Getting Your MSW: How to Survive and Thrive in a Social Work Program

Thinking about graduate school in social work? Unlike other guides to graduate school selection and experience, this book is written specifically for students considering and entering social work programs. Karen Sowers and Bruce Thyer, two distinguished professors of social work, have written this guide to the process of earning a MSW from beginning to end. Not only have the authors been through the steps of the process themselves, they have served on most of the significant committees in a typical school of social work, taught at various universities, and worked with several professional organizations. Their combined experiences make them well qualified to share advice and informational resources specific to graduate school in social work.
Professors Sowers and Thyer honestly address specific concerns in informal but detailed prose. This book is an insider s look at how graduate social work education is designed, and what new students can expect as they enter the MSW program. Every topic of interest to the MSW student is discussed: getting oriented to the university, housing, financial aid, enrolling in classes, completing the internship, coping with potential problems, finding their first post-MSW job, and even becoming socialized into the profession.

Karen Sowers (PhD, MSW, Florida State University) is professor and dean of the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee. Respected in the field of social work for her teaching and published research, Professor Sowers is the co-editor of Best Practices in Mental Health: An International Journal, and has also published four books, including Finding an Academic Job.
Bruce Thyer (PhD, MA, University of Michigan; MSW, University of Georgia) is professor of social work at Florida State University. He has served as dean of the school of social work, and has taught abroad in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Professor Thyer is the founding editor of the journals Research on Social Work Practice and PsycSCAN: Behavorial Analysis and Therapy. He also served as the editor for the Surviving Graduate School series.