Master of Social Work

MSW students smiling and sitting on a ledge.

A U-M MSW degree offers a broad range of specializations drawing on recent research, new learning innovations, and a strong interdisciplinary focus.

MSW students choose from eight specialized pathways that build on a generalist foundation and provide focused study in key areas of practice. Each pathway helps students develop advanced skills and apply them within specific contexts, policies, and service settings. Students complete 12 credits in their chosen pathway, with the option to pursue a second if eligible.

MSW Program Pathways

Children, Youth, and Families

The Children, Youth, and Families pathway prepares students to support children, adolescents, and adults through evidence-based and developmentally appropriate interventions and strategies that improve their lives.

Community Change

The Community Change Pathway engages students in developing a critical and reflexive understanding of the theory, models, and skills needed to promote action and change with diverse communities.

Global Social Work Practice

The Global Social Work Pathway is for those social work students interested in dedicating themselves to global issues.

Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, & Substance Abuse

The Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Pathway focuses on total health and the connection between physical, mental and behavioral health.

Management & Leadership

In the Management and Leadership Pathway, students learn how to effectively manage and lead programs and organizations within a framework of social work values and ethics.

Policy & Political Social Work

The Policy & Political Social Work pathway prepares students to use the political system to create social change.

Program Evaluation & Applied Research

The Program Evaluation and Applied Research pathway provides students with an opportunity to develop advanced skills in program evaluation, and other qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Social Work Practice with Older Adults & Families from a Lifespan Perspective

The Older Adults and Families Pathway prepares students to work with older adults and families using evidence-based interventions and a lifespan perspective on psychosocial development.

Curricular Options

Dual Degree

Regularly admitted students in the School of Social Work may pursue a dual degree in another program at the University of Michigan at the same time, provided they have been admitted to the other program as well.

Secondary Pathway

On-campus MSW students can choose to complete a secondary pathway by using 12 elective credits toward a second area of specialization. This option allows students to build knowledge in an additional area of social work during their time in the program.

Special Programs

U-M School of Social Work special programs offer specialized academic opportunities, some with significant financial assistance, that can enhance your learning and preparation for a career in social work.

Curriculum Schedules

Advanced Standing

If you have earned your BSW degree from a CSWE or CASWE accredited program, the advanced standing program may allow you to earn your MSW degree in less time by reducing credit-hours from 60 to 45.

MSW Program Length

Earn your MSW through a flexible 60-credit program designed to fit your schedule—choose from full-time or part-time options and multiple curriculum tracks that support your academic and professional goals.

Online MSW Program

Earn your MSW online through a flexible 45-credit program from Michigan Social Work—balance your career and studies while gaining clinical skills and local field experience. Apply for full-time or part-time enrollment and connect with dedicated faculty and advisors along the way.

Part-Time

Michigan Social Work’s part-time MSW programs offer flexible on-campus and online options that fit around work, family, and other commitments. Students access dedicated advising, career services, and field placements while pursuing their degree at a manageable pace.

Social Work Essentials/ MasterTrack™ Online Certificate

Whether you're exploring social work or planning to earn your MSW, the Social Work Essentials Certificate offers flexible options to meet your goals. Build foundational skills or take the first step toward an MSW—online or on campus.
Explore & Connect
The colorful SSW atrium during the daytime.

Learn about our program, meet current students, receive admissions and financial aid advising, sample an MSW class.

Connect

Learn about our program, meet current students, receive admissions and financial aid advising, sample an MSW class.

Meet Our Scholars
Linda Chatters

Advancing knowledge in the field of social work.

Faculty Profiles

Advancing knowledge in the field of social work.

University of Michigan School of Social Work MSW Program Mission Statement

Advancing the social work profession’s vision and values, the University of Michigan School of Social Work‘s MSW program seeks to develop a more equitable, caring, and socially just society. Such a society meets basic human needs, eliminates social and economic inequities, and empowers individuals, their communities, and institutions to reach their aspirations and potential. Drawing on an interdisciplinary faculty within a public university seated in a region of enormous need and promise, the School, enhanced by its research and service, is dedicated to educating new master’s-level social workers who will foster progressive change at local, national, and global levels.

Artwork at the SSW

Adrienne and Stéphane

Laura Letinsky | Canadian , b. 1962

1992
Dye-coupler print
99.06

SSWB 2766

Early in her career as a photographer, Laura Letinsky captured people in the public sphere. In the early 1990s she moved to interiors, the place of intimacy. For six years she photographed couples, predominantly white and heterosexual, in their private moments and created a series called Venus Inferred. Initially she considered making pictures of love but she realized other things were happening. Working with established couples, first friends and then found by advertisement, she was witnessing their relationships not at the exciting beginning or the dramatic ending but at the in-between moments on a continuum of romantic life. This work captures the period in which the lovers realize that the romantic promises described in, and expected of, of pop culture messages are not going to happen. Letinsky captures individuals who sought a unique and exceptional relationship but we, as viewers, recognize the perfectly normal and predictable body language, spaces and outcomes.

Adrienne and Stéphane, from the series Venus Inferred, are shown in a private moment. They are in an intimate setting embraced by their couch on the left and coffee table on the right, surrounded by their personal accessories such as the coffee cups in front of them. Adrienne gazes into space with a bored(?), preoccupied(?) expression as Stéphane gazes at her neck with longing(?). Adrienne is foregrounded and it is her state of mind that is thrust upon us. What we see is not passion and excitement but ambivalence, vulnerability, uncertainty. Letinsky has captured a moment on the continuum of a relationship that reflects not the pop song, RomCom, Hallmark, TrueLove moment, but the perplexing nature of real personal interaction.