Guide to Your First Year at BUSSW
First Year MSW “Cheat Sheet” (Kat. T.)
After my first year quickly came to a close, there were quite a few things I wish I knew at the beginning. In order to help make your transition a little easier, here’s a little “cheat sheet” to your first year here on the Charles River Campus.
Readings
All professors post their syllabus to Blackboard (the BU student portal) at least a few days before classes start. If possible, it is a great idea to get a head-start on the readings, because there will be more of them than you can really manage. If you don’t know how to speed read yet – you will soon enough!
But really, examine the reading list. Remember that as a student there are a multitude of resources available. The majority of the readings are articles which can be downloaded from Mugar library’s database – for FREE! Also, keep in mind that some of the classes you take will be half-semester classes. So I suggest finding a buddy who is taking them on the opposite schedule and then swapping books instead of buying or renting all of them yourself.
Involvement
Do what you can and then do a little more! You will for sure be up to your eyeballs in things you need to do, but remind yourself that this is only a two-year program and you want to get the most out of it. Included in our tuition and fees is support for Student Orgs. These fees help them put on events, seminars, trainings, and more. Utilize these experiences when you can. Just this year I attended a workshop on Mindfulness, a training for Motivational Interviewing and SBIRT, and a seminar on negotiating salary. These events usually only last a couple of hours, but they offer you invaluable knowledge to take directly to the field.
Second Years
In order to sign up for the best professors the school has to offer, take advantage of the “cool” places to study, and learn more about Field Ed., consult second year students! They have already been where you are and have a wealth of knowledge many of them would love to share. For all of the questions you have, they either have answers or can point you in the right direction. Your life will get easier the faster you learn to ask questions – especially of the class ahead of you or your cohort.
Home Sweet Social Work Building (Jahniah S.)
Welcome to a virtual tour of BUSSW at 264 Bay State Road! Here you will experience a lot of meaningful and challenging times and your setting will mark this memory. Ours may not be the fanciest building, but it’s nice and cozy. And it will give you the opportunity to really get to know your peers and faculty, the very people who will prove to be very supportive throughout your time here. You’ll grow to love and appreciate it, especially if you’ve ever spent time in the BU Mugar Library (No offense to BU, but that place is just soooo quiet and boring!). So here we go:
The Student Lounge (1st Floor)
As the main congregation space in the building, the first floor student lounge is where you hangout when you are ready to be super productive with your squad.
There’s also a collection of lounge chairs if you need to squeeze a little snooze in before class…
The Student Lounge is also home to the coveted vending machines. This will be your favorite part of the lounge and where you’ll often find yourself getting breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack.
The Welcome Center (1st Floor)
The Welcome Center houses the Admissions and Financial Aid departments, as well as some Student Services staff. It serves as a one-stop shop if you have questions about anything (the front desk staff can help!), need to drop something off for faculty or staff, or just need a little pick-me-up. This little bar may not look like much, but it will be your lifeline some days, I promise…. And often there are snacks!
The View
Finally, if you are ever in need of some air or a happy place, you will certainly find peace around the lovely, city-based BU Beach located right across from the SSW building!
That’s all for these Student Ambassadors! We’ve enjoyed sharing our MSW experiences with all of you and hope that you’ve found the information helpful. Feel free to reach out to us at sswamb@bu.edu with any questions and best of luck at BUSSW!