Curriculum

The NYU Silver School of Social Work’s curriculum is grounded in the liberal arts tradition of empowering students and preparing them to manage complexity, diversity, and change. NYU Silver is committed to a person-in-environment approach with a liberal arts foundation, which broadens and deepens the student’s perspective and is an important basis for understanding human nature and society. 

All social work majors complete 64 credits in their major as well as an additional 64 in their Liberal Arts Core classes.

Liberal Arts (64 credits)

Social work education at NYU Silver encompasses a core set of classes that enhance the student’s experience and growth as a generalist practice social work professional. The program’s liberal arts foundation broadens the student’s perspective and is fundamental to the basic understanding of social work. Students can take classes at the College of Arts and Science, NYU Steinhardt, and other approved schools to satisfy the University's liberal arts requirements for the Bachelor of Science degree. Liberal arts courses provide an essential foundation for the social work major, including 20 credit hours that make up the core classes: two writing courses, sociology, psychology, and biology, along with an additional 44 credit hour classes in humanities, social sciences, and electives. The majority of these are taken prior to junior and senior year.

Core Classes

Humanities

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Unrestricted Electives

Social Work Major Credits (64)

Courses in the social work major core are designed to prepare students to be general practice social workers by giving them an interdisciplinary education, a deeper understanding of human relationships, and the tools to work in any system, while maintaining the core ethical values of the field.

Courses in social work practice are closely integrated with supervised social agency experience so that the student has the opportunity to apply in practice the knowledge and skills learned in the classroom. Students can start their practicum education as early as their Junior year.

Social Work Required Courses