Master of Social Work (MSW)

Maryah Stella Fram, Program Director

The Master of Social Work (MSW) program offers both a 60-credit hour regular standing option for students with no prior social work degree, and a 30-credit hour advanced standing option for selected students who have earned a BSW degree from a CSWE-accredited program within the past 5 years.  Our curriculum has a thoughtful and intentional combination of asynchronous and synchronous courses, ensuring that each student develops real world practice skills, meaningful mentoring relationships with seasoned professionals, and the knowledge and practice decision-making skills they need for career success. Each student develops an individualized program of study plan, with degree completion possible in as little as 2 full-time semesters for advanced standing students (including 600 hours of supervised field practicum experience), or 4 full-time semesters for regular standing students (including 900 hours of supervised field practicum experience).  

Accreditation

The Mary Baldwin MSW program is currently in pre-candidacy for accreditation by the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Board of Accreditation (BOA). Pre-candidacy status 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 accreditation standards.

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 applied 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. 

Program Mission

At MBU, our MSW program is on-line, our teaching is hands-on, and our commitment is all-in, supporting each learner to accomplish their unique social work career goals through flexible, supportive, and individualized professional education.  Our mission is to develop resilient, self-aware, advanced generalist social workers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to tackle challenging problems.

We take a relational approach to all that we do, investing in meaningful connections among faculty, students, and our practice community, and preparing students to build collaborative, strengths-based relationships with those they serve.  From our small program community, to the beautiful geographic communities of the Shenandoah Valley, to the many places and spaces where our students live, identify, and work, we believe that change happens through relationships of authenticity, respect, trust, and shared commitments to bringing about positive change. 

Because social workers are called to practice in a world of endless variation in how people live, the challenges they face, and the goals that inspire them, a hallmark of our program is our emphasis on developing empathy, critical thinking, and a broad toolkit of knowledge, skills, and approaches.  Our students explore different ways of thinking about social problems and the person-in-environment, and develop individualized orientations to practice that reflect social work values, ethics, and research knowledge; the students’ own well-reasoned perspectives; and abiding humility about how much we always have to learn from and with each other.

There are many ways that social workers make a difference, and the MSW program at MBU prepares each learner to help move the profession forward, contributing to what we know, what we do, and who we are as a helping profession.

Admission Requirements

Requirements for admission to the regular or advanced standing MSW program are:

• Completion of free online application
• A bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution
• Official transcripts from all post-secondary educational institutions
• A GPA of 2.75 is preferred for full admission, but evaluation of transcripts and overall readiness for graduate study will be made on a case-by-case basis, and conditional admission may be offered to promising applicants who may be successful with additional supports and/or learning experiences
• Proof of English proficiency for applicants for whom English is not a first language
• Personal statement discussing the applicant’s interest in a career in social work and what prepares them to embark on this career path
• 2 professional or academic letters of recommendation