Social Work - B.S.W.

Program Description

Full Description

The Bachelor of Social Work degree prepares students to work at a generalist level across many social work areas or to continue on to the Master of Social Work degree. Students in the program apply their academic knowledge to the practical realities of making a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities. The curriculum includes a focus on rural social work, with options for students to specialize in mental health, substance use disorder, gerontology, child welfare settings, suicide prevention and trauma-informed care.

Professional Licensure Disclosure

This program is designed to prepare students to sit for applicable licensure or certification in Ohio. If you plan to pursue licensure or certification in a state other than Ohio, please review state educational requirements for licensure or certification and contact information for state licensing boards at Kent State's website for professional licensure disclosure.

Social workers, all other

• 5.1% faster than the average
• 62,500 number of jobs
• $64,210 potential earnings

Admissions

Admission Requirements

The university affirmatively strives to provide educational opportunities and access to students with varied backgrounds, those with special talents and adult students who graduated from high school three or more years ago.

First-Year Students on the Kent Campus: First-year admission policy on the Kent Campus is selective. Admission decisions are based upon cumulative grade point average, strength of high school college preparatory curriculum and grade trends. Students not admissible to the Kent Campus may be administratively referred to one of the seven regional campuses to begin their college coursework. For more information, visit the admissions website for first-year students.

First-Year Students on the Regional Campuses: First-year admission to Kent State’s campuses at Ashtabula, East Liverpool, Geauga, Salem, Stark, Trumbull and Tuscarawas, as well as the Twinsburg Academic Center, is open to anyone with a high school diploma or its equivalent. For more information on admissions, contact the Regional Campuses admissions offices.

International Students: All international students must provide proof of English language proficiency (unless they meet specific exceptions) by earning a minimum 525 TOEFL score (71 on the Internet-based version), minimum 75 MELAB score, minimum 6.0 IELTS score or minimum 48 PTE Academic score, or by completing the ELS level 112 Intensive Program. For more information, visit the admissions website for international students.

Transfer Students: Students who have attended any other educational institution after graduating from high school must apply as undergraduate transfer students. For more information, visit the admissions website for transfer students.

Former Students: Former Kent State students or graduates who have not attended another college or university since Kent State may complete the reenrollment or reinstatement form on the University Registrar’s website.

Admission policies for undergraduate students may be found in the University Catalog's Academic Policies.

Some programs may require that students meet certain requirements before progressing through the program. For programs with progression requirements, the information is shown on the program's Coursework tab.

Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of this program will be able to:

1. Use social work skills to assess and treat micro-, mezzo- and macro-level challenges.
2. Apply ethical standards in interactions with social work clients.
3. Demonstrate cultural competence in social work practice.
4. Advocate for oppressed individuals and groups through social justice.
5. Apply social work skills using the person-in-environment focus to work with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities.
6. Effectively communicate as a professional social worker using written and verbal language skills.

Roadmap

Roadmap

This roadmap is a recommended semester-by-semester plan of study for this major. However, courses designated as critical (!) must be completed in the semester listed to ensure a timely graduation.

Program Delivery

• Delivery:
  • Mostly online
• Location:
  • Ashtabula Campus
  • Salem Campus
  • Tuscarawas Campus

Accreditation

The Bachelor of Social Work is currently in pre-candidacy for accreditation by the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Board of Accreditation (BOA).

Pre-candidacy for a baccalaureate or master’s social work program by the BOA indicates that it submitted an application to be reviewed for candidacy and received approval of its Benchmark 1 from CSWE accreditation staff to move forward for a candidacy review within 1-year. A program that has attained pre-candidacy status has not yet been reviewed by the BOA nor verified to be compliant with the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS).
Students that are admitted to pre-candidate programs in the fall (or later) of the academic year in which the program is granted candidacy status will be retroactively recognized as graduates from a CSWE-BOA accredited program as long as the program attains initial accreditation. Candidacy is typically a 3-year process and attaining pre-candidacy does not guarantee that a program will eventually attain candidacy and initial accreditation.

Pre-candidacy applies to all program options, which includes locations and delivery methods.

Accreditation provides reasonable assurance about the quality of the program and the competence of students graduating from the program.

Review our program’s pre-candidacy status in CSWE’s Directory of Accredited Programs (https://www.cswe.org/accreditation/about/directory/?). For more information about social work accreditation, contact CSWE’s Department of Social Work Accreditation.