Plan to go from Com. Coll. to 4 year BSW?

[Faithr]

So if you have a teen who sometimes talks about going into social work and is probably going to go the route of doing two years at a community college and then transferring, what should his AA be in?  There is no social work AA.  The closest thing they offer is an AA in psychology.  Would that work for him?  Anybody have a clue?

 

Thanks!

[Crimson Wife]

At the community college where I'm doing the Speech & Language Pathology Assistant certificate, they recommend majoring in Sociology for those who want to go into social work. Here are the required courses (the general ed requirements make up the rest of the AA degree):

 

CDEV 021

Child and Adolescent Development

3

COM ST 007

Intercultural Communication

3

PSYCH 001

Introduction to Psychology

3

PSYCH 003

Personal and Social Psychology

3

SOCIO 001A

Introduction to Sociology

3

SOCIO 001B

Problems of a Changing Society

3

SOCIO 027

Gender in Contemporary Society

3

SOCIO 033

Social Inequalities in the United States

3

 

They also offer a 2 semester field practicum that is not technically required for the degree, but I would encourage any child of mine to complete if that was his/her area of interest. Here is the description:

 

This course is designed to provide an opportunity for the student to have guided experiences in one of the following settings: drug and alcohol, mental health, or human service agencies. The student observes professional staff working with clients in public agencies and engages in supervised field experience at a social service or related agency. Two hours in class is required each week to integrate practical experiences with theory learned in social science courses. A minimum of 80 hours of field experience in addition to class schedule is required to receive credit for the course.

 

[G5052]

My advice before even starting at the 2-year is to talk to the targeted 4-year. Some of them are more specific than others. 

 

Locally for transfer into social work, you would get an Associate of Science (A.S.) in General Studies. For science they want biology, and for social science they want one semester of psychology and one of sociology. Other than those specific requirements, it's pretty generic.

 

My son is at the community college and plans to major in accounting at the 4-year, but they're told to get a generic A.S. in Business, only two semesters of accounting. His choices for math and electives are very strict. We were told that if the local CC didn't offer it, he'd have to take it online from a neighboring college if he wanted a straightforward transfer.

[goldberry]

My advice before even starting at the 2-year is to talk to the targeted 4-year. Some of them are more specific than others. 

 

 

 

True!   DD was thinking of doing 2 years at CC and then transferring to the state univ for Bachelor Science Nursing.  The CC offers an associate in nursing, so just get that and transfer, right?  Well, no, the BSN at the university doesn't finish from an associate degree.  To get it, you have to start from their program altogether.  They have a totally separate program if you already have an associate, and that one is mostly online.  Not what DD wanted.  Very confusing!

[Faithr]

Thanks so much!  I searched the community college website for degrees and there was not one listed for social work, however, when I plugged the term into the search function on the site, it came up!!!! Why they don't list it with the other degrees, I don't understand!  But anyway, Crimson Wife you are right that it comes under general ed degree with a social science concentration to get an A.S. Apparently they do not have a sociology A.S.

 

I looked up the transfer agreement between the Comm. Coll. and the 4 year college we have in mind.  The 4 year college lists the subjects that won't transfer (for ex. nursing) but it doesn't list social work.  So it looks like it would transfer.  He'd have to take 24 credits and have at least a B average to transfer.

 

I think if this interest continues, we'll definitely call the admissions office of the 4 year to make sure this is a viable plan.

 

Thanks everyone!

[Faithr]

Oh and the 4 year college also expects two semesters of a modern language at the intermediate level.  So he'd have to study something (probably Spanish) at the Community College.