Begin Your Application

Your application should include:

1. Résumé: Please upload a detailed résumé which includes your academic degrees, both your volunteer and paid clinical experiences along with research experience, publications and professional presentations. Clinical experience should include details on the agency, location and type of supervision received.
2. Official Transcripts: Please arrange promptly for official copies of both your undergraduate and graduate transcripts bearing signature and seal to be sent to the School from each educational institution attended. Applications cannot be reviewed without transcripts on file. An unofficial/student copy of the transcript may be used as a placeholder until the official copy arrives. Transcripts should be mailed to: Smith College School for Social Work, Office of Admission, Lilly Hall, Northampton, MA 01063
3. Three Letters of Reference: We require three letters of reference, one of which should be from a licensed clinical social worker, preferably a senior supervisor in the field. We also strongly recommend that one of the letters be from an academic instructor or research advisor. All letters should be from professional references. It is your responsibility to follow up with reference writers to ensure completion. Reference writer PDF (If you are unable to contact your reference writers using our system above, complete the top portion of this form and distribute to your reference writers)
4. Personal Statement (not more than 1250 words): Personal statement should be centered around your interest in clinical social work. Please describe your personal background- focusing on major familial and/or social dynamics or events that contributed to your interest in advanced degree in clinical social work that is committed to racial and social justice and the reasons you are applying to our particular graduate program. Describe the salient features of your professional experiences in practice, supervision, administration, teaching, research and community service. Finally, please describe your career and personal objectives.
5. Research Statement (not more than 500 words): Your research statement should situate your work within the larger context of clinical social work. Your statement should start by articulating the broader field that you are interested in and the questions that you are interested in answering. It should then include a brief history of your past research if relevant. When describing past experience, you can include a description of your research questions, the work that you completed and the significance and implications of the findings. Your statement should also describe the future trajectory on which you intend to take your research. You can include answers to the following questions: What further questions do you want to solve? How do you intend to find answers to these questions? How can SSW help you in that process?
6. Clinical Internship Plan (not more than 500 words)
7. Case Summary (not more than 4500 words)
8. $60 Application Fee
    
9. Supplementary Information:
   1. Writing Sample: You may also wish to attach relevant writing samples with your application (e.g., honors thesis, reprints of publications).
   2. Miller Analogy Test Scores or GRE Test Scores: The Smith College School for Social Work MAT code is 1227. Submit MAT or GRE scores in support of your application no later than the application deadline.

Applicants admitted to the Ph.D. program may, prior to enrollment, petition to take the Clinical Qualifying Examination normally scheduled at the end of the first clinical internship. Passing this examination, which is the same as the oral and written exam normally given at the end of the first internship, qualifies the applicant to waive one year of clinical internship. However, all three summers of academic coursework are typically required.

Students with doctoral level coursework in closely allied fields may request transfer of academic credit for comparable courses. The director will determine which credits may be transferred. Review of course syllabi and assignments is often necessary. An individualized course of study will be developed for transfer applicants.

A substantial working knowledge of English is essential for admission. Applicants for whom English is not a first language must take the IELTS or TOEFL iBT and have an official score report sent to the Office of Admission. A minimum score for IELTS is 7.0. A minimum score for the TOEFL iBT is 94 and must meet a minimum high score in each test area: Reading (22 minimum); Listening (22 minimum); Speaking (26 minimum); and Writing (24 minimum). The IELTS/TOEFL requirement may be waived by the Admission Committee if English has been the primary language spoken in the home and at school. The school reserves the right to require the IELTS/TOEFL of any applicant whose first language is not English.

If you would like to reapply, you will need to open a new application. If you are applying for financial aid, you must also submit the appropriate financial aid forms.

Previously submitted application materials are kept for two years. If you need assistance determining which materials were received for your previous application, or for assistance with the reapplication process, please do not hesitate to contact the Office of Admission.