Social Work M.S.W.

Program type:

Major

Format:

On Campus

Est. time to complete:

1-2 years

Credit Hours:

30 (with bachelor's in Social Work) or 60 (with bachelor's outside of Social Work)

Empower communities, individuals and groups to create positive changes.

You'll be prepared to become an effective, advanced social worker with a focus on ethical practices and leadership training across a variety of social work settings.

Requirements Additional Requirements Tuition & Aid How to apply

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Why Earn a Master's in Social Work?

Social workers draw on their ethical values and professional training to help make the world a better place as clinicians, agency administrators, case managers, and policy advocates. With an M.S.W. degree, you will gain skills to work with people of all ages in a variety of settings including hospitals, schools, prisons, community mental health and substance abuse treatment centers, and family service agencies. As an advocacy-based profession, social workers seek to develop and shape public policy and influence community change in pursuit of social justice.

Marketable Skills

Teamwork
Leadership ability
Program evaluation
Organization of people and data
Fundraising

Social Work Master's Highlights

Students with a B.S.W. degree from an accredited program can enter the program with “Advanced Standing” status, allowing them to complete the program in one year.

Students may carry a caseload, write grants, develop programs, implement evidence-based social work practices, develop surveys, perform quantitative and qualitative research, facilitate the work of professors, present at conferences and connect with peer networks.

Internships could include working with women in a women's shelter, children, older adults, individuals experiencing relationship violence, or those battling AIDS, mental illness or chronic or acute illnesses.

An exciting diverse array of electives and field placement experiences help students explore interests and expand beyond their current knowledge and skills.

The Department of Social Work in UNT’s College of Health and Public Service offers scholarships to students each year, including the Fannie Belle Gaupp Scholarship and the Social Work/Title IV-E Child Welfare Scholarship.

Students who hold a bachelor’s degree in a field other than Social Work will be placed into the two-year Generalist degree program of study.

What Can You Do With a Social Work Master's?

Upon successful degree completion, an M.S.W. graduate is eligible to become a Licensed Master Social Worker (L.M.S.W.), one of the most highly recognized professional titles in health and human services. Students can pursue their licensure by meeting state requirements, including passing an examination approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB). Social workers who earn two years of post-graduate supervision may take the examination to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (L.C.S.W.).

An M.S.W. degree opens up a broad range of career options for graduates. Direct service careers in child welfare, mental health, community practice, schools, aging, medical practice, clinical work and many others are all available to M.S.W. graduates. Additionally, many management and administrative positions in public and private nonprofit agencies are filled with M.S.W. graduates.

Social Work Master's Courses You Could Take

Addresses administration and management leadership across a variety of human service settings with an emphasis on managing competing and limited resources. Examines organizational theory, knowledge and skills for effective administration and management including planning, supervision, developing agency policy and procedure, working with boards, budgeting, fund raising and grant writing.

Builds upon policy practice skills and knowledge and macro community practice techniques. Presents frameworks for policy research and analysis. Advanced analysis and critique of social welfare policies that affect families and diverse and oppressed populations. Advocacy and intervention techniques aimed at positively impacting social welfare and public policies.

Builds upon quantitative and qualitative methods and analysis in order to gain knowledge and skills about practice and program accountability and effectiveness. Focuses upon evaluation of social work practice and programs including single system design, needs assessments, and process and outcome evaluation.

Examines services for individuals and families experiencing end-of-life issues and addresses concepts and skills for effective practice in a variety of settings. Integration of theory, research and practice in relation to grief processes.

Focuses on engagement, assessment and intervention with children who are in foster care, adoption and/or permanency planning in public, tribal or private child welfare systems. Covers key social work, legal and judicial processes from each domain.

Analysis of human diversity in the context of social work practice. Addresses related theoretical frameworks and the negative impact of power, privilege, oppression and stigma upon diverse individuals and groups. Promotes knowledge and skill development to work effectively with diverse populations and protect human and civil rights.