MSW FAQs

No, you don’t need to upload all your required documents before you submit your application.  You can submit your application once you have green check marks in every section of the application in Carleton 360.  Once your payment is processed, you and your referees will receive an email from Carleton within 1-3 business days.  Your email will include your 9 digit application number, and have instructions for logging in to Carleton Central to upload your remaining required documents.  The email to your referees contains a link to a reference form they fill in and “submit” once complete. It takes a day or two before you see this reflected in Carleton Central (look under “Graduate Admissions” under “Student Records”).

The reference letter will be indexed to your application approximately 2 business days after the referee submits it.  References are indexed to the application regardless of application deadlines. The admissions committee can view all dates (uploaded documents, application & referee submission) which may (or may not) influence their evaluation.

Please try to get a reference from your most recently attended academic program from whomever you feel best knows your academic abilities and suitability for graduate level study.  Even though it may have been some time since you were last in school, we encourage you to contact previous instructors with a reminder of the class you took, when you took it, any specific assignments or presentations you did, and your final grade. If you need to use a TA for an academic reference, that is fine although instructors are preferred.  If you are unable to secure an academic reference, include a detailed rationale to the admissions committee with your statement document, and add an additional professional reference.

No, our MSW is not offered online. Students will need to attend in person and the majority of classes are held during daytime hours. There may be an opportunity to complete the Advanced Year Practicum at a distance.

Our MSW is designed for full-time study, and classes are offered Monday to Friday during the day.  Occasionally we may offer an elective course in the evening.  Full-time and part-time applicants are evaluated, scored and ranked in the same pool. In the past, we have been able to admit a maximum of 3 part-time students each fall, but it depends where they fall within the rankings.

No, the fall term is the only term of admission.

Late applications are not accepted by the School of Social Work.  We have an active waitlist for both programs, and decline many qualified applicants due to limited enrolments  Please ensure you allow yourself enough time to upload the required documents by the December 1st deadline.

The School of Social Work will not grant advanced standing for course work completed prior to entry to the MSW.

Each year we accept approximately twenty-five students into each MSW program.  The fall 2026 admissions cycle received 275 applications for the two year MSW program, and 110 for the one year MSW.

No, our MSW is a generalist program which is a blend of policy, clinical, research, community and generalist practice. Our MSW has elective course requirements that provide students an opportunity to take courses in their preferred area(s) of practice providing instructor and seat availability.  Our clinical elective courses are very popular and we cannot guarantee a seat is available for all who are interested.

Applicants are only eligible to apply to one program.  If you have an accredited Bachelor of Social Work (BSW), then you apply to our one year MSW.  If you have a four year undergraduate degree, apply to our two year MSW program.

Unfortunately, without an accredited Bachelor of Social Work (BSW), applicants could only apply for the two year MSW program.  If admitted, advanced standing is not possible for experience, or for any coursework completed prior to admission.

Unfortunately, without a four year university degree (sometimes referred to as an honours degree), you would not be eligible for admission to the MSW. We do not have a qualifying year program, however you may want to consider applying for admission to our Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). If admitted, a course transfer assessment will be completed of your previous post-secondary studies.  Although we cannot guarantee year of admission in advance, generally those who are admitted to the BSW with a previous undergraduate degree are able to enter into the third year of the program, leaving two years of full-time study (or the equivalent in part-time study) to complete the degree. This would then meet qualification to apply for the one year MSW Advanced program.
For those educated in Quebec, CEGEP and a university degree, which is usually 3 years, is considered equivalent to a 4 year degree.

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Applicants must have a minimum of 1500 hours of human services/social work-related experience. Experience is evaluated for the quality of experience and quantity of hours using an equitable perspective.  Examples of equitable considerations:  applicants from a rural or isolated community may have less variety of experiences; applicants with a disability may have less hours & variety of experience; applicants who are parents of small children may have less recent experience;  etc

Applicants are welcome to include any experience they feel is relevant (eg: human service, advocacy, policy, volunteer, fundraising, committee work, community engagement, etc).  The Admissions Committee will evaluate that experience and score it on quality and quantity of experience.

1.  Apply and see what happens.  All applications are given full consideration, regardless of grades and experience.
Applicants to our two year MSW program might consider applying to our Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program as well, in case their MSW application is unsuccessful or waitlisted.  If you are offered admission to the BSW, and the offer is accepted, your previous post-secondary studies are assessed for possible transfer credits  Pending the outcome of the transfer credit assessment, you might be starting with upper year standing.   The BSW program can be done at your own pace, which makes it easier to keep working full-time while going to school.  Having a BSW makes you eligible to apply for the one year MSW program which is considerably less competitive.
2. Raise your grades, and/or get more social work related experience before you apply.  The quickest way to raise your grades is by repeating lowest graded courses within last 10 credits, and getting a higher grade.
3. Apply to multiple MSW programs in order to increase your chances of getting an offer of admission.

We find your most recent university course on your uploaded transcript documents, and start counting backwards from it until we get to 10 credits of graded courses.  Generally this will be the last 20 courses, which is the equivalent of half (or two years) of a four year degree.  It doesn’t matter if the university course(s) was taken for degree requirements, it just needs to be a regular university course at the graduate or undergraduate level.  If any course in the last 10 credits is without a grade and/or not used towards GPA calculation at your university (ex: practicums, etc), we will skip over it and continue counting backwards until we reach 10 credits of graded courses.  If your last 10 credits includes an F grade, it will be used towards GPA calculation.  If you have repeated a course in your last 10 credits, we will use the most recent grade.  If you have withdrawn from a course within your last 10 credits, we will skip over it and continue counting backwards until 10 credits.

Cost and Fees are outlined https://graduate.carleton.ca/financial-assistance/cost-and-fees/

All successful full-time domestic applicants are considered for admissions funding.  Once we have the list of applicants who will get an offer of admission, we will divide any available funding amongst the applicants. In the past few years, we have been able to provide some scholarship funding to all applicants, and we hope to do so in the future, but available funding changes every year.  Equity along with GPA is a consideration for this funding.  For applicants whose last 10 credits are 80% and above, you may want to consider applying for an External Award such as OGS (Ontario Graduate Scholarship), or Tri-Council Funding (SSHRC or CIHR).  You apply for these awards in the fall of the year before you intend to begin your full-time studies.  More information is at https://graduate.carleton.ca/financial-assistance/external-awards/ and https://gradstudents.carleton.ca/awards-and-funding/external-awards/

We do not keep a list of approved courses because there are too many to evaluate. Generally speaking – if you took a university course with “Research Methods or Qualitative” or “Statistics or Quantitative” in the titles, then there is a good chance the course would meet the requirements.

Yes, you can still apply, and if the admissions committee decides they would like to make you an offer of admission, it would be conditional upon completion of one of these courses before program start in September.
If you need to take a Research Methods or Statistics course, consider taking Carleton’s SOWK 3001 – Intro to Research Methods in Social Work or SOWK 3002 – Intro to Statistical Analysis in Social Work. They are usually offered online as well as in-class.
If you are not a Carleton student already, you’ll need to become one in order to register https://carleton.ca/registrar/non-degree-students/special-students/

Please refer to the guidelines for minimum admission requirements of relevant country.

We received 57 applications from International applicants for fall 2026 admissions cycle, and we might make 1 or 2 unfunded offers of admission if ranked among the highest in the pool of all applications.

The language of instruction at Carleton is English. If English is not your first language, you will need to demonstrate that your knowledge and use of English are strong enough for graduate studies.  The School of Social Work follows the ESL requirements outlined https://graduate.carleton.ca/international/english-second-language/ We do not require any further qualifiers.