In order to proceed to the upper level (300/400) social work courses, students must apply and be granted admission to the professional level of the major by the BSW Admission Committee. The application process occurs in January of the student's sophomore year or once a student has reached 58 credits.
In order for social work majors at WVU, its branch campuses, or 2+2 program students to attain professional social work status, they must meet the B.S.W. program’s professional level admission criteria, complete a formal petition for admission, and have their petition approved by the School of Social Work B.S.W. Admission Committee. The process is competitive, and students are selectively admitted to the advanced level of the program for their final two years of education, which includes the upper-division courses in social work.
Professional Level Admission Requirements
To be eligible for admission to the advanced level and become professional social work majors, students must meet the following minimum criteria:
- Earn a C or better in SOWK 147 and SOWK 151 (Students may be enrolled in one or both of these courses at the time of petition to the professional major; additionally, students petitioning to the program through the 2+2 arrangement or as transfers from another institution can replace the SOWK 147 course with another minority course pre-approved by the BSW Program Director).
- Complete fifty-eight credit hours by the conclusion of the spring semester before the student intends to begin the professional upper-division courses in the fall semester.
- Completion of at least 75% of the GEF requirements by the conclusion of the semester during which petition to the advanced level is made.
- Minimum 2.0 GPA on a four-point scale (lower considered on a case-by-case basis)
- 50 hours of community service documented on the School of Social Work forms; these must be approved by the BSW Recruitment & Advising Coordinator prior to completion.
- Submission of a positive letter of recommendation from a volunteer service or college-level academic instructor/professor.
- Demonstrate college-level writing skills.
- Show potential for commitment to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics.
Please note: Students with admission requirements that are currently in progress should still submit their application by the deadline. Students can be provisionally accepted into the program, pending the completion of all requirements by the start of the fall semester.
Professional Level Application Process
The application process begins by students emailing a formal petition for admission with the School of Social Work which includes the following forms:
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Positive Letter of Recommendation
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Human Service Hours Verification Forms
- On-Campus Program
- Volunteer Human Service Hours: iServe
- Current WVU Students: Track service hours on iServe and have 1 agency complete the Assessment of Human Service Hours
- Transfer Students: Complete the Human Service Verification Form for each agency that you volunteered at, and have 1 agency complete the Assessment of Human Service Hours
- Paid Human Service Hours Complete the Human Service Verification Form and Assessment of Human Service Hours Document (DOCX)
- Online Program
- Volunteer Human Service Hours Complete the Human Service Verification Form for each agency that you volunteered at, and have 1 agency complete the Assessment of Human Service Hours
- Paid Human Service Hours Complete the Human Service Verification Form and Assessment of Human Service Hours Document
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WVU Online Application (for Online BSW students only!)
Petition applications should be emailed to BSW@mail.wvu.edu and are due no later than the last business day in January. The BSW Admission Committee reviews each petition and students are notified of the outcome of their petition no later than the first week of March.
For BSW petition inquiries, please contact Bekah Dunaway for on-campus students and Challice LaRose for online students.
Tracking BSW Community Service in iServe
Students are encouraged to use iServe to connect with and track community service hours. All students have an iServe account associated with their WVU login. Below are instructions on how to find service opportunities, sign up, and track service so that it counts towards your BSW requirement.
- Login to your iServe account on
iServe.wvu.edu using WVU Faculty/Staff/Student Login.
- Once logged in, click your cohort’s user group link to join the appropriate group
(For example, "School of Social Work - Class of 2027")
- Once joined, you can access this group in the future by going to the dropdown menu
in the top right corner of the page and selecting My User Groups.
- In this page, you can easily access specific needs to respond to by clicking View
Volunteer Needs beside your user group’s name. The volunteer needs connected
to the SSW user group should be well suited for social work students. You are
not limited to these opportunities and may explore other opportunities under
general Volunteer Needs from the left side menu. Keep in mind that the majority
of your service hours should allow you to interact with people.
- Find a volunteer need that is of interest to you and click the Sign-Up button.
Answer the questions and click submit. You have now signed up for that need.
Either show up at the designated place and time or reach out to the organization
to arrange a time.
- After completing your service, you will log back in to iServe to track your hours.
Click Track Hours from the top menu under your initials.
- Select the volunteer need that you are tracking and complete the other fields.
When tracking hours, under
Hour Details choose your respective user group from the dropdown.
If you do not select your user group, these hours may not count towards
your requirement. If you do not see this option, go back to step 2 and click
your class’s use group.
- You may track needs associated with your group, other needs that you find on iServe, or needs that do not appear on iServe.