Substitutions may be granted for students wishing to take a graduate-level SW course or a graduate-level course given in another unit of the University as a substitution for a MSW required course. To request a substitution students should complete the Course Substitution Form: https://ssw.umich.edu/assets/course-substitution/?page=form . Students must provide a rationale for the substitution, and how the course being used to substitute will cover the competencies assigned to be measured in that particular course. If a student has questions, they should reach out to a technical advisor or their program manager.

Course substitutions may be an option for students who are denied exemptions for the advanced essential courses (649 and 678) for which exemptions are not available. However, substitutions are not routinely available for pathway required courses. Careful consideration must be given to course substitutions that incorporate competencies from required courses for which a course substitution is suggested.

Students can request to substitute courses outside of the SSW as pathway electives, but it is recommended that they speak with their advisor before submitting the request. Generally other SW courses are not allowed to be substitutes as pathway electives because the pathways have already reviewed and selected the courses they want to include. The only exception is special topics courses, which are only offered by one pathway and may not have been reviewed by the others. If a student is not sure about whether a course can be substituted, they should contact the program director or manager.