Application Information
MSW Admission Criteria
Applicants to the Master of Social Work Program must meet the general requirements of the Graduate School and the College of Social Work. Students are selected on the basis of intellectual capacity, personal maturity, and motivation. Previous academic work, background experiences, personal development, and potential for professional practice are important considerations in the evaluation of applicants.
To be considered for admission to the Master of Social Work Program, applicants must:
- Have an average point-hour ratio of 3.0 or higher (based on 4.00 = A) for all previous academic work or a combined score of at least 1,000 on the verbal and quantitative areas of the aptitude portion of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) for students with less than a 3.00 average point-hour ratio;
- Have a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university. Applicants with degrees from non-accredited institutions may be considered for admission pending satisfactory performance on the GRE; and
- Have completed at least one-fourth of undergraduate course work in three basic areas of academic study: the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences (including human biology).
ASAP Applicants must also have:
- earned their degree within the last five years before the start of this program
- have a copy of their field evaluation from their undergraduate degree or a letter from that field instructor OR
- if they have been out working in the field for over two years, one of their recommendations must be from their current supervisor.
International students whose native language is not English and who have not received a degree in an English-speaking country must submit evidence to the Admissions Office of adequate training in the use of English. Either the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP) must be taken for this purpose. The minimum acceptable scores are 550 (paper exam) or 213 (computer exam) for the TOEFL and 80 for the MTELP.
In the College of Social Work, graduate international students for whom English is not the native language must demonstrate fluency in spoken English through testing (SPEAK-score of 230) and possibly course work before the student will be permitted to enter the field practicum.
New students enter the full-time, as well as part-time, MSW Program in autumn quarter. Advanced standing students begin during the summer quarter. Students from non-English speaking countries who fail to pass the proficiency examination in English often enroll summer quarter to begin the required English courses.
Application Procedures and Forms
In addition the to above requirements, interested applicants must complete the following (complete instructions for applying can be found here):
- Application to College of Social Work
- Application to Graduate School
- 3 Letters of Reference (use this form)
(Some of the files linked above are PDFs
and require the latest version of Adobe Reader to view and print.
Download Adobe Reader)
Graduate Non-Degree
Current Graduate Non-Degree Courses at Ohio State Lima
Ohio State Lima also offers a variety of courses that may be available to fulfill licensure requirements or that can be taken Graduate Non-degree prior to admission to the program. A graduate non-degree student can take up to 10 credit hours of OSU graduate course work. If the student earns a grade of "B" or higher for a course, the courses/hours transfer into the program once a student is admitted. Since the program admits students every two years, this enables students to take some courses in the interim. These courses are valid for five years for transferring into the program.
To apply for graduate non-degree status for one of the current Lima course offerings. Contact the MSW Office at the Lima campus at (419) 995-8399 or e-mail: niese.1@osu.edu to obtain enrollment information or click here to fill out an on-line information request.
