Social Work

Hye-Kyung Kang, MSW, PhD, Director

Web: https://www.seattleu.edu/artsci/msw/

Objectives

The mission of the Seattle University (SU) Master of Social Work (MSW) Program is to educate students for social justice-focused and community-based advanced clinical social work practice. The program seeks to advance equity in access to excellent clinical social work practice for historically marginalized populations by preparing competent and effective practitioners who restore, maintain, and enhance human and community well-being with unwavering attention to social and economic justice. The program is committed to respectful engagement and collaboration with community partners in its scholarship, teaching, and service.

The MSW program’s clinical practice specialization is consistent with the definition of clinical social work adopted by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE):  

As a specialty within the practice of social work, clinical social work builds on the professional values, ethics, principles, practice methods, and person-in-the-environment perspective of the profession. It reflects the profession’s mission to promote social and economic justice by empowering clients who experience oppression or vulnerability. Clinical social work requires the professional use of self to restore, maintain, and enhance the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual functioning of individuals, families and groups.

The MSW Program offers two options for degree completion:

• Two-Year MSW program: designed for individuals who do not have a bachelor’s degree in social work. Two-Year MSW students complete 66 credits and 1168 hours of field practicum. Admittance is for fall quarter start.
• Ten-month Advanced Standing MSW program: designed for graduates from baccalaureate of social work (BSW/BASW) programs accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Advanced Standing MSW students complete 39 credits and 720 hours of field practicum. Admittance is for summer intersession start.

Admission Requirements (Two-Year MSW Program)

• Completed Application for Graduate Admission 
• Evidence of a four-year equivalent bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution. 
• Minimum 3.00 GPA calculated from transcripts of all post-secondary educational institutions attended in the last 90 quarter/60 semester credits of your bachelor’s degree in social work, including any transfer credits earned during this time, and any post-baccalaureate course work. Applicants with a GPA below the required minimum must submit an explanatory statement with the application to be considered for an exception. Applicants earning a bachelor’s degree from a non-graded institution must submit official GRE scores in lieu of GPA.
• Academic Preparation: Completion of 3 courses (5-quarter credits or 3-semester credits each) in liberal arts content, specifically one course in each of these areas: Humanities, Social Science, and Natural Science.
• Signed acknowledgement of the Seattle University Social Work Department Non-Academic Technical Standards for Social Work Education. This document is required to complete the MSW application process.
• Criminal Background Check/Criminal Offender Record Information. Although this is not part of the application process applicants who are offered admission will receive instructions to complete the background check before field placement. Students should be aware that human services agencies often require an additional criminal history background check on students who apply to their agencies for field placements. A background check report that reveals a criminal history will not automatically disqualify an applicant from admission into the program, but it may preclude the student from many potential field placements and will limit the field placements available to the student. The MSW program cannot guarantee field placements (a requirement for completion of the MSW degree and social work licensure) for students with a positive criminal background report although we will do our best to find placements.
• If English is not the applicant’s native language, official English proficiency scores meeting the University entrance requirements are necessary. See Admissions Policy (2008-01) for details. 

Enrollment Prequisites

• Completion of a Statistics prerequisite course before enrollment.

Admission Requirements (Advanced Standing MSW Program):

Programs

• Master of Social Work