Depending on your concentration and whether you are an advanced standing or foundation student, your electives will vary from 1-3 electives. Elective courses are intended to allow a student to pursue individualized areas of study that will compliment the intended goals for practice in the social work profession. Elective courses from the graduate program of the School of Social Work do not have to be pre-approved. Any courses taken from other departments within ISU must have prior approval.

Approval of elective courses should be initiated through the Director of Student Services. The MSW Program Coordinator, in consultation with the Director of Student Services, will determine if the proposed elective meets the requirement of furthering the student’s preparation for professional social work practice. The student may be required to provide a syllabus from the offering department to determine the appropriateness of the course to the furthering of preparation for professional social work practice. The student may also be required to write a rationale as to how the proposed course furthers their plan of study and prepares them for professional social work practice.

You can search for elective courses outside of the School of Social Work quite easily through I-Campus. Once you open I-Campus (not necessary to login) look on the right hand side for the second red box titled “search”. Click the third tab of courses. The next page that pops up has another red link below courses titled “course offerings”. Hit that and then a drop down box allows you to select a semester. Then the next page allows you to select a department and the department listing of courses will come up for that semester. If a course in another department is major-blocked, you will need to seek an override from the advisor from that department.