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Best Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools

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2023 Best Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools

69 Colleges
$68,493 Avg Salary

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 very large public school located in the midsize city of Berkeley.

Full Social Work at University of California - Berkeley Report

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 large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit college with a very large student population.

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#3

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA

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 fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Philadelphia.

Read full report on Social Work at University of Pennsylvania

#4

Capella University

Minneapolis, MN

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 college with a fairly large student population.

Read full report on Social Work at Capella University

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of California - Los Angeles. The school came in at #5 on this year’s 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 landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree social work programs. Located in the city of Saint Paul, UST MN is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.

Full Social Work at University of St Thomas Minnesota Report

#7

New York University

New York, NY

New York University landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree social work programs. NYU is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of New York.

Read full report on Social Work at New York University

#8

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

With a ranking of #8, University of Chicago did quite well on this year’s best schools for social work students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.

Full Social Work at University of Chicago Report

The University of Texas at Austin did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for social work students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #9 on the list. UT Austin is a very large public school located in the city of Austin.

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University of Washington - Seattle Campus ranked #10 on this year’s Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public college with a fairly large student population.

Read full report on Social Work at University of Washington - Seattle Campus

Honorable Mentions

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

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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