Welcome to our school. We are pleased to have you visiting our website and to share some information about our school with you. The School of Social Welfare is a vibrant institution located in the historic capital district of New York State. Our faculty, students, and alumni are distinguished by their excellence and by the impacts they have in many domains. Our faculty, for example, consistently rank in the top five of all schools of social work for their research and scholarship and are ranked second in per capita productivity. Like our faculty, our students and alumni are an impressive force as they pioneer new services, teach and do research in communities across the country and in many other nations.

Our School prepares students as 21st century practitioners and to become effective leaders. The research-rich context in which they learn and serve while studying here helps to equip them to be scholar-change agents.

Because our School is located in a historic region, students have opportunities to practice in leading agencies. Some of these agencies are over 150 years old and have served as the models for programs that are now the policies of the nation. Located just minutes away from policy leaders in state government, the school plays an increasingly pivotal role in its collaborative practices to foster policy relevant research, pilots that can serve as policy exemplars, and blueprints to advance new human services for the 21st century.

Collaborative practices and partnerships are cornerstones of the school and its community building work. Partners are far and wide. They include our neighbors adjacent to the school -- such as an elementary school challenged by poverty -- as well as more distant communities -- such as a community in the region the with one of the largest Latino populations in the state. Community building projects include the distinctive work of many faculty, students, alumni and agencies around gerontological social work and aging friendly communities, improving pathways to higher education for inner city youth and families, family support agendas for the region, and reprofessionalization campaigns in child welfare. Collaboration also includes partnerships with Hallym University in South Korea and multiple partners in South African, South America, Western and Eastern European countries.

Our School has many special features. These include our NIDA funded Child Welfare, Drug Abuse, and Intergenerational Risk (CWDAIR) Research Center. Our distinctiveness in aging centers around our Institute of Gerontology, our Center for Excellence in Aging Services, and our Internshipsin Aging Program. Other special features include our Center for Human Services Research, the Social Work Education Consortium addressing child welfare and welfare workforce development and research, and the T.E.C.H. Center devoted to helping develop the electronic communication capacity of human service agencies.

The School has a proud legacy of fostering innovative educational programs. These include our baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral programs and our joint degree programs.

We hope you will browse our web site to learn more about our faculty, students, alumni, and educational programs and about many of the exciting initiatives in the School of Social Welfare, University at Albany.

We welcome your inquiry about our School. If you would like further information about graduate admissions or forms by mail, please call 518.442.5322 or write: School of Social Welfare, RI-101, 135 Western Ave. Albany, New York 12222