Earn your MSW degree in a top-ranked hybrid program
Our innovative hybrid structure combines the best of in-person classroom and online learning in Worcester, Mass., and is designed with working professionals and adult learners in mind. Balance work and family life while advancing your career with a valuable MSW degree. Guided by world-renowned BU faculty who are accessible and supportive, you’ll expand your social work knowledge through our challenging, evidence-based curriculum.
What makes the Worcester Hybrid Program right for you?
Designed to fit your busy schedule
Enjoy a part-time pace where you take one class at a time over seven weeks and two classes per semester, allowing you to focus on a single topic and fully immerse yourself in the material.
Be part of small, intimate classes with no more than 15-25 students per course section and take classes with the same student group (cohort), building supportive connections with your peers while learning from their lived experiences; then shift to online courses for greater flexibility during your practicum.
You’ll have one-on-one professional advising from our staff to help you find a field placement close to you.
More than half of our students find a job through their practicum placements.
Our curriculum emphasizes ethics, populations-at-risk, and social and economic justice, which are integrated throughout your foundation courses and advanced elective courses.
Semesters 1-4: you’ll attend classes in-person in Worcester on Tuesdays (4-9 pm) where you will build a strong peer community and receive individualized attention from faculty and staff.
Semesters 5-9: you’ll shift to online classes and continue to be supported by the dedicated Worcester program team for academics and practicum placements.
Complete 1 or 2 placements (depending upon your track) within or near your geographic area in Central Mass.
Foundational courses include Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Racial Justice, Social Welfare Policy, Social Work Research, Social Work Practice with Groups, Communities and Organizations: Analysis and Intervention, and Social Work Practice Ethics.
The instructors for all of your courses are part of the BUSSW faculty and are committed to providing leadership, mentorship, and sharing their expertise and current research initiatives.
Visit the BU Bulletin for more detailed information on courses and requirements.
Cohort Learning Model
You’ll participate in a part-time cohort model, a student-centered shared learning experience designed for working professionals who want to advance in their careers or change careers entirely. You’ll take all of your foundational classes as a tight-knit group, developing strong collegial relationships that can last a lifetime.
Your fellow students are often successful professionals already employed in social work-related positions or other diverse fields, such as business or education. Others may bring rich life experience as parents or the fresh thinking of a recent undergraduate. Those varied perspectives make the classroom experience a rich and robust one.
You’ll also build a local network of professional relationships that will benefit you as you seek career development and professional advancement.
The Online Learning Community
The online portion of your MSW program takes place semesters 5-9.
Coursework can be accessed online anytime, day or night.
You’ll attend weekly, required Live Classroom sessions held on Sunday or Monday evenings for 1 to 1.5 hours a week.
You’ll register for these sessions in advance.
You’ll interact with our faculty and other students through a user-friendly, web-based learning portal that provides a rich learning experience that includes:
Online lectures
Simulations
Videos
Audio
Interactive animations
Discussion boards
Weekly Live Classroom sessions with your cohort
Our faculty and staff are available and committed to providing you with a high-quality online educational experience.
I am able to get a degree from an incredible school while still living in Worcester – a city that I love dearly and which has a very high need for social workers.
Once you are enrolled in one track, you are not able to switch to another track. Please note, if you are you interested in the Advanced Standing Track, it is only offered through our Online and On-Campus Programs.
Traditional Track
2 field internships, totaling 14 credits
Year One: Foundation theory courses
Year Two: Foundation methods courses in combination with a foundation year field internship
Human Service Experience Track
A single extended advanced field internship for students with 2+ years of supervised human services experience plus a capstone project, totaling 14 credits
Year One: Foundation theory courses
Year Two: Foundation methods courses in combination with the start of an advanced field internship
Year Three: Advanced curriculum courses while completing your field experience and a capstone project
The best part is that most of these students have grown up in the Worcester area. They know the community; they know the systems.
News about our off-campus locations in Bedford, Fall River and Cape Cod
For 40 years, we brought the BU School of Social Work MSW program to students throughout Massachusetts in a part-time format designed to fit a working adult’s busy schedule in satellite locations in Bedford, Fall River and Cape Cod.
Unfortunately, due to significant changes in the higher education landscape, declining enrollments in these locations, and the increasing preference for online education, will not be accepting new applications as of Fall 2025 for those locations. We are proud of the community impact and partnerships we created for more than 3 decades and will continue those connections through our local field/practicum internships. We are grateful to everyone involved in creating and maintaining these small cohorts throughout Mass.
Local students can still get all the benefits of our top-ranked MSW curriculum from our thriving Worcester Hybrid Program, Charles River/Boston in-person program, and national online program.
