

Dr. Daphne King: Learning about engaging with clients, on all levels or engaging with individuals on all levels. There’s learning

Dr. Daphne King: you know about policy and how policy practice influences or impacts the services that we provide. So the the skills are really being built. So the students can practice professionally as a social worker.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you.

George Mason Online Admissions: There’s no more questions.

George Mason Online Admissions: Sure, if you have any

George Mason Online Admissions: words of wisdom you would like to give the students that joined us tonight.

Dr. Daphne King: I, you know, would definitely say, you know, really make sure that

Dr. Daphne King: you have, you know, given some, you know, serious thought and consideration to the start of grad school. It is a, you know, a rigorous process. And so you want to make sure that you have, you know, considered how your life may be impacted, how your schedule may be impacted, what things you may, you know, need to shift

Dr. Daphne King: in your time, and then your schedule to start graduate school to make sure that you have enough time to engage with all of the course work, and that you have you know time when it’s

Dr. Daphne King: time to start practicing.

Dr. Daphne King: Definitely, you know. Look at things that you do to engage in self care. That’s going to be very important. You know, once you’re in the program. But I really would say, making sure that you’re looking at

Dr. Daphne King: how you may, you know, need to adjust certain things in your life related to to time, because it is a time commitment.

Dr. Daphne King: I don’t know if Melissa has anything she would like to add.

Melissa Hensley: I second everything.

Melissa Hensley: yeah, I know this is, it’s a very

Melissa Hensley: intense program, but it’s all

Melissa Hensley: also very fast. It probably doesn’t feel very fast while you’re in it, but when you get out of it, when you finish and graduate you look back in it. It goes very, very quickly. There’s a lot of great connections to be made, especially

Melissa Hensley: with online students. You know, there’s ways to connect. And so because it’s asynchronous. There’s a lot of ways to really get to know your classmates, and, you know, develop those lifelong connections, friendships, colleagues. You know all of that. So I noticed that for sure in the last few years that

Melissa Hensley: students are very connected. You know, there’s a lot of opportunities. If you’re local and online. There’s opportunities to participate on campus

Melissa Hensley: of those

Melissa Hensley: I don’t know. Yeah, I mean, I I agree with everything Dr. King said. So.

Dr. Daphne King: There is one question related to practicum if you can use the same agency twice.

Melissa Hensley: Yeah. And so sometimes that does come up. Ia lot of that depends on the agency. And you know, when it comes down to it. What we’re looking for is making sure that there’s room to grow. So you know, occasionally we see that more often with larger agencies, where there’s more departments. To kind of spread out. Try something new.

Melissa Hensley: You know. Work with new clients, work with

Melissa Hensley: new supervisors, you know, gaining perspectives, new skill sets. You know, some of the skills

Melissa Hensley: that students are working on, you know, in addition to engagement is assessment interventions, evaluations.

Melissa Hensley: You know. So all of those skills that’s, you know, making sure that you are developing that and not just repeating more of that for a second year. So you know we look at, you know all of the factors. You know. What is the agency? What kind of learning opportunities are they gonna provide? And if that’s

Melissa Hensley: if it seems like a sound arrangement, then we can. We can consider that.

Dr. Daphne King: And yes, you do have to have a Bswe for the advanced standing. Option. There is no other substitute or no, or any other major that can be substitute afraid and standing. It has to be a Bsw. And that requirement is given to us by our accrediting body, the Council on social work, education? So that is not something that you know we would

Dr. Daphne King: change or substitute in order to be considered and apply for advanced standing. You do have to have a Bsw.

Dr. Daphne King: And I think there was one question about the tuition for the program.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, I was going to

George Mason Online Admissions: answer that

George Mason Online Admissions: privately, but I can discuss it here if you would like.

George Mason Online Admissions: Bear with me just one moment

George Mason Online Admissions: as far as the tuition. It will

George Mason Online Admissions: vary if it’s online, or if

George Mason Online Admissions: it’s on campus. So I’ll definitely tell you what the cost is per credit hour for the online

George Mason Online Admissions: masters in social work.

George Mason Online Admissions: The total pro, the total program is gonna be dependent on your personalized course plan. So if you did part time, it. Take you 10 semesters like to always state that full time would be 8 semesters. It is a total of 60 credit hours. The credit hour

George Mason Online Admissions: per hour is $795 per course would be 2385. So looking at currently, the tuition plan for this upcoming year would be $49,860. That does include your fees as well.

George Mason Online Admissions: There’s any other questions that have come in.

George Mason Online Admissions: Don’t think we have any other questions at the moment

George Mason Online Admissions: I did. I do have the number for you to guys to call. You wanted to contact one of us and the admissions department, the email address as well, we’d be more than happy to address any other questions. If you think of anything

George Mason Online Admissions: after this

George Mason Online Admissions: virtual open house.

Dr. Daphne King: I think the total that was provided was for the entire time in the program. I I believe the 49,000 was for the entire program, not just for one year.

George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, it’s for the entire program. All 60 credit hours for the regular masters and social work.

George Mason Online Admissions: the advanced standing. If you were coming in with that Bsw. That tuition for that one would be $27,450, including your fees.

Dr. Daphne King: And advanced standing is 33 credits

Dr. Daphne King: to complete

Dr. Daphne King: over 6 semesters. The advanced standing

Dr. Daphne King: is, you know, a little bit of a shorter time because you are coming in to the program ready to start your specialization courses. And that’s what really advanced standing means. Advanced standing means that you know you’ve received you know, instruction as a bachelor of social work student, and that you’re ready to start

Dr. Daphne King: your Msw. Program

Dr. Daphne King: with your specialization courses. And so

Dr. Daphne King: some of those generalist courses are advanced. Standing students wouldn’t take. You would be starting ready to start your specialization courses. And so it is 33 credits.

Dr. Daphne King: I do. Wanna make sure that I made that distinction because advanced standing is not necessarily connected to the time to complete the program advanced standing is more so about the fact that you have a bachelors into social work, and you’re ready to begin more advanced coursework as a master student.

George Mason Online Admissions: I don’t see any other questions coming in. Think we can go ahead and wrap up. I wanna thank everyone for joining us tonight. Again the numbers there in the email address. If you guys have any other questions, feel free to reach out to us.

George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you, Dr. Daphne King, and thank you, Melissa, for joining and helping with the presentation.

Dr. Daphne King: Have a good evening, everyone.

George Mason Online Admissions: Have a great evening. Everyone.

Melissa Hensley: Thank you. Have a good night.

George Mason Online Admissions: Good night.