Congratulations on earning your MSW from San Diego State University School of Social Work. Here's what comes next.

About San Diego State University School of Social Work's MSW Program

San Diego State University School of Social Work is located in San Diego, California. The MSW runs 2 years (60 units); 1-year advanced standing (MSW-ASP) in length. It holds CSWE accreditation. Its clinical/direct-practice track is "Direct Practice/Clinical Advanced Specialization," the concentration most relevant to the LCSW path.

• The 60-unit MSW is organized around two distinct method concentrations — Direct Practice/Clinical or Administration and Community Development — crossed with focus areas in Mental Health, Children/Youth/Families, and Health/Aging
• Field education runs two distinct agency placements totaling about 1,050 hours: a generalist foundation year at roughly 16 hours/week and an advanced year tied to the chosen concentration at 20 hours/week, at different agencies under different field instructors
• Distinctively oriented toward the US–Mexico border region and Tribal/Indigenous communities, with flexible 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-year plans including a one-year Advanced Standing Program for BSW graduates

SDSU's MSW is a campus-based program rooted in San Diego, California. It offers a one-year advanced-standing track for recent BSW graduates, who reach ASW registration sooner. Students aiming for the LCSW most often pursue the "Direct Practice/Clinical Advanced Specialization" concentration, the clearest clinical, direct-practice route within the program. During the program, field placements are coordinated through IPT (Intern Placement Tracking) — a tool for your school's CSWE field education, not for BBS licensure tracking.

What Changes After You Graduate from SDSU

Throughout your MSW, your program's field-education office handled the tracking that mattered. Your supervised placements, learning agreements, and hour logs lived inside IPT (Intern Placement Tracking), the field-education platform SDSU uses, because CSWE accreditation, not the BBS, governed your field education. That system existed to satisfy your program and your accreditor, and it did its job.

Once your degree is conferred and you register as an Associate Clinical Social Worker, a different rulebook takes over. The California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) now defines what counts, how it's categorized, and how it must be documented. From that day forward you are responsible for:

• Post-degree hours only — the supervised-experience clock starts at ASW registration, not before.
• The BBS A/B/C categories — hours logged and totaled the way the BBS defines them, not the way your field platform did.
• The 750-hour psychotherapy sub-minimum — face-to-face individual or group psychotherapy, tracked within your clinical total.
• The 1,700-hour / 13-week LCSW-supervisor rule — a specific portion of your supervision must come from a licensed LCSW.
• The 104-week / 52-week minimums — at least 104 weeks of supervised experience, including at least 52 weeks of individual or triadic supervision.
• The official BBS forms — the ASW Weekly Log of Experience Hours and, at the end, the LCSW In-State Experience Verification.

Your BBS Licensure Path: LCSW

For SDSU graduates, California's LCSW pathway is built entirely on post-degree experience — none of it overlaps the field hours you completed during your MSW. After you register as an ASW, you'll accrue 3,000 supervised hours over a minimum of 104 weeks. Of those 3,000, at least 2,000 must be clinical psychosocial diagnosis, assessment, and treatment — and within that clinical work, at least 750 hours must be face-to-face individual or group psychotherapy. Non-clinical hours (case management, documentation, program development) are capped at 1,000. You'll also need at least 52 of your 104 weeks to include individual or triadic supervision.

One requirement is distinctive to clinical social work: at least 1,700 of your 3,000 hours, spread across at least 13 weeks, must be supervised by a licensed LCSW. The remainder may be supervised by other BBS-qualified licensees under the Board's rules, but the LCSW-supervised portion is non-negotiable — so confirm your supervision plan early. For a full breakdown, see How to Track LCSW Hours in California.

A Note for SDSU Title IV-E Stipend Recipients

Many SDSU MSW graduates receive a CalSWEC Title IV-E child-welfare stipend and go on to public child-welfare positions after graduation. That employment can generate BBS-countable supervised hours toward your LCSW — but only when the work is clinical in nature and supervised by a BBS-qualified supervisor. Because at least 1,700 hours must be supervised by an LCSW, confirm with your agency early that it can provide LCSW supervision for that portion of your experience. When in doubt, check your specific arrangement against current BBS requirements before assuming hours will count.

SDSU: SDSU's CalSWEC Title IV-E Education Program supports full-time MSW students specializing in public child welfare, with a post-graduation obligation of two years of full-time employment in a California county or state public child welfare agency.

HourJourney for SDSU MSW Graduates

HourJourney is built for the California associate phase — the exact phase SDSU MSW graduates enter after registering as an ASW. Every BBS requirement is baked in: A/B/C categorization with auto-calculated Column C, the 750-hour psychotherapy sub-minimum, the 1,700-hour / 13-week LCSW-supervisor rule, 104-week and 52-week supervision tracking, and one-click generation of the ASW Weekly Log of Experience Hours and the LCSW In-State Experience Verification.

As an ASW you're an associate from day one, so it's $7.95/month (or $79/year) — there's no separate pre-degree tier, because clinical social work has no pre-degree phase. 30-day free trial.

FAQ: SDSU MSW Graduates & LCSW Licensure

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