First Steps

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s (DOHMH) Mental Health Scholarship Program at the Silberman School of Social Work is open to applicants with two years of full-time, post Bachelor’s social service experience in a social service agency. Applicants MUST be full-time employees in a program providing MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES in contract with the New York City Department of Mental Hygiene’s Bureau of Mental Health or Bureau of Children, Youth and Families.

Each year, in mid-December, an email is sent to qualifying agencies by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene program liaison announcing the availability of the scholarship, and inviting eligible employees to submit a Letter of Intent to apply for the scholarship. Eligible employees who are interested in applying must first speak with their agency leadership, and discuss their desire to apply for the scholarship. Only after securing the approval of agency leadership, should the employee complete and email the completed Letter of Intent to [email protected].

Specific dates for the admissions process vary slightly each year and will be posted by December 1 each year. Each Letter of Intent must be reviewed and approved by the DOHMH before an application to the Silberman School of Social Work can be submitted. The deadline to submit the Applicant Letter of Intent is in early January. Please type “DOHMH Mental Health Scholarship Program” in the subject line of the email. Anyone who submits an application to Silberman without first completing this step will not be considered for the scholarship. If a Letter of Intent is approved, the Silberman School of Social Work admissions office will be notified directly by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s program liaison. The employee may then complete an application for the Silberman School of Social Work One-Year-Residency Program. Please note that an approved Letter of Intent does not guarantee acceptance to the Silberman School of Social Work or the MHSP, and that the DOHMH program liaison cannot disclose any information about the status of an application to the Silberman School of Social Work.

See the 2026 NYC-DOHMH instructions for submitting a letter of interest below. The deadline for submitting your LOI is January 5, 2026.

2026 Letter of Intent

• Applicants must meet the Silberman School of Social Work’s admission standards https://sssw.hunter.cuny.edu/admissions/requirements/ and requirements for the One-Year-Residency program. Factors we consider in the scholarship decision include academic readiness, social service work experience, critical/conceptual thinking, professional comportment, clear understanding of the MHSP program expectations and requirements, and commitment to social justice and social work values. These admission criteria will be comprehensively evaluated via the candidate’s academic records (e.g., GPA), statement of purpose, recommendation letters, communication with the MHSP team, and group interview. 
• You may then complete and submit the online application for the OYR Program, and select the “Mental Health Scholarship Program” as the program of study. (You will not need to submit a separate application for the Mental Health Scholarship Program.) 
• You should indicate “pay by check” when you submit the application. Upon approval by DOHMH, the application fee will be waived.

Application Deadline: March 1 (supporting documentation due March 15).

What to Expect in the Months After You Apply

All applications received by the deadlines are reviewed by both the SIlberman admissions department and the MHSP staff.  Due to the large number of applicants, we do not notify applicants who are not selected for the group Interview. Your application status will be communicated via email. Please check your email (and the spam folder) regularly for admission-related communications from the MHSP program. If you are not selected for an interview, you may still choose to proceed with your One-Year-Residency application to Silberman without the scholarship by contacting the admissions office. 

If you are selected for a group interview, you will be contacted directly by email by our Mental Health Scholarship Program Coordinator in April-May. Typically, group interviews are completed by the end of May yearly, after which time a careful review process is undertaken to select 20 MHSP scholars. Acceptance letters and letters notifying applicants who were interviewed that they were not selected for the scholarship are then emailed, usually by the end of the first week in June.

Please note that if you were not interviewed or interviewed but not selected for the scholarship, you will not receive a letter from the MHSP program stating that you were not accepted. You will receive a decline letter from the admissions office later in the admission process. After receiving this letter, please contact the admissions office to indicate whether you would like to be considered for the regular OYR program.  

The twenty scholars selected for the incoming Fall class are expected to attend a welcome reception hosted by the school and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, typically held in late June each year. Signed contracts, accepting the terms laid out for participation in the scholarship must be returned to Marlene Mendelson, LCSW by the specified deadline, usually the end of the first week in July. Classes begin in late August, and all first and second-year scholars are required to attend the MHSP orientation before the start of classes. This date will be provided in advance.