midweek post!

What! It's NOT Monday... :)

Met with Dr. Roby this afternoon. She was very candid and frank. She got her BSW degree 3 years after me (then she earned her MSW and then her JD degree). She said SHE wouldn't be admitted to the MSW program at BYU today. (Do we believe that? Naw...) Bottom line is that to be really competitive with the applicants today, I would have to retake several of my undergraduate courses. The material that is taught in the classes now is very different from what the same courses contained 30+ years ago. They want to know that what the students understand and know about Social Work is relevant and current. With the new emphasis of the Master's program on research, I would even be required to retake undergraduate Research and Statistics even though those courses are required again on the graduate level. I would also need experience IN social work. Then the dagger... "at your age..." "life experience and the investment of the University in students that will serve the community pretty much cancel each other out!!!" OUCH! :)

The picture Dr. Roby outlined for me was very different than that of the director of the School of Social Work in the meeting I attended in October. But Dr. Roby IS the Admissions Chair, and I see little promise for a different outcome if I were to apply again. They had 187 applicants this year for 40 spots. BYU does have one of THE best Master's programs in the country - ranked in the top 10. This partly due to the school's recent and ongoing emphasis on research and statistics.

I've looked at the programs at Utah and Utah State. No comparison. I'm ready to put a period at the end of this sentence.

Next year I have 3-hour weeks at school compared to my 10-hour weeks this year. (NO STAR reading or recess duty, and each class gets 35 minutes in the piano lab instead of an hour. Plus, we'll have only two 4th grade classes instead of three). Kryn was very helpful this afternoon (we "hung" for 2 hours at the CougarEat!!) in helping me think of things to do with my freed up days. He thinks I should learn French and take a trip with him to Europe next summer. :)

So that's the "rest of the story..."

Until next Monday... :)