2023 Best Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools
Finding the Best Social Work Doctor's Degree School for You
In 2020-2021, 58,326 people earned a degree or certificate in social work, making the major the #13 most popular in the United States.
Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.
The Best Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools ranking is one of many tools that Course Advisor has developed to help you make your educational decision. Our analysis looked at 69 schools in the United States to see which doctor's degree programs offered the best educational experiences for students. To come up with a school's ranking, we analyzed numerous factors related to post-graduation wages, the quality of education offered by the school, average accumulated student debt, and more.
View our full ranking methodology.
2023 Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools in the United States
Check out the social work doctor's degree programs at these schools if you want to get the best education that money can buy.
Top 10 Best Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools
Our 2023 rankings named University of California - Berkeley the best school in the United States for social work students working on their doctor’s degree. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public school located in the midsize city of Berkeley.
Full Social Work at University of California - Berkeley Report
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The excellent doctor’s degree programs at University of Southern California helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best social work schools in the United States. Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.
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The excellent doctor’s degree programs at University of Pennsylvania helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best social work schools in the United States. UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Philadelphia.
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The excellent doctor’s degree programs at Capella University helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best social work schools in the United States. Located in the large city of Minneapolis, Capella University is a private for-profit school with a fairly large student population.
Full Social Work at Capella University Report
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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Los Angeles. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list. UCLA is a fairly large public school located in the city of Los Angeles.
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University of St Thomas Minnesota ranked #6 on this year’s Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the large city of Saint Paul, UST MN is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population.
Full Social Work at University of St Thomas Minnesota Report
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With a ranking of #7, New York University did quite well on this year’s best schools for social work students working on their doctor’s degree. NYU is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the city of New York.
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University of Chicago came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.
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The University of Texas at Austin ranked #9 on this year’s Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list. UT Austin is a fairly large public school located in the city of Austin.
Full Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin Report
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With a ranking of #10, University of Washington - Seattle Campus did quite well on this year’s best schools for social work students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public school with a very large student population.
Read full report on Social Work at University of Washington - Seattle Campus
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These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools award.
| Rank | College | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Champaign, IL |
| 12 | Smith College | Northampton, MA |
| 13 | University of Minnesota - Twin Cities | Minneapolis, MN |
Social Work by Region
View the Best Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.
| Region |
|---|
| Southeast |
| New England |
| Rocky Mountains |
| Plains States |
| Middle Atlantic |
| Far Western US |
| Southwest |
| Great Lakes |
More Social Work Rankings
Rankings in Majors Related to Social Work
Social Work is one of 5 different types of programs to choose from.
Majors Similar to Social Work
| Related Major | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| Public Administration | 16,905 |
| Human Services | 13,238 |
| Public Policy | 6,430 |
| Community Organization & Advocacy | 3,096 |
| Other Public Administration | 588 |
Notes and References
*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.
- Read more about our ranking methodology.
- The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
- Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
- Credit for the banner image above goes to Army Medicine.
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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