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Master of Social Work

Deadlines for submission of completed applications are as follows:

  • Priority Consideration Admission Deadline: March 1
  • Rolling Admission for Fall Semester: June 1 (space permitting) 
  • Spring Admission: November 1
  • Summer Admission: January 1

Program Overview

You can have a direct impact on the well-being of individuals, families, communities, and society through the profession of social work. Social work is an exceptionally rewarding career that offers the opportunity to improve the lives of individuals, families, and communities – whether it is by advocating for the vulnerable, providing job training, counseling, housing or financial assistance, or delivering crucial support to communities to combat the pandemic and other social, economic, and environmental issues. The field of social work is also growing- overall employment of social workers is projected to grow much faster than the average for all occupations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects rapid growth: 19% through 2026.

There is a large and growing need for Social Workers in a wide variety of settings, including schools, hospitals, mental health clinics, child welfare and human service agencies, community development organizations, and private practices. Consider pursuing your Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW) at La Salle University.

Program Features

Program FormatsSample CoursesTuition, Fees, and AssistanceAccreditation

MSW Program courses are offered in the evening to support students who are employed and/or managing other responsibilities.

Regular Entry Program

The MSW program requires 57-60 credits for completion and is offered in the following formats.

Full-Time Program

Part-Time Program

Advanced Standing Program

The Advanced Standing MSW program requires 30 credits for completion.

Students who qualify for advanced standing have earned a baccalaureate degree in Social Work from a CSWE–accredited program within the past seven (7) years.

Full-Time Program

Part-Time Program

Students enjoy a wide range of interesting and unique courses, including:

SWK 620: Anti-Racist & Anti-Oppressive Practice

The history of social work in the United States and around the world to a certain extent mirrors the history of the country where it developed. In many countries that means that social work reflects the basic values, worldviews, and practices of the host country. Often those values are based on racist assumptions of how the world operates.

This course will offer a critical examination of the development of racism in the U.S. and within social work as a discipline and profession in the United States with a focus on how social work practice, theories, and interventions perpetuate racism and oppression. The course will use critical race theory and intersectionality to discuss how different forms of oppression – discrimination based on race, ethnicity, immigration status, ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, to name a few – are connected and how the dominant culture, both inside and outside social work, misuses power to maintain their advantage and privilege knowingly and unknowingly. It will then offer frameworks for practice that are anti-racist, anti-oppressive, abolitionist, and that promote social, economic, and environmental justice.

SWK 641: Social Work Leadership

Social service agencies and nonprofit organizations permeate society and are a main source of enhancing well-being for individuals, families, and communities. Agencies provide critical services to some of society’s most vulnerable individuals and families. Additionally, social service agencies respond to community needs and advance policy changes that impact community members. Social service agencies and non-profit organizations are also major employers and economic forces within their communities. Social workers are often employed by these agencies for service provision and program management and development.

Increasingly, social workers are tasked with leading complex social services agencies and non-profit organizations. This course aims to provide students with the necessary skills to manage and lead in complex environments. Students will identify their own theory of leadership and how leadership applies to organizational management. Additionally, students will identify organizational structures and the processes for managing and developing programs within these structures. Students will also learn how to mentor employees and develop skills for providing supervision. Through course work, students can expect to gain knowledge in evaluating and implementing programs. Ultimately this course prepares students for the arduous, but necessary task, of transitioning from direct practice to a leadership role within the social work profession.

SWK 650: Advanced Integrative Practice with Children and Families

Advanced Integrative Practice with Children and Families emphasizes the application of advanced theory and practice principles for working with children and families in diverse practice settings. This course provides students an opportunity to consider approaches of current and emerging models of service delivery across the spectrum of settings where clinical intervention may be necessary, as well as more systemic intervention, which would address needs in a setting where social work may be one of many services offered (such as educational, healthcare or child welfare agencies). Models of child and family practice that emphasize promotion of wellbeing for the child and their family are considered.

SWK 660: Advanced Practice for Individual & Family Well-Being

This course builds on the foundation practice courses (SWK 541, SWK 560 and SWK 561) and explores theories and models for advanced social work practice with individuals and families with an emphasis on clinical practice methods. The course explores and critiques evidence-informed models for practice, emerging models of practice, and traditional/indigenous healing practices. The course reinforces the integration of theory and practice interventions as well as culturally sensitive, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive stances toward social work practice. The overarching goal of the course is to integrate direct practice approaches that are client-centered, strengths-based, and relational with a primary focus on individual and family well-being.

Tuition and fees for this program can be found on the Financial Aid website.

Tuition Assistance

Information about financial aid, deferred payments and application forms may be obtained from the Director of Student Financial Services, La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA 19141-1119, or by calling 215.951.1070.

Methods of Payment/Refund Policy

Tuition is due on or before the first day of the term. Students will receive an electronic bill to their La Salle email account for the term’s tuition. For additional information on payment requirements and the University’s refund policy, please contact the Office of Student and Accounts Receivable at 215.951.1055.

La Salle University’s MSW program has been granted Candidacy for Accreditation by the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation (CSWE). Students who enter the program on or after Fall 2021 will be retroactively recognized as having graduated from a CSWE-accredited program once the program attains Initial Accreditation.

Candidacy by the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation applies to all program sites and program delivery methods of an accredited program.  Accreditation provides reasonable assurance about the quality of the program and the competence of students graduating from the program.

The MSW Program has achieved Candidacy for Accreditation by the Board on Accreditation, Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Upon successful initial accreditation, students admitted on or after Fall 2021 will graduate from a fully accredited program.

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