BSW Program

Students are responsible for registering for all their courses and for ensuring that they are meeting academic requirements, regulations and deadlines when making any changes to registration/student timetable. All registration is done through Carleton Central, with time-tickets opening for registration for the Fall-Winter terms at the end of June-beginning of July each year.

Students are given a specific time-ticket for when registration will open to them. Generally students can access information on their time-ticket sometime in June prior to registration opening, under ‘Step 1: Getting Started’ on Carleton Central under the ‘Registration’ section. Students can begin with reviewing the course offerings and build draft worksheets for their Fall and Winter timetables once the public class schedule has been published (this occurs prior to registration opening around the end of May each year), and this tool can be accessed under the ‘Registration’ < ‘Build Your Timetable/Registration’ and will be accessible until registration opens in the end of June-beginning of July. To build a draft worksheet, you would add courses to your timetable and then save your worksheet for a specific time under the ‘Save As‘ option. An instructional video for how to build and save a draft worksheet can be found here.

Please be advised that registration opens for BOTH the Fall and Winter term at the same time, therefore it is important that students ensure to register for both terms as soon as possible. Delaying registration can result in courses to fill up and cause challenges for accessing courses/building your schedule. If students encounter issues in registering for their core social work (SOWK) courses, and there are not alternative sections available in the same or another term then it is strongly encouraged that students contact the Undergraduate Administrator at the School for support. Not completing required courses in terms as specified on the standard course sequencing for the program can result in students missing prerequisite courses and require they extend their studies.

When attempting to add a course, you may encounter a Registration Error; this happens when you do not meet the registration criteria set out by the department. However, if you feel that you meet the registration criteria, you can submit a registration override request through Carleton Central to ask for permission to register in the course. You may also submit a registration override request if you need to register in restricted sections of a course, laboratory, or tutorial, or if you are seeking permission to register in a course for which you lack the prerequisites. Each override request is reviewed by the department offering the course. Please note that generally, students cannot get an override for missing prerequisites for a course. If you have questions regarding, you can contact the department that offers the course. Instructions for how to submit a registration override request can be found here.

To confirm the requirements and/or restrictions for registering for specific courses please view the courses section of the Undergraduate Calendar.

If you are receiving an error message when attempting to register you can contact the department offering the course for more information or reach out to the Registrar’s Office for registration support.

What are Electives?
The “Credits Not Included in the Major CGPA” that are outlined on the academic audit are referred to as the Elective Requirements of the degree. There are 3 sections of the Credits Not Included in the Major CGPA, generally this includes (please be advised that this will vary depending on year of entry into the program) 2.0 credits in related programs, 6.0 credits not in Social Work, and 1.5 credits in Free Electives.

An elective can be classified either as a course outside the Major (not Social Work), which can be found by searching the different subjects on Carleton Central. Some examples include searching specific subjects such as Psychology – PSYC, Criminology and Criminal Justice – CRCJ, Sociology – SOCI, Indigenous Studies – INDG and so on. It is important to note that all courses have Undergraduate Calendar requirements in order to register in the course. The other kind of elective is a free elective, this is classified as taking any course which can include a Social Work elective. In order to take a SOWK course as a free elective it must either be a course outside of your major requirements (i.e. SOWK 2301, 3206, 3207, 4209, 4210, or other special SOWK topics courses, and SOWK 4908) OR an additional SOWK 4000-level course apart of your Major Requirements (i.e. SOWK 4001 and 4003, or SOWK 4103 and 4204).

Students will want to be aware that there is limited free elective space, so if they are considering taking any SOWK electives then it is important to check your audit to ensure you have free elective requirements remaining for your degree and to not take any excess credits.

Keep in mind that searching for elective courses can be a bit more time consuming compared to your core SOWK courses, as this requires you to search up different subjects and course descriptions to narrow down your elective choices. To find an elective, it’s helpful to search through all the subjects or specific subjects you are interested in from other fields of study and review course descriptions. Electives are a good way to broaden the scope of your studies, but you want to make sure that the courses you pick will count towards your degree. You can check this if you register for an elective and run your academic audit on Carleton Central. Your audit will either indicate where that course falls in your degree requirements or if it doesn’t count for your degree it will show up in the “Courses Set Aside” section at the bottom of the audit. If you’re ever unsure about whether or not an elective will count towards your degree requirements, you welcome to contact the Undergraduate Administrator to confirm.

To confirm the requirements and/or restrictions for registering in specific courses, please view the courses section of the Undergraduate Calendar.

How do I Register for Electives?
To register for electives, students would go to the ‘Registration‘ section of their Carleton Central account, select ‘Build Your Timetable/Registration‘, select the appropriate term, and then filter by ‘Course Level < Undergraduate‘ and narrow your search using the Subject filter to find courses within a specific department or field of study. By using those two filters for course level and subject, students can see all the courses available for that specific term in that discipline. By clicking on the ‘Course Title‘, students can also see any required prerequisites or other registration restrictions to ensure if they are able to register or not. Some departments/disciplines may restrict their courses for students only within that degree program, for example the School of Social Work restricts a majority of our social work courses (SOWK) to students within the social work program which would prevent students in other disciplines from registering.

For general registration resources, such as step-by-step instructions for adding courses to your timetable and registration, and how-to videos for navigating Carleton Central, please visit the Registration website linked here.

While completing your BSW, you can also earn a minor (or two) in another area of study. This is an optional program element, and some students will instead choose to take a variety of electives rather than focusing on specific subject areas.

Minors usually consist of 4.0 credits from your electives that are taken in specific courses required by the minor’s department. Please note that some minors require Research Methods and Statistics courses, which may double-count under the Social Work Major as the equivalent of SOWK 3001 and 3002. Please check with the Undergraduate Administrator for Social Work to see if this is available with your Minor.

Many students are admitted to Social Work with a variety of transfer credits and experience. Thus, student programs will vary. In some cases, courses listed in the course sequencing tables found on the BSW Registration, Course Load, Degree Planning page are offered in both the Fall and Winter terms. In these situations, you are able to register for the course in either term, however, you must check to ensure you will still meet prerequisites for your other courses and/or practicum.

For step-by-step instructions, information and how-to videos for navigating Carleton Central please see the Registrar’s Office webpage on Registration linked here. Additional support can be found through the Student Registration Assistance Team (currently closed) for support with general registration assistance, first year course selection, building a conflict free timetable, Carleton Central navigation, providing elective options, and referrals to other campus services.

Please note that the Student Registration Assistance Team can only provide general registration support. Any academic advising on your specific degree requirements and audit would be available through the Undergraduate Administrator, Gabrielle Crete, in the School of Social Work.