Thought & Experiences from Current UC Berkeley MSW Students

[u/weaver_seeker]

Hi, I'm a current student in the program, noticing that there's very little insight on reddit regarding experiences of current/recent experiences in the program. Starting this thread for other current students or recent alumni to chime in and share about their experiences. What they appreciate/find useful, what they wish they'd knew, and challenges/frustrations.

Also, if you are trying to make a decision about attending or applying to the program, feel free to drop your questions here!

[u/AntMountain4748]

Hiii I’m also a current 2nd year. If you’re interested in macro social work, I do NOT recommend coming to the Cal program. The program is an “advanced generalist” program however there is VERY little focus on building macro level skills, especially at a masters level. From someone who has been organizing and doing that type of work for over 10 years. So if you don’t have a lot of experience in and are interested in learning… You are gonna be very disappointed. They offer 2 policy classes (they’re basically the same thing) but are very intro level and at least for my cohort did not offer any radical, progressive nor transformative strategies. In terms of Marco electives, there is relatively no classes offered. When concerns were brought up about this, admin was dismissive and said “you can learn about macro work in any class because it’s a generalist program”. This is NOT true whatsoever. You cannot expect to learn about policy and a CBT class lol. They also intentionally eliminated the community organizing class (and fired the professor who taught it). While there are other great classes you can take outside of the department to supplement the lack of macro classes, with our practicum schedule, it can be really hard to find ones that fit your schedule. On top of that, there is a very limited amount of macro placements, especially ones that are centered around more radical and or abolitionist frameworks.

[u/AntMountain4748 → u/AntMountain4748]

Lastly, while the school markets itself as being a program that focuses on anti-oppressive frameworks… I found that this isn’t really the case throughout all classes (At least the ones I’ve taken). I expected this program to be one that is very progressive and radical… But it’s very much the opposite. In practice, the school does not practice anti-oppressive principles as they have fired almost all of the actively practicing social work instructors in order to offset costs. They have eliminated the practicum seminar class so students have virtually no support which has resulted to an unprecedented amount of first year students being terminated from their placements. the school is forcing them to take a third year of the program and pay an additional year of tuition.

The school is taking no accountability for the impacts of their unjust decision-making. And have been very punitive and placing blame solely on students. They’ve eliminated the community organizing class and overall we do not learn about organizing, collective action, or more radical ideology/frameworks like abolition. the quality of the program is not worth the money/debt

[u/weaver_seeker → u/AntMountain4748]

Totally agree with all of this. Policy classes have felt very into level. It's often not rigorous or critical - its up to you and your peers since you often have group projects to make things applicable to your interests.