Application & Procedures for Masters Programs

The fee is non-refundable and does not apply toward tuition or other charges. The fee is waived for AmeriCorps, McNair Scholars Program, Peace Corps and Teach For America alumni. Please upload verification of your service with your application. If you have received a fee waiver form by attending an admissions event, please complete the fee waiver form on the online application and enter your fee waiver code.

A minimum of three recommendations are required, two of which should address your academic ability. References should be qualified to discuss your aptitude for both graduate study and social work. No more than four letters of recommendation may be submitted.

• Current undergraduates or recent graduates must include at least two academic references.

• Transfer students and Advanced Standing Program applicants must include two academic references and a reference from a current or recent practice professor or field instructor who can evaluate your performance in field placement or submit a final field evaluation. 

• Applicants who are or recently have been employed must include one reference from an employment supervisor. Ask your professional references to speak to your analytic and critical thinking skills. 

   

Please write up to five pages, double-spaced addressing the questions below in an essay format, rather than as separated questions and responses. Applicants applying to the Extended Evening Program should further discuss how they will accommodate the additional demands of course and field responsibilities with full-time employment.

In Section I, answer question #1, select either prompt #2 or #3, and you may choose to answer the optional question #4. In Section II, answer both prompts #5 and #6.

Section I: Why Social Work?

• Social work is nestled among a variety of social science fields. Identify 1-3 goals or reasons you are choosing social work as a field for you and how a social work education at Crown Family School will provide a way to achieve them.

Answer one of the following two prompts:

• 2. Social Work, like our own development, is not a static profession. Please give an example of a personal change, evolution, or growth that you have experienced and that you believe could impact your work.

       Or

• 3. Social work in practice requires collective and personal accountability. Please provide an example of your experience with accountability in practice, either when you were held accountable or you held another accountable, which might inform your future career.

Optional

• 4. Social workers need to celebrate and experience joy. What are sources of joy for you? How do you imagine incorporating this into your practice?

Section II: What problems in Social Work?

• 5. Social work as a field has had to contend with critiques of historical dominance and marginalization – around gender, race, ableism, classism, and others. How will you as a future social worker consider your own identities and power as you enter this field?
• 6. Identify a population or social issue which you feel passionate about working with to challenge social and economic inequalities; and how current institutions, services, welfare policies, or community practices have succeeded and/or failed to advance the overall wellbeing of relevant populations.

EEP applicants must also complete a supplemental application discussing how they intend to accommodate the additional demands of course and field responsibilities in this program. 

Transcripts are required from every post-secondary academic institution where an applicant has taken three or more courses--unless the courses with grades appear on the home institution transcript; this includes courses taken Pass/Fail.

Applicants may submit unofficial transcripts for the application review process. Transcripts should be accompanied by the institutional grading and credit system information, which is most commonly found on the reverse side of paper transcripts. If your institution does not provide digitized transcripts, applicants may upload scanned paper transcripts to the online application. Please make sure to include the reverse side with the grading and credit system information. Alternatively, applicants may send paper transcripts to:

Office of Admissions
Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
969 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

If college work is incomplete at the time of application, a final transcript must be sent when final grades and degree conferral have been recorded. 

Students who have completed or will be completing their undergraduate education at an institution outside the United States are expected to have a baccalaureate-level degree or its equivalent and to have completed social work training in the home country and/or to have had work experience in a social service agency before applying for admission to the Master's Program.   

A current resume outlining experience.

Please submit transcripts from all previously attended colleges or universities, including a transcript showing conferral of a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution.

Applicants may submit unofficial transcripts for the application review process. Transcripts should be accompanied by the institutional grading and credit system information, which is most commonly found on the reverse side of paper transcripts. If your institution does not provide digitized transcripts, applicants may upload scanned paper transcripts to the online application. Please make sure to include the reverse side with the grading and credit system information. Alternatively, applicants may send paper transcripts to:

Office of Admissions
Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice
969 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

Two letters of recommendation are required.

Please submit a 4-page, double-spaced statement that addresses each of the following prompts

• What personal and professional factors have led you to pursue a master’s degree in Social Sector Leadership and Nonprofit Management at this time? What are your professional goals and how will this master’s degree provide a way to achieve them? What in particular influenced your decision to pursue this degree from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice?
• What, in your view, are the characteristics of an effective leader and manager in the social sector? What existing strengths and prior experience will you bring to this program, and what do you still need to learn or develop in order to become an effective leader and manager?
• Identify a population or social issue which you feel passionate about and would like to affect through your work. Provide a critique of how current institutions, services, policies, or community practices have failed to adequately address this issue or the needs of this population, and suggest how the social sector could respond.

A current resume outlining at least 3-5 years of experience working in a social sector organiza­tion.