Prospective Students at Bloomington

Welcome to the Indiana University School of Social Work on the Bloomington campus.  Our newly designed website is here to provide information and news about our Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree, social work as a career, and resources on the web of interest to social work students and practitioners.  We hope this site is useful to you and look forward to any comments or suggestions you may email to us via the link at the end of the page.

News and Events

Students and faculty from social work programs throughout Indiana will join with social work practitioners for Social Workers Legislation and Advocacy Day (LEAD)  at the State House in Indianapolis.  This event will focus on pending state legislation regarding children and families and will bring a social work perspective to the policy making process.  For ongoing updates about Social Workers LEAD, visit the LEAD website at http://www.iussw.iupui.edu/advocacy/advocacy.html. To get involved in the planning and to join our email list, contact Marion Wagner at the IU School of Social Work in Indianapolis at mwagner@iussw.iupui.edu.

Career Opportunities for Social Workers

The new millennium brings continued growth in job opportunities for social workers.  For several years, U.S. News and World Report has included social work in its top twenty-five fastest growing careers.  Social workers are involved in a number of fields where growth is anticipated to continue including work with older people, people with disabilities, people with addictions, and families and children.  Projections are that there will be over 676,000 social work positions by the year 2005, a 40% increase over employment figures in 1997.  Many of these new positions will be in case management roles with people with disabilities or long-term mental illness.  Such case management positions are ideally filled by BSW graduates.  Starting salaries for BSW graduates vary from region to region, but generally are between $20,000 and $25,000.  MSW social workers generally start between $25,000 and $30,000.  Hospitals and federal positions typically pay more. 

For more information about social work roles and opportunities, a number of websites are useful:

National Association of Social Workers (http://www.socialworkers.org) includes information about the professional association for social workers, membership, job opportunities, publications, and professional news as well as links to social work practice and licensing. 

Council on Social Work Education, the national accrediting body for social work programs (http://www.cswe.org ), includes frequently asked questions about social work education, the new Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards that guides social work education, publications, and links to a wide variety of social work professional organizations.

The New Social Worker Online (http://socialworker.com ), a website for The New Social Worker magazine includes a message board, chat room, job listings, articles from past issues, and links to other social work sites.

About IUB School of Social Work

Part of the system-wide School of Social Work, the BSW program was first accredited by the Council on Social Work Education in 1975.  Five full-time faculty teach on the Bloomington campus.  Currently, the Bloomington BSW program accepts 30-35 students each year into its junior class through a competitive application process.  Some students are also accepted at the end of their freshman year.  The main office for the School of Social Work is located on the Indianapolis campus where, in addition to the BSW degree, students can earn a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree and a Ph.D.