1. Getting Ready to Apply: Admissions Overview
Caitlin Bauer, B.A.
Marketing, Recruiting, Admissions & Advising Specialist

2. Admissions Planning

3. Admissions Dates and Deadlines
The MSW Advanced Standing Program is summer-start only and has one application cycle annually.
The MSW Regular Program is fall-start only and has one application cycle annually.
Applicants should plan on applying the fall and winter before the fall they wish to start.

4. Admissions Dates and Deadlines
The 2019 MSW Admissions Cycle will open on September 4th, 2018
By attending MSW Application Preview Day, you will gain early access to the 2019 MSW Program Application
Application Deadline: January 15th, 2019 at 11:59 PM
Application processing takes weeks after the deadline to complete, applicants will be notified via of their admissions decision.

5. Priority Admission
All materials must be submitted by October 31st, 2018 at 11:59 PM
Applications will be reviewed in advance by the MSW Admissions Committee
Those ranked in the very top of the applicant pool will be granted early admission, granting them a head start on:
Preparing to start the program
Securing a field placement
Registering for classes
All other applicants will have their application rolled forward and will receive their notification in spring 2019, weeks after the application deadline

6. Admissions Eligibility
Regular Program
Advanced Standing Program
Have completed, or will complete, a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university prior to Fall 2019
Have a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher*
Completion of Undergraduate Prerequisite Courses
Submission of all required application materials *having a GPA below 3.0 does not disqualify applicants
Must have one of the following:
A BSW degree from a CSWE accredited program obtained within the last 6 years
A degree recognized through CSWE’s International Social Work Degree Recognition & Evaluation Service
A degree from a program that is covered under a memorandum of understanding with international social work accreditors
Have a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher*
Submission of all required application materials *having a GPA below 3.0 does not disqualify applicants

7. Acceptance Information
Regular Program
Advanced Standing Program
Over the past four application cycles, the MSW Regular Program has an average acceptance rate of 75%
Over the past four application cycles, the MSW Advanced Standing Program has an average acceptance rate of 65%
The blue line shows the number of applications received, the red line shows the number of applicants who were offered admission to the program

8. GPA of Accepted Students
Regular Program
Advanced Standing Program
Over the past four application cycles, on average:
Over the past four application cycles, on average:
While the MSW Program looks for a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher, having a GPA below 3.0 does not disqualify applicants.

9. Application overview and Walkthrough

10. Application Overview Step One: Step Two: Step Three: Step Four:
Create an account and complete the MSW Denver Graduate Application online, including:
Entering 3 References for your Letters of Recommendation
Paying the $50 application fee
Step Two:
Submit Official Transcripts from all colleges and universities attended
Regular Program ONLY: Request Prerequisite Review
Step Three:
Request Application Keycode in order to set-up your Taskstream Account
Step Four:
Create a Taskstream Account
Step Five:
Complete All Forms and Upload Application Materials in Taskstream, including:
Professional History Form (All Applicants)
Admissions Essay (All Applicants)
Case Study (Advanced Standing ONLY)
Certification of Application (All Applicants)
Petition for Advanced Standing (Advanced Standing ONLY)
Optional: Supplemental Items
Applicants will not be able to submit their application without entering three recommenders, completing all required sections, and paying the application fee

11. Step One: Submit Graduate Application
In order to submit, you must:
Complete all required sections
Enter three recommenders
Pay $50 application fee

12. Step One: Submit Graduate Application
Letters of Recommendation:
All recommendations will be submitted via the online system
Do not collect any physical letters
Recommenders should be:
Professional (faculty, supervisors, colleagues)
Able to speak to your academic and/or professional abilities
Able to comment on your potential to succeed in grad school and/or in the field of social work
Recommenders should be professional and not be family, friends, and/or personal therapists. Professional recommenders include faculty and employment/volunteer supervisors. Professional colleagues may serve as adequate recommenders if need be, but use caution that the Admissions Committee highly values faculty and supervisor letters.
After entering your recommender into the system, they will automatically receive an with a link to complete their recommendation via the online system. They will need to upload a written narrative as a Word or PDF document as well as fill out an evaluation form within the system to complete their recommendation.
Each letter of recommendation will be individually evaluated by the Admissions Committee. The committee can only evaluate three recommendations per applicant. Therefore, if you enter more than three recommenders into the system, it is your responsibility to exclude the recommendations you do not want reviewed by the committee prior to the deadline. If you have not excluded any recommendations from review, then our office will take the first three letters submitted for review. In order for your application to be considered complete and eligible for review, you must have three completed recommendations by the application deadline.

13. Step One: Submit Graduate Application
When you click the MSU Denver Graduate Application link on our website, you will be taken to this page. Click on “Create an account”.

14. Step One: Submit Graduate Application
After creating an account, you will be able to start your MSU Denver Graduate Application. First, you will fill out your personal background (name, including any former names – important!, address, contact information, demographics, and emergency contact). Then, you will start filling out information about the program you are applying to. If you select “Yes” for Advanced Standing, you will only be able to select “Summer 2019” as your entry term. If you select “No” for Advanced Standing, you will only be able to select “Fall 2019” as your entry term.

15. Step One: Submit Graduate Application
After submitting the basic program information, you will them submit some MSW Program specific application information, such as enrollment and course delivery options.

16. Step One: Submit Graduate Application
Your next step will be to enter your recommenders. You can always save this application and come back to it at a later time, but you will not be able to submit your application until you enter all three recommenders into the system. Please note: You must enter at least three recommenders, and the committee will only evaluate three recommendations per applicant. Technically, you have the ability to enter more than three recommenders, but it is then your responsibility to log back into your account prior to the deadline to exclude the recommendations you do not want reviewed by the committee.

17. Step One: Submit Graduate Application

18. Step One: Submit Graduate Application
Continue through the application, entering information about your academic history and residency, as well as why you are interested in attending MSU Denver. You will then need to certify your application and type in an electronic signature. You will then be taken to a review page to make sure that you completed everything in the application. If so, you will then be taken to the payment page.
If the application fee is a financial hardship, STOP when you get to this page. with a short statement (3-5 sentences) requesting an application fee waiver. If approved, you will be sent a promo code to enter at the bottom of this page before moving on to the review section that will waive the application fee.

19. Step One: Submit Graduate Application
After submitting your application, at any point in time you can log in to your account to check on the status of your transcripts and recommendations. Please note: our office has to manually mark transcripts as received. Due to the volume of transcripts we receive, it may take 2-4 weeks from when we receive them for them to be marked complete in your account. Transcripts are the one item we allow to arrive after the application deadline, so do not worry if that item is outstanding in your account as long as you submitted them to us.

20. Step Two: Submit Official Transcripts
We can only accept official transcripts
Official transcripts become unofficial when:
Opened by the student (if paper)
Received by the student (if electronic)
Transcripts should be submitted directly to our office
Do not submit any materials to the MSU Denver Office of Admissions
Please see our website for specific instructions if you:
Attended a college or university outside of the United States
Obtained an undergraduate degree from MSU Denver
Previously submitted official transcripts to our office
Electronic transcripts are preferred and should be sent to
For electronic transcripts to be considered official, they must be ed directly to us by the college or university. If you us an electronic copy of your transcripts, even if it was an official copy you requested, it is considered unofficial because we can no longer verify its authenticity.

21. Step Two: Submit Official Transcripts
After you submit transcripts, us to request a Prerequisite Review (Regular Program Applicants ONLY)
MSW Regular Program Prerequisite Requirements:
12 units of course work in social and behavioral science
One course must be centrally organized around American Government (not history)
One course must be centrally organized around contemporary multicultural or diversity issues
3 units of course work in written or oral communication
3 units of course work in arts and humanities
3 units of course work in human/general biology OR 6 units of course work in natural and physical science
3 units of course work in statistics (not research)
We perform prerequisite reviews for all transcripts we receive (where the degree is not social work), but by ing us it will be easier and faster for us to send you your review when complete. Due to the volume of transcripts we receive, it may take up to 4-6 weeks from when your transcripts arrive for us to get them processed and reviewed

22. Step Three: Request Keycode
Click the blue “Request Application Keycode” link under Step Three on our website:
After completing the survey, you will automatically receive an with the keycode and instructions.

23. Step Four: Create Taskstream Account
If you click the Taskstream link on our website, you will be taken to the sign-in page. Click on “Create/Renew Account”.

24. Step Four: Create Taskstream Account
Check “Create a new Taskstream subscription” and then enter the keycode you received via under Option 2. You do not need to pay for your own Taskstream subscription!

25. Step Four: Create Taskstream Account
Make sure to select the correct program (Regular or Advanced Standing) when creating your account, as this is what will enroll you in the application to upload your program specific materials! If you are unsure which program you are eligible for or should be applying to,

26. Step Five Submit Materials in Taskstream
You do not have to complete or upload all materials at once
Make sure to hit “submit” for each piece of the application
Make sure your computer allows for pop-ups, as Taskstream uses these to confirm your submissions

27. Step Five Submit Materials in Taskstream
Regular Program
Advanced Standing Program
Professional History Form
Admissions Essay
Certification of Application
Optional: Supplemental Items
Professional History Form
Admissions Essay
Case Study
Certification of Application
Petition for Advanced Standing
Optional: Supplemental Items
Professional History Form – where you will document your educational, professional, and volunteer history. A professional resume is optional, but this form *must* be filled out
Admissions Essay – prompts will be found on our website. Helps the committee to evaluate your capacity and readiness for graduate education and advanced social work practice. It is 6 pages maximum (not including title and/or references), APA style, and should be uploaded as either a Word or Adobe PDF file. DO NOT upload your essay as a Pages or any other document type, as we will not be able to open it.
Case Study – for Advanced Standing applicants only, reflects your ability to think critically and indicates your level of knowledge about social work. It is 4 pages maximum (not including title and/or references), APA style, and should be uploaded as either a Word or Adobe PDF file. DO NOT upload your essay as a Pages or any other document type, as we will not be able to open it.
Certification of Application – verifying that everything is true to the best of your knowledge and is your own work
Petition for Advanced Standing – if your BSW degree has been earned since June 2013, this is not required. If it was earned from June 2009 to May 2013, you *must* submit the petition for Advanced standing in order for your application to be considered complete. If your degree is older than 6 years old but less than 10, you have to petition the committee to review your eligibility for Advanced Standing by documenting the extent and level of current professional activity and development in the field of social work.
Supplemental Items – these are optional. There is no guarantee that a reviewer will review any uploaded supplemental items. If it is a critical component, we encourage you to refer to the document in your admissions essay.

28. Step Five Submit Materials in Taskstream
When you log into your account, you may have to select the application. If you see one of the two “DRF Programs” shown on this slide when you log in, just click on the blue text to be taken to the actual application.

29. Step Five Submit Materials in Taskstream
Once you are in the application, click on “Application Overview” in the left sidebar to be brought to a screen like this. This is the one for the Regular Program, but the Advanced Standing one looks the same except with the Case Study and Petition added in the sidebar.

30. Step Five Submit Materials in Taskstream
In Taskstream, some elements are forms and some elements you need to upload. If the item is a form built into Taskstream (Certification of Application, Professional History Form, Petition for Advanced Standing), in the “Add” section at the top you will see “Form” which you should click. There will also be a gray box further down the page with another link that you can click to access the form. If it is an item you need to upload (Essay, Case Study), you will see “Attachments” in the “Add” section, which you should click to upload your materials.

31. Step Five Submit Materials in Taskstream
In the form or upload screen, when you are done click “Save and Return”. The first time you do this during a log-in, you will get a pop-up window reminding you to submit your work. You will be taken back to the main work page, and you will see the status is “Work in Progress” and next to that will be a “Submit Work” button. Make sure to click that button. You will then get a pop-up asking you to confirm your submission, to which you need to click “Yes – Submit My Work” to get the item actually submitted into the system.

32. Step Five Submit Materials in Taskstream
At any point in time, you can click the “Scores/Results” tab in the upper left to check the status of your materials. In order for your application to be considered complete, all required materials must have a status of “Submitted”. You will notice that under the “Actions” column, there is the option to “Cancel Submission”. This is only there for the first 48 hours after you submit a form or upload. After that point in time, the submission is locked in to the system and no further changes can be made.
The Supplemental Materials section does not have to have a status of submitted. If you are applying to Advanced Standing and earned your BSW degree since June 2013, the Petition for Advanced Standing does not have to have a status of submitted. However, if your BSW degree was earned between June 2009 and May 2013, you *must* submit the Petition for Advanced Standing in order for your application to be considered complete.

33. Questions?