The school offers an advanced standing M.S.W. program for students who have earned a baccalaureate degree in social work from an undergraduate social work program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. 

Students with foreign degrees, with the one exception of graduates with baccalaureate degrees accredited by the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW), cannot be considered for advanced standing and must complete the full program.

Students who are admitted as advanced standing students enter in the summer semester with a provisional admission, where they will be required to successfully complete 9 credits with a 3.0 grade-point average or better in preparation for beginning work as second-year students in the fall semester. In addition to coursework, advanced standing students are required to begin a field placement for 21 hours per week for 10 weeks during the Summer Session.

Also, prior to beginning the second-year advanced program, advanced standing students must have completed an introductory statistics course covering descriptive and basic inferential statistical procedures.

In the fall semester, these students are considered second-year students in the advanced program. They are required to take the course of study associated with their concentration choice in keeping with those available in the advanced program.

Only after successful completion of the professional foundation courses can students begin the advanced curriculum. Students must select a concentration.