New York Social Work Degree Guide - BSW, MSW, & More Online

Gotham has always been a magnet for people around the world searching for a chance at a better life. The welcome sign is printed right on our front door…

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-test to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

~ Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus

New York has been the epicenter of social activism for over 350 years, expressed through art, politics, music, and hands-on help for the people here who need it most.

That’s a heritage that’s hard to match in social work practice anywhere in the world. And it makes earning a social work degree here a chance to take your own turn on the front lines of social justice.

New York Social Worker Degree Options at Every Level

For more than 125 years, social workers have been the New Yorkers keeping that lamp lit and the door open.

They’ve done it with a burning drive to help that comes from seeing and experiencing social injustice and inequity firsthand. If you came of age watching protesters march after Eric Garner’s murder, you were watching social workers creating the Black Lives Matter movement to completely reform American policing. Whether you listen to hip-hop or jazz, you’re hearing the roots of urban protest and empowerment coming up from the streets as a cry for justice.

Social work degrees teach the art of connecting with individuals from any culture and background, and provide an understanding of the historical context and social factors that impact people’s lives and fortunes.

When it comes to diverse cultural backgrounds, New York stands alone, with 800 languages spoken here and the largest foreign-born population on the planet.

As one of the most critical areas of study within the larger field of human services, social work offers a unique perspective on solving big, systemic problems that negatively impact people’s lives. Humans are social creatures. Only by looking at the connections we have and our positions within that social construct is it possible to develop lasting solutions to serious problems.

Social workers come out of these programs uniquely equipped to take on both sides of difficult issues. They learn how to manage the mundane plight of, say, people who have fallen behind on student loans. But they are also equipped to engage with the larger problems of skyrocketing college costs and predatory loan programs that ballooned that debt in the first place.

These capabilities come through a combination of instruction that includes:

A traditional humanities education that builds appreciation and understanding for the human condition
The science of psychology and clinical counseling techniques
History, sociology, political science, and socioeconomic studies
Cultural perspectives and engagement

There’s nowhere better to study these things than in the state that put social work education on the map.

Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Degree and Associate-Level Options Available Online and at New York Campus Locations

Degrees in social work come at every level in American colleges today. For reasons that relate to both professional standards and state licensure, however, it’s the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) that should be on your radar.

Associate in Social Work degrees can help get you to a BSW. These are two-year entry-level programs that give you the basics of both human services and a solid start on liberal arts education. These are also known as transfer degrees, since they are most often used to cover the first two years of a full four-year bachelor’s program in social work. In the field of social work, an advanced degree is the ticket to becoming licensed, so the main function of an associate degree is to get you started down that path at a cost you can afford.

Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degrees are four-year undergraduate programs that deliver a well-rounded general college education together with the specific foundations needed at the graduate level. Most non-clinical, unlicensed social work positions in New York are open to bachelor’s graduates. The most important role for this level of degree, however, is to prepare for you for the master’s degree needed for licensing.

A BSW from an accredited school is a sure bet to cut your master’s program down to as little as one-year by giving you access to advanced-standing MSW programs. That equals time and tuition dollars saved.

Online Social Work Graduate Degree Options and Campus-Based Programs in New York

Master of Social Work (MSW) degrees are two-year graduate programs that offer the specific advanced coursework and practical experience needed to become licensed as an LMSW (Licensed Master Social Worker) in New York state. If you choose to go a step further, your MSW combined with additional experience, will qualify you for the highest level of licensure available in New York — LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker). MSW degrees deliver the training necessary to provide direct clinical counseling to patients in every area of social work practice, and the leadership skills to make a difference in communities large and small.

Advanced Standing Master of Social Work degrees are a one-year variation on the standard MSW that are only open to BSW graduates. With a CSWE-accredited BSW, most schools of social work will allow advanced standing students to skip the first year of study at the master’s level. This means getting qualified for licensure faster and for less money. Otherwise, advanced standing MSW programs provide exactly the same quality of education and qualification as a standard MSW.

Doctor of Social Work (DSW) and PhD degrees represent the highest level of study you can climb to in the field. With two to four years of advanced study, research, and instruction, these equip graduates to take on the toughest clinical counseling cases, lead non-profit and social services organizations, or to become professors teaching the next generation of social workers.

Many social work professionals climb through these degrees like a ladder. The typical New Yorker bound for a social work career isn’t coming from a wealthy background. So starting small and working your way up, making use of the common ability to transfer credits from level to level, is a time-honored New York social work educational tradition.

Post-Degree Certificates in Social Work are another way to get college training in social work topics. Lasting less than a year, they are mostly used to get specialized knowledge and skills after you’ve already earned a degree. While they don’t play a role in getting licensed as a clinical social worker, they can be key in getting the continuing education needed to keep that license current later in your career.

When You Need to Look Out for CSWE Accreditation When Choosing Your Social Work Degree

Key to your journey to clinical social work licensing in New York will be picking schools that hold the appropriate specialty accreditation from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).

CSWE evaluates only BSW and MSW programs. Those, however, are the most critical for licensure as an LMSW or LCSW. Graduating from a CSWE-accredited bachelor’s program allows BSW holders to qualify for advanced-standing MSW programs, and graduating from a CSWE-accredited MSW allows graduates to apply for a clinical practice license.

While accreditation isn’t a feature for associate programs, you’ll want to find out ahead of time whether or not the credits earned in that AA you might be looking at transfer to a CSWE-accredited BSW program.

CSWE doesn’t accredit doctoral programs either, but that’s because they don’t really need it—most are offered by the same schools that deliver MSWs, with the same faculty and quality of education. And with certificates, any program accepted for state continuing education is also going to be a proven quality program.

Looking at the Curriculum in New York Social Work Degree Programs

An education in social work is an education in humanity that takes in the good and the bad. Studying social work makes you part of a movement that has arced through history.

Your experiences as a student will be your own, but your ideas and knowledge, both as a student and in your professional life, will be shaped by the classes you study along the way.

You’re in luck when it comes to getting a first-rate education in social justice and clinical practice in New York. The state is home to the oldest schools of social work in the nation. They have had plenty of time to figure out how to transfer knowledge while keeping the spirit of engaged young students aflame. And they draw some of the top professors in the field to help pass that knowledge along.

Core Concepts in Social Work Come through at Every Degree Level From New York Schools

Those professors will teach you about the core pieces of the social work puzzle:

Of course, these general subjects get different treatment at different degree levels. Associate and bachelor’s degrees give you a more introductory experience, while master’s and doctoral studies will dive into the more advanced theory and applications.

Since the different levels of degree serve different purposes in the overall educational track, they also have a different curriculum structure around the core subjects.

For undergraduate studies, this means a standard helping of the general liberal arts education that makes American college degrees the standard for professional roles in every industry. These humanities courses in history, language, social studies, sciences, and the arts are particularly important for social workers. They deliver a broad understanding of culture, the arc of history, and the social compact we all live within.

For graduate students, the extra coursework leans into areas of research and specialization. Your coursework will be all about teaching you to be an informed evaluator, master of resources, and policy expert in human services. These are also frequently seminar style, taught in small groups with a lot of discussion and interaction with the instructor.

Other courses walk you through final projects, either a capstone or thesis/dissertation that will showcase what you accomplished through advanced study.

What Ever Happened to Ethics in Social Work Education?

You’ll probably notice, as you look over curriculum plans, that few advanced-standing social work master’s programs in New York come with any ethics or professional development training.

That’s not because ethics takes a back seat for advanced standing students. Instead, it’s because a fully accredited BSW program will cover those subjects in detail before you even enter your MSW programs.

New York’s social work education scene is known for setting the trend, and you’re seeing what that means. That trend is to embrace a more holistic style of instruction in advanced practice social work studies. That means classes that are less specifically focused… you’ll see many vaguely titled seminars, courses in field instruction, or systems theory classes.

That doesn’t mean these subjects aren’t covered in-depth, just that they are wrapped together in the context of actual practice. Your instruction will put together clinical, historical, ethical, and cultural considerations all in one… just like it happens out in the real world.

Opportunities To Specialize Your Social Work Practice with Uniquely New York Concentrations

There are eleven areas of social work specialization recognized by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), but even that comes up short when you consider the various combinations of social issues, cultures, and unique populations that social workers engage with, especially in New York.

So almost all social workers pick a concentration area with their degree, particularly at the master’s level. That can be a focus on a specific population, such as family, youth, and children’s services. It can also be a focus on a particular kind of practice, like a focus on policy or contemporary social issues, or even diving into a particular treatment modality, like dialectical behavior therapy.

These specialty areas drive your elective coursework and often your practicum and internships placements. They will help define the course of your career as you develop expertise in your chosen area of practice.

There’s no better place to pick up these focused areas of study than in New York. With legendary social work professors and schools, the depth and variety of opportunities are off the charts here. Want to explore hip-hop therapy in the South Bronx to help high schoolers better express their stress? You got it. Want to dig into the latest research and advocacy work to counter police violence? Try studying with some of the people who brought a $13 million lawsuit against NYPD over the BLM protests… and won.

Online Social Work Degree Programs Are Open at Every Level in New York

You’ll find online options available at every level of study for social work degrees in New York.

While remote education really took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a tool that many schools of social work have been honing for years now. Today, it’s every bit the equal to traditional on-campus training, and it comes with advantages that no traditional program can beat.

One of the biggest advantages for social work students in New York is the ability to attend world-class social work programs from the biggest melting pot in the world without having to take on those NYC prices for room and board.

Whether you are staying home upstate or halfway across the country, online programs give you all the benefits of studying social work in the big, urban centers without big urban prices.

That also speaks to the diversity of options that online studies open up. Wherever you are, more choices for schools offer a better chance at finding the perfect fit in specialization, research focus, or rock star instructors.

Finally, the asynchronous style in which most online degrees are delivered keeps the disruption of school to a minimum. Whether you’re working your way through school or busy taking care of family obligations, these degrees let you fit your education around your obligations.

Street-Level Experience Is a Key Part of New York Social Work Degrees

One thing that is never fully remote, of course, is the experiential part of your degree.

Experiential learning is a big deal in social work. You can study all the theory you want, but until you spend the day knocking on doors in a dark urban tenement, checking on people sleeping in alleys, or engaging in home visits with kids stuck in the endless loop of the Office of Children and Family Services foster system, you won’t really understand the plight and the challenge.

Experiential studies are so important that even many of the two-year associate programs in the state offer some kind of internship opportunity to help get hands-on experience.

Practicum Placements

Practicum placements are integrated courses that are a part of your curriculum. They tend to be relatively short placements and are overseen both by your regular instructors and by agency staff on site. You may be more of an observer than a participant, but they are valuable first-hand experiences that let you interrogate and integrate your theoretical instruction with your understanding of real-world social work practice.

Internship Opportunities

Internship opportunities are more detached placements that may be longer and have more flexibility than practicum classes. In these, you function more as a direct employee at the agency and will fall more directly under the supervision of staff. Some internships are even paid. These give you a greater opportunity to try out social work practice on your own and develop your personal style.

Particularly in lower level programs, you typically get a variety of different placements to help you get a feel for areas where you might want to eventually focus. In more advanced degrees, expect to spend more time in the area of your specialty, honing your skills for real-world practice.

Connecting Education to Your Livelihood: The Standard Social Work Degree Requirements at New York Social Services Agencies

You’ll find jobs available at every level of human services and social work practice with the right degree. New York is a huge and varied state, with tremendous demand for every kind of social worker at every skill level.

In broad strokes, it’s convenient to look at social work roles as falling into the four general categories that the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to track employment levels:

But even undergraduate degrees allow you to get into important social work roles. A bachelor or associate degree can qualify you for positions such as:

Your degree will have a lot to do with what kind of social work job you can fill after graduation.

Of course, most master’s graduates are heading toward state licensure— LMSW or LCSW. Those jobs are frequently titled just exactly that—Licensed Clinical Social Worker or Licensed Master Social Worker. But they may also turn up as positions like:

Recreational Coordinator
Sociotherapist
Credentialed Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC)
Housing Case Manager
Family Support Worker
Child Advocate
Life Skills Instructor

Social Workers Have Always Gone to Where the Troubles Are

The prototype of the modern social worker emerged in the 1860s in the form of the friendly visitors. Charitable societies, emerging in response to the poverty that came with industrialization, sponsored upper class volunteers to evaluate relief applications, interview families, and take an interest in neighborhoods where assistance was needed.

The friendly visitors were a stop-gap, but they were on the right track. In 1877, the American Charity Organization Society was founded in Buffalo to pursue charitable relief along rational, scientific principles. You’ll recognize some of their emphasis on research, environmental factors, and public health advocacy in the structure of the modern social services system.

And, believe it or not, there are still jobs for friendly visitors in New York. The NYC Department for Aging funds a volunteer program called Friendly Visiting that sends participants out to sit and visit with older adults who are otherwise isolated from society. There are even programs specific to different boroughs, so older folks in, say, Flatbush can engage with someone with similar roots.

Whether you are running such a program or working as the modern friendly visitor equivalent, you will find the threads that tie the origins of New York social work to modern practice are fully intact. The roles make just as much difference in lives today as they did a century ago.

Doctoral degrees are mostly used for positions in research or academia. However, some PhD, and particularly DSW grads can find themselves in senior leadership roles in social services organizations.

There’s also a strong tradition of entrepreneurial social work in New York. With funding sources always right around the corner, social work graduates with bright ideas work with nonprofits to pilot everything from game-based early childhood assessment programs to new approaches to networking primary care practices with community-based organizations for more accessible healthcare.

As you could probably guess, different positions bring different levels of compensation. You can find all the details on our New York social workers salary page.

All of these jobs and the degrees that lead to them have one thing in common, though: they help keep the door open and the lamp lit, showing the way to a better life for the people of New York.