Fordham MSW Personal Statement Prompts (And Tips!)
Fordham’s MSW personal statement is a heavily weighted part of the evaluation process to the Master of Social Work program. The admissions committee uses it to gain a sense of your motivations for pursuing social work and your ability to write at a graduate level.
Below, we have put together the Fordham MSW Personal Statement prompts as well as some tips for completing the personal statement.
Fordham MSW Personal Statement Prompts
Applicants are strongly encouraged to attend to composition, including spelling, punctuation and the use of thesis statements and introductory and concluding sentences and paragraphs.
Please draft one narrative based on ALL of the following statements:
Thoroughly discuss a current social issue that is relevant to social work practice and fostered or confirmed your interest in the social work profession. You also may mention additional reasons for deciding to pursue graduate social work study at this time.
Discuss your career interests and/or objectives and how you plan to take advantage of the resources at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service to support you in your goals.
Discuss why Fordham’s online program is a good fit for you. Please explain how you plan on balancing the demands of our online platform, including the 8 week class structure and field placement(s), with responsibilities you would have outside of school (work, family, etc).
Fordham MSW Personal Statement Instructions:
Personal statements must be formatted in Microsoft Word or converted to a .pdf document and uploaded to this application page. Applicants must submit a statement that uses:
Times New Roman font size twelve (12), one inch margins, and is double-spaced.
In social work education, the American Psychological Association’s Publication Manual (APA Style) is used for formatting and style. Applicants are required to use this guide for all formatting and style, including a title page, running head, page numbers, in-text citations, and a reference list.
The personal statement must be a minimum of three (3) pages but not exceed five (5). Title page and reference list does not count towards page limits.
Tips for Answering Prompt 1
Prompt: Thoroughly discuss a current social issue that is relevant to social work practice and fostered or confirmed your interest in the social work profession. You also may mention additional reasons for deciding to pursue graduate social work study at this time.
Answer: Fordham University asks this question to gain an understanding of your area of interest and your alignment with social work values.
To answer this prompt, I recommend choosing a narrow social issue instead of a broad one. For example, instead of broadly speaking about poverty – narrow your focus by speaking about barriers to housing for low-income individuals with disabilities. Ideally, your social issue should come from your experiences and insights, and they should be connected to your goals as a social worker. By taking this approach, you show the admissions committee that there is a need or gap in your area of interest, and you show that you have the skills and insights needed to address this gap.
Related: How to choose a social issue in your personal statement
Tips for Answering Prompt 2
Prompt: Discuss your career interests and/or objectives and how you plan to take advantage of the resources at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service to support you in your goals.
Answer: Fordham University asks this question to understand what area of social work you are interested in and how Fordham’s MSW program can assist you in meeting your goals.
Social work is a broad field, so it’s important to get specific about what kind of work you would like to do post-graduation. For example, maybe you are interested in gaining clinical skills so that you can support clients in a micro level or therapeutic setting.
When answering this prompt, don’t forget to touch on how Fordham’s MSW program will allow you to meet your professional goals! Fordham wants to know that you are intentional about why you are choosing their program. Reflect on specializations, opportunities, the schools mission, and other aspects about the program that appeal to you.
Related: Why do you want to become a social worker?
Tips for Answering Prompt 3
Prompt: Discuss why Fordham’s online program is a good fit for you. Please explain how you plan on balancing the demands of our online platform, including the 8 week class structure and field placement(s), with responsibilities you would have outside of school (work, family, etc).
Answer: Fordham University asks this question because pursuing a master’s degree is a big deal, and they want to know that you are in a position to succeed in graduate school.
To answer this prompt, think about how you intend to manage your time, deal with challenges and stress, how you have managed in the past, and how you will take care of yourself. Here are some questions to reflect on:
What is your current work situation like? What will it look like in graduate school?
How did you manage your time in your undergraduate degree?
What challenges did you overcome in the past and how did you grow from that situation?
What other obligations do you have? What challenges do you anticipate and how will you mitigate them?
What resources do you have? How do you take care of yourself?
Related:
Other Tips for Your Fordham MSW Personal Statement
Formatting The Personal Statement
Use APA formatting for your personal statement: APA is the primary formatting structure used in the social work profession, so writing your personal statement in APA is a great way to show off your academic writing abilities. Fordham has stated that they would like the personal statement to be in New Roman font size twelve, one-inch margins, and is double-spaced. I also recommend adding an APA style title page, references pages, and a running head.
Related: How to write your personal statement in APA (and template)
Structuring The Personal Statement
Over the years I have edited dozens of Fordham MSW personal statements, and while the instructions do not explicitly call for this, I highly recommend answering the three prompts in sequential order, and adding APA-style headings that coincide with the prompts. This makes it easier for the reader to “skim” your responses and see that you did indeed answer all of the prompts.
Adhere to the Page Limit
Fordham University states that the personal statement should be between 3-5 pages in length. It is crucial that you adhere to these requirements – being too far under the page minimum is usually an indicator that you are leaving out important information, and being over the page limit likely means that you are not being concise enough.
One of the hardest parts of writing the personal statement is disseminating all of your experiences and insights gained over a lifetime of experience into a 3-5 page document. How do you choose what to focus on? What should you leave out?
MSW Helper can help you with that! Our application advisors are in the social work field themselves and they can help you map out a plan for answering each prompt strategically and telling your story in a compelling manner! Learn more about MSW Helper here.
Review from Melanie:
“Working with Michelle and my advisor, Juliann, was an amazing experience! I highly recommend their services to anyone applying to the field of social work. I was feeling unsure about my personal statements, but they helped me feel much more confident in my skills and experiences for pursuing MSW programs. Their feedback was invaluable, and I now feel more confident and hopeful about my applications. Thank you so much, ladies!”
