Florida A&M University offers a professional program leading to the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) in the Department of Social Work. The BSW Program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education and prepares students for generalist social work practice. The professional curriculum consists of sixty (60) credit hours including twelve (12) hours of field placement. Certain courses in the curriculum are open to non-majors and offer exposure to current issues in service delivery. Program graduates may be eligible for advanced standing in many schools offering the Master of Social Work (MSW) Degree.
Admissions
The following are the admission procedures for first-time-in-college and transfer students wishing to enter the Department of Social Work:
Freshmen- First-time-in-college freshmen and transfer students applying for admissions to the University and wishing to major in social work should simply indicate social work as their chosen major. The University’s admissions office will forward students records and application to the Center for Academic Success, and the Center will notify students’ of their acceptance as pre-social work majors. An academic advisor will be assigned to students in order to guide them through the appropriate liberal arts courses and to prepare them for the upper division and full admittance to the BSW program. Students should meet with their advisors a minimum of once per semester to register for the following semester. In addition, an academic advisor will be assigned to students in order to guide them through the appropriate liberal arts courses and to prepare them for upper division courses and full admittance to the BSW program.
The admissions office will forward students’ records and application to the Department of Social Work and the department will send letters of acceptance to students and assign them a faculty academic advisor. At this point, students should call or email their advisor to set up a time to complete a course evaluation form. Note: Students transferring to FAMU with an AA degree from a Florida state college, community college or university, do not have to meet any additional liberal arts requirements shown below. They will complete only the 60 hours of upper division social work courses. Students who do not hold an AA degree are required to complete the general liberal arts curriculum and social work prerequisites prior to beginning the junior level social work courses. The following information below describes the social work courses and the required liberal arts prerequisites for the undergraduate social work foundation courses. This will allow advisors to advise students and help to ensure that students successfully complete the BSW course requirements.
Program Administration
Chairperson: Jenny Jones, PhD
Program Director: Glenn Hodges, MSW, M.Div.
Field Coordinator: Dr. Winnifred Whittaker
Curriculum
The social work curriculum does not formally begin until the student’s junior year because it is considered an upper-division professional program. However, students need to begin taking the required general education courses for the major as freshmen (as pre-social work majors). Social work majors are required to complete 60 hours of general education courses and social work prerequisite courses and 60 hours of upper-division professional social work courses for a total of 120 hours. The upper-division 60 hours are taken in the junior and senior years and include 14 required social work courses (42 credit hours), two social work electives (6 credit hours), and a field practicum (12 credit hours). Students must meet the following requirements in order to move from the lower division (pre-social work) status to the upper division (social work) status:
- Complete the general education curriculum
- Complete the BSW Application Process
- Have an overall GPA of at least 2.0.
