Factors Considered Important by Students in Making a Choice of Social Work Concentration

The continuing small number of social work students who enter the concentration of social administration poses conditions that have potentially negative results for the field of social work. This study surveyed 131 graduate social work students at a large, public Midwestern university to determine the factors they considered important in making a choice of concentration, and at what point these choices were made. The findings indicated that almost 75 percent of the students made their choice prior to entering graduate school, and that 90 percent felt the most important factor influencing their decision was the need to obtain experience in clinical practice before entering social administration. Many of the students reported that they did not have sufficient information about social administration on which to base a decision about their choice of concentration. (Contains 26 references.) (Author/MDM)