Advising Team Updates

Registration Edition

Summer & Fall 2025

Please read carefully and thoroughly!! 

As always, if you have questions, please connect with your Advisor (contact information listed below). Please check in with your fellow classmates to make sure that they know this information too! Share the love!

**Be sure to move courses from your “cart” into your registered courses.**

Course Curriculum

• Use your Course Curriculum (Regular/Advanced Standing, Full-time/Part-time, Clinical/OCL) plan, linked below to determine which courses you need for a given semester.



• You are guaranteed a seat in required courses for your program option curriculum.

Course Curriculum Plans

Current Course PDFs



• Use the Current Courses PDFs to find sections that are available for your program option (East Lansing, Statewide Blended) for required courses. They are found on the website below and linked directly below.

• Electives are included on these PDFs and are open to all program options.

• If there are multiple sections assigned to your program option, these are on a first come, first served basis.

• Remember – the waitlists are not active, and not utilized. Please do not put your name on the waitlist with the expectation of a seat if/when it comes available.

Current Courses Webpage

Summer 2025 Current Courses

Fall 2025 Current Courses

Electives

• All electives are on a first come, first served basis.

• Regular program requires at least 6 credits of electives to meet graduation requirements.

• Advanced Standing requires at least 10 credits of electives to meet graduation requirements

• OCL concentration requires an additional 3 OCL focused elective credits. (Regular students = 9 credits total; Advanced Standing = 13 credits total). This must be from the approved list, included below.

• Elective courses from other departments at MSU can be used to count for graduation requirements (MUST be 400+ level ). You may need to get approval from that department. Please reach out to that department for this request. A list of suggested options is included below.

Clinical Elective OPTIONS

OCL REQUIRED Elective

Override Requests

• Overrides (form linked below) are granted only for required courses in which ALL sections are full or error messages as below.
• They are processed by the Grad Office, typically within 5-7 business days. You will be enrolled by the office in order received (first come, first served).
• Override forms can be submitted on or after 3/17/25. Any submissions received prior will NOT be processed.
• By completing the Override Request form, you are giving permission to the Graduate Office to enroll you in the course. All expectations of enrollment (payment, participation, etc.) apply. Please keep checking your student record to see if you are given a seat in the class, and/or if you need to enroll in something else.

Error Messages

ADVANCED STANDING STUDENTS

You will receive an error message that you have not met the pre-requisites for the following courses:

• Summer: SW 843
• Fall: SW 830
• SW 845
• SW 850
• SW 894D

You will need to complete the override form for these courses. This has nothing to do with your programming, but rather is an issue in the system that has not been resolved as of yet. Please follow your curriculum guide (per your program/option).

ELECTIVE COURSES

The system is a bit finicky, so some of you may be able to self-enroll in 400-level courses (electives), while others may not be able to. If the system indicates an error (ex. “this course is outside of your study area”), you will need to submit an override request.

If it is a Social Work course, use the form linked below. Otherwise, contact the offering department and follow their process for overrides.

Student Request Form (Including Overrides)

As you know, the University already opened registration for Summer Registration. If you are interested in taking a class outside of the School of SW (elective), you can enroll in that now.

Due to the School of SW’s internal processes, summer registration for Social Work courses opens March 17. Students can begin registering for those courses starting 3/17 at 9 a.m.

If you have questions regarding what you are expected to take (core courses) and/or opting to take (alternate programming or electives), please reach out to your Advisor to confirm.

Enrollment by appointment for Fall 2025 starts on March 17. 

Remember, the word “appointment” in this case does not mean that you need to make an appointment with anyone to enroll. This just indicates which day on which you are able to begin registering. 

You can check your appointment date in SIS. It will be on the right, bottom corner of the home page in your record. Open enrollment for all students begins on 3/31.

 If you have any questions or need any information clarified, please contact your Academic Advisor.

The MSW Advising Team,

Kelly Fornwalt – Asst Program Director & Statewide Blended Advisor - fornwalt@msu.edu

Jen Scholes – East Lansing Advisor - warrenj7@msu.edu

Michigan State University

655 Auditorium Road

East Lansing, MI 48824

(517) 355-1855