Master of Social Work
Admission to Program
Applicants must first meet the general university requirements pertaining to the admission of graduate students. In addition, applicants must demonstrate an academic and professional commitment to Social Work and the values and philosophical foundations of the School’s mission. To be considered for admission into the MSW Program, prospective students must apply and be admitted to both Graduate Studies and the School of Social Work. Admission to the MSW Program is highly competitive. To apply, visit www2.calstate.edu/apply where the two-step application is available. Step One: Complete the SF State Graduate Studies application. Step Two: Complete the School of Social Work MSW application. For additional information about the application process, please visit the School of Social Work website, MSW Admissions page. Applications for the Title IV–E Child Welfare Training Program are also available on the website.
School admission decisions are based on several criteria, including but not limited to, potential for professional practice as demonstrated by previous employment/volunteer experiences; value congruence to the School’s mission; knowledge, experience, and relationship of the applicant to oppressed, underserved and underrepresented individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities; and previous academic performance. To qualify for admission to the MSW program, applicants must have attained a GPA of at least 3.0 in a baccalaureate degree or a minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.0 in their last 60 units. The significance of a baccalaureate degree from a CSWE-accredited undergraduate program in Social Work is recognized, yet SF State University School of Social Work does not have an advanced standing program. In the event that a student with a BASW degree from a CSWE-accredited institution is admitted into the MSW program, a thorough transcript review will take place and a determination made about if and which course(s) may be waived. In the event that a course is waived, credits must be obtained in elective courses to meet graduation requirements and to ensure an adequate number of credits are met to graduate.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Education: Learn from and apply the rigorous SFSU social work education that achieves the nine Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) curricular competencies at the graduate (MSW) level. Utilize education and research to inform and effectively engage in practice at micro (individuals, families, and groups), mezzo (organizations, institutions, and communities) and macro (societies and international arenas) levels.
- Application: Use knowledge and skills to affect all practice areas (direct and indirect). Know and understand multiple forms of power, and their forms, uses, and implications. Be skilled at giving, engaging and sharing power and instilling shared, delegated, and/or “other person” responsibilities in decision making and problem solving.
- Diverse Learners: Expect, accept, and appreciate human differences in all areas, including diversity of ethnicities, cultures, values, backgrounds, learning styles, problem solving approaches, and more. Promote diversity to enrich environments, thought processes, experiences, and more.
- Collaboration and Participation: Respect, value and honor one another’s personal and professional experiences, knowledge, skills, and values. Seek, receive, and utilize inputs from diverse persons, groups, and communities and make diversity- sensitive and appropriate decisions. Engage and utilize the voices of many through participatory means.
- Ethical Foundations and Leadership: Engage in professional practices that are ethically sound and appropriate, consistent with the National Association of Social Workers’ (NASW) Code of Ethics. Create ideas and action plans from research and interdisciplinary knowledge; instill visions among team members; and enact innovative actions having substantial impact on individuals, groups, organizations, communities, and societies.
- Progressive Development: Expand and enhance cognitive and affective abilities through continuous development of knowledge, values, skills, and practices. Utilize research to develop best practices to improve human conditions and generate research agendas through practice experiences.
- Advocacy and Activism for Progressive Change: Know multiple forms and purposes of advocacy, and engage in change plans and efforts to achieve progressive change at micro, mezzo, and macro levels. Utilize evidence to set agendas, establish goals, create action plans, and move forward with efforts to enhance human conditions, including political, economic, legal, social, cultural, and physical environments.
- Equity and Social Justice: Identify, understand, and evaluate multiple forms of justice (e.g. social, economic, environmental, political, and legal justice) and rights (human and civil). Promote and achieve fairness, equality, and human/civil rights.
- Professional Versatility: Be equipped to work in a variety of settings, in a range of fields and forms of practice, and with diverse persons from multiple backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, ages, genders, experiences, abilities, orientations, classes, religions, and more. Be effective in systems processes through engagement, assessment, intervention, evaluation, and self-awareness.
- Cultural Humility: Appreciate the fact that cultures and values evolve and change, and that one never “arrives” with respect to knowledge, skills, and practices related to diversity. Identify and analyze the intersectionality of forces that impinge on lives.
Level One Written English Proficiency Requirement
The University has a requirement for written English proficiency that is to be assessed at two different points in a student's program.
The School of Social Work is committed to enhancing all students’ ability to communicate in an effective and professional manner, both orally and in writing. Further, the School promotes efforts to ensure that all forms of communication are culturally sensitive and appropriate.
To prepare practitioners for the challenges and responsibilities of advocacy within professional settings, the School of Social Work pursues a rigorous writing proficiency standard. Formal writing assignments are integrated into the structure of classes with the expectation that students progressively expand and refine their mastery of organizing ideas and expressing purposeful thinking. Written communication is a core competency in both the BASW and MSW degree programs.
The level one written English proficiency assessment requirement is conducted during the applicant's completion of the MSW supplemental application. One of the application questions is specifically referenced as such.
Level Two Written English Proficiency
The culmination of student writing is completed when graduate students write their final culminating experience project for the MSW degree. They choose either a professional practice project or a thesis. The final projects typically include, as a minimum, the following sections:
- Identification of the issues or problems that are the focus of the project or thesis;
- Description, foundation, discussion, comprehension, and analysis of the presenting problems or issues;
- Review of the literature relevant to the project subjects;
- Application and syntheses of the literature, principles, theories, and practice areas;
- Assessment;
- Evaluation;
- Implications for social work practice, policies, and/or programs.
Advancement to Candidacy
Besides meeting all general requirements for advancement to candidacy, the school maintains the following additional requirements:
- The following are to be taken in the first year prior to other courses, 4 units of S W 740, and 2 units of S W 741. S W 740 is graded CR/NC only.
Course List Code Title Units S W 700 History and Philosophy of Social Welfare 3 S W 710 Human Behavior and the Social Environment 3 S W 720 Research Methods in Social Work 3 S W 730 Social Work Practice Methods 3 S W 770 Ethnic and Cultural Concept and Principles I 3 S W 780 Global Poverty 3 S W 855 Social Work Education, Professionalism, and Practice 1 - Maintenance of a 3.0-grade point average in graduate study.
Field Internship: The field education director meets and works with all students to help them locate an appropriate and rigorous field internship. MSW students complete a total of 1200 hours of field internship (480 hours during year one and 720 hours during year two).
Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program
Principal Investigator: Jerry Shapiro
Project Coordinator: Sandy Vaughn
In collaboration with the Bay Area Schools of Social Work, the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC) has granted stipends to second-year MSW students committed to working in the field of integrated behavioral health (IBH). We refer to this grant as the San Francisco Bay Area Integrated Behavioral Health MSW Stipend Program. During the second semester of the first year of MSW study, interested students would apply for this competitive grant program. Students must meet all core MSW program requirements, intern at an IBH qualified site (as determined by the Principal Investigator, Project Coordinator, and the Field Director), and participate in all grant-specified requirements. The stipend award is for second-year MSW students only and is $10,000 for the academic year.
Title IV–E Child Welfare Training Stipend Program
Principal Investigator: Jerry Shapiro
Project Coordinator: Lucy Fuentes
For information about the Title IV-E Stipend Program, please visit the program page on our School of Social Work website for full details.
Pupil Personnel Services Credential: School Social Work Designation
PPSC Coordinator: Sandy Vaughn
The School offers a Pupil Personnel Services Credential (PPSC) program to graduate social work students who are simultaneously pursuing their MSW degree. This additional program is available only if resources permit. If offered, students in the PPSC Program are required to enroll in all courses in the Individual, Families, and Groups (IFG) emphasis and do a field placement in a public school (K-12), supervised by an individual with a PPSC credential. The PPSC field placement and specialized coursework are designed to be completed in the second year of MSW preparation.
Master of Social Work — 60 Units Minimum
Core Requirements (34 units)
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| S W 700 | History and Philosophy of Social Welfare | 3 |
| S W 701 | Social Policy Analysis | 3 |
| S W 710 | Human Behavior and the Social Environment | 3 |
| S W 720 | Research Methods in Social Work | 3 |
| Select one: | 3 | |
| Seminar: Evaluative Research in Social Work | ||
| Seminar: Advanced Research Methodology in Social Work | ||
| S W 730 | Social Work Practice Methods | 3 |
| S W 740 & S W 741 | Fieldwork Instruction and Graduate Fieldwork Seminar (taken concurrently each semester) | 6 |
| S W 770 | Ethnic and Cultural Concept and Principles I | 3 |
| S W 780 | Global Poverty | 3 |
| S W 855 | Social Work Education, Professionalism, and Practice | 1 |
| Select one: | 3 | |
| Research Projects in Social Work | ||
| Master's Thesis | ||
Individuals, Families, and Groups Program (IFG) - 26 Units
Social work practice with individuals, families, and groups is grounded in a bio-psychosocial approach to direct service. The social worker functions as a multi-role practitioner including the following: caseworker, case manager, leader, facilitator, broker, advocate, counselor, educator, or resource specialist. The practice methods emphasize the importance of promoting the strengths of individuals, rather than focusing on deficits or pathology. The goal of IFG practice is to ameliorate stressors within a life-course context of human development and functioning. The practitioner’s attention is directed toward enhancing the coping abilities of individuals, families, and groups in dealing with aspects of their interpersonal environment through empowering processes. Recognition of issues of diversity is fundamental to culturally competent IFG practice.
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| S W 810 | Health, Illness, and Disordered Behavior | 3 |
| S W 740 & S W 741 | Fieldwork Instruction and Graduate Fieldwork Seminar (taken concurrently each semester) | 8 |
| S W 830 | Seminar: Social Casework | 3 |
| S W 832 | Seminar: Social Group Work | 3 |
| S W 831 | Seminar: Advanced Social Casework | 3 |
| Select 6 units of electives on advisement | 6 | |
Professional Development Programs
The following programs require students to select specific courses that satisfy the elective requirement for the MSW program.
Title IV-E Child Welfare Training Program
The School of Social Work is part of a consortium of graduate social work programs in California to administer the Title IV-E Child Welfare Training Program. This program, administered by the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC), was created to prepare MSW students for careers in public child welfare service. The full-time program provides a number of student stipends ($18,500 per year) for two years of graduate school. In return for receiving a stipend, students must work in public child welfare for at least two years after they graduate.
The Title IV-E Program is driven by child welfare competencies that were developed by universities and county welfare directors. These competencies are integrated throughout the curriculum and are further enhanced by special workshops on current topics relate to the field. Title IV-E students are expected to complete all core components of the MSW Program and are required to complete the first-year field placement in a county child welfare department or non-profit program serving Title IV-E eligible children and families. The second-year placement must be in a county child welfare department. In addition, Title IV-E students are required to complete two child welfare focused courses in the following order:
S W 843 Child Welfare Practice with Children and Families (3 units) in the spring semester of the first year.
S W 701 Social Policy Analysis (3 units) (Child Welfare-specific section) in the fall semester of the second year.
Students are also required to participate in child welfare trainings and workshops as directed by the Title IV-E Coordinator.
Students who apply to the MSW program are also provided the opportunity to apply for the Title IV-E Child Welfare Training Program simultaneously. Applicants will go through a selection process that includes an in-person interview. Priority is given to applicants who are current employees of county child welfare agencies and applicants who reflect the diversity of clients served by California’s public child welfare agencies. Students who receive the Title IV-E stipend award must attest that they have never been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor crime or any crime involving harm to children that would disqualify them from service in a county public child welfare services agency. All students must submit to Live Scan and criminal background checks via the Child Welfare Services/Case Management System (CWS/CMS) for second-year placement. Continuation of this program is subject to funding availability.
Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program
In collaboration with the Bay Area Schools of Social Work, the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC) has granted stipends to second-year MSW students committed to working in the field of integrated behavioral health (IBH). We refer to this grant as the San Francisco Bay Area Integrated Behavioral Health MSW Stipend Program. During the second semester of the first year of MSW study, interested students would apply for this competitive grant program. Students must meet all core MSW program requirements, intern in an IBH qualified site (as determined by the Principal Investigator and the Field Director), and participate in all grant-specified requirements. The stipend award is for second-year MSW students only and is $10,000 for the academic year.
Pupil Personnel Services Credential: School Social Work Designation
The School offers a Pupil Personnel Services Credential (PPSC) program to graduate social work students who are simultaneously pursuing their MSW degree. This additional program is available only if resources permit. If offered, students in the PPSC Program are required to enroll in all courses in the Individual, Families, and Groups (IFG) emphasis and do a field placement in a public school (K-12), supervised by an individual with a PPSC credential.
| Second Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| First Semester | Units | |
| S W 740 | Fieldwork Instruction (3) | 2-3 |
| S W 741 | Graduate Fieldwork Seminar (1) | 1 |
| S W 865 | Social Work Practice in School Settings (3) | 3 |
| Units | 6-7 | |
| Second Semester | ||
| S W 740 | Fieldwork Instruction (3) | 2-3 |
| S W 741 | Graduate Fieldwork Seminar (1) | 1 |
| S W 760 | Social Work and the Law (3) | 3 |
| Units | 6-7 | |
| Total Units | 12-14 | |