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University of Washington
UW School of Social Work

MSW Degree Requirements

Students must successfully fulfill all requirements of the University of Washington Graduate School and the School of Social Work program.

Graduate School Requirements

Students must…

  • earn a minimum grade of 2.7 in all courses counted towards their degree,
  • complete a minimum of 36 credits* (18 of which must be decimal-graded,)
  • earn a cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 or higher in all 400- and 500-level courses

MSW Program Requirements

include demonstrated competence and completion of all required foundation and advanced curriculum coursework including field practicum work. Additionally, students must meet the human biology and basic statistics pre-requisites below:

Prerequisites

Human Biology

All students are required to pass a course with content in human biology before beginning their advanced coursework. This can be accomplished two (2) ways;

  1. Credit will be given to students who have successfully passed a human biology course within the past 10 years prior to starting the program. You will need to submit a HB Course Review form providing proof of having completed a course with human biology content.
  2. Applicants who have not met the human biology course pre-requisite prior to beginning the program will be required to complete an approved human biology course before beginning their advanced coursework.

Approved courses included Biology 118, 119 and 180, Nutrition 300, Genomics 261 and the UW Continuing Education course "Human Biology for Social Work". Courses in nutrition, psychobiology of women, genetics and biology of aging may also fulfill this human biology prerequisite.

Basic Statistics

Students must pass an introductory statistics course (from any discipline) before beginning Soc W 505, Social Welfare Research. You will need to submit a Statistics Course Review form providing proof of having completed a course in statistics.

  • Please be aware that this SW research course is offered at different times of the year depending on your program (Day, Advanced Standing or EDP) you will need to plan accordingly.
  • Students who have not met this requirement are not allowed to take Soc W 505, which may significantly delay their progress through the program.