College of Arts & SciencesCAS-IT

Our profession consistently ranks high on the list of best career choices and there are numerous opportunities to practice social work with either a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree and/or Master of Social Work (MSW) degree. Both programs are fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education.

Guided by our School's mission, philosophy, organizational structure, and the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW) Code of Ethics, our School offers a high-quality student-focused educational experience. Our full-time faculty, adjunct faculty, and support staff treat students as emerging colleagues and future social work professionals. Most of our BSW and MSW courses are taught by full-time faculty who engage in scholarship activities and are actively involved at the local, state, and national levels. Check out the requirements for each program and pay particular attention to how our BSW Field and MSW Field Education components are structured and the varied and rich BSW practicum and MSW practicum opportunities and MSW programs.

Guided by our Community Advisory Board, both of our fully accredited programs provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills that will help them tackle the problems that people experience in their everyday lives: violence, mental illness, drug abuse, racism, poverty, ageism, and family problems. More specifically, our BSW program prepares students to become beginning generalist social workers, and our MSW program prepares students to do advanced practice with families and children within agency-based social service settings.

What can I do with a Social Work degree?

Careers opportunities in social work are numerous and include such areas as mental health, health services, substance abuse, school social work, local, state, and federal government, corrections, homelessness outreach and services, services in international settings, domestic violence treatment and prevention, hospice services, and many others. For more information, you may want to visit our career page. More than half of Illinois State social work graduates in 2005 were offered a position by the agency where they completed their field practicum.

If you have any questions about your educational opportunities at our School, please feel free to contact the