Missouri State University

Admission Requirements

Gaining admittance into the graduate social work program

Admission into the Master of Social Work program is selective. Because the MSW program has a limited number of spaces available, you are not guaranteed admission even if you meet all admission requirements. The decision to admit depends not only upon the quality of the applicants themselves, but also upon the number of applicants applying and the number of seats available each year.

Degree tracks

Two degree tracks are offered in the MSW program:

  • The regular standing program for students who have a bachelor’s degree in a field other than social work.
  • The advanced standing program for students who have a Bachelor of Social Work degree from a social work program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).

The advanced standing program is available at both the Springfield and Joplin campuses. For regular standing students, the part-time option is available at both campuses, but the regular standing full-time option is currently only available on the Springfield campus.

 

Admission Requirements for the Regular MSW Program

Applicants to the Regular MSW program must meet the following requirements to be considered for admission to the full-time or part-time MSW program:

  1. Applicants must have earned a bachelor's degree from a college or university accredited by a regional agency recognized by the Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation.
  2. Applicants must have earned an overall GPA of at least 3.00 on a 4.00 scale for all undergraduate course work taken.  The GPA for upper-division course work (last 60 hours) in undergraduate classes may be used if higher than the overall GPA and if this GPA is calculated by the Graduate College or a referring college office.

 Notes with regard to the GPA:

  1. Those with less than a 3.00 who have exceptional qualifications toward becoming a professional social worker are welcome to apply, but are not guaranteed an admission review (based on the number of applications which meet the minimum standards).
  2. Graduate students who have completed at least 9 hours of graduate coursework from a particular program of study related to social work may request this GPA to be used in addition to the above.

Prerequisites:  Applicants must show evidence of a bachelors degree that encompasses a liberal arts perspective with at least 9 credits of social science, child, family or aging studies preferred.  A liberal arts perspective is considered a program of study that involves classes from many of all of the following areas:  economics, history or geography; natural, applied or life science; humanities, philosophy or literature; writing or other communication studies; mathematics or statistics; and social or human sciences. 

Applicants must also have taken at least 3 credits in research design and/or statistics, preferably in the social sciences, as evidenced in the departmental application and student transcript.

Admission Requirements for the Advanced Standing Program

Advanced Standing program applicants must meet the admission requirement listed under #2 for the Regular MSW program and also meet the following requirements:

  1. Have earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from an undergraduate program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education no longer than seven years prior to admission to the MSW program.
  2. Have no more than one grade of “C” and no grades below C in social work major courses.

Admission status

When the MSW admissions committee reviews applications, they will grant either full or conditional admission into the program:

  • Full admission to the MSW program is granted to an applicant who meets all criteria of admission, went through all admission activities and received high enough rankings to warrant a slot in the program. No other admission requirements exist.
  • Conditional admission is given to a student for one of two possible reasons:
    1. on the condition that they complete some activity in the application process prior to beginning their MSW studies to qualify themselves or
    2. they qualify themselves during the initial phase of course work (i.e., academic probation).

Upon successful completion of the activity or the criteria set for conditional admission, the student is considered fully admitted to the program. Without the successful completion of these activities, the student will not be admitted to the program.

Conditional admission is only offered in a specialized set of cases and most of time is not offered when more qualified applicants are available who meet the criteria for full admission. Therefore, there is no guarantee that conditional admission may be offered during a particular admission year.