2023 Best Value Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools
Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing
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 Value Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools ranking is one of many tools that Course Advisor has developed to help you make your educational decision. This report analyzed 69 schools in the United States to see which ones offered the best value doctor's degree programs for social work students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.
When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.
Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.
Top 10 Best Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools
Our 2023 rankings named Capella University the best value school in the United States for social work students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Minneapolis, Capella University is a private for-profit school with a very large student population.
Capella University graduate students pay an average of $14,784 in tuition and fees each year.
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Out of the 69 schools in the United States that were part of this year’s ranking, Aurora University landed the # 3 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of Aurora, Aurora is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Aurora are $14,100 per year.
On top of its placing in our value ranking, Aurora also did well on our Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.
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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of St Thomas Minnesota. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Best Value Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the city of Saint Paul, UST MN is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at UST MN are $23,736 per year.
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You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of California - Berkeley. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public school located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at UC Berkeley are $29,262 a year.
In addition to its great value ranking, UC Berkeley is in the top 5% of all schools on our Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list.
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Kutztown University of Pennsylvania landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value doctor’s degree social work programs. Kutztown University is a medium-sized public school located in the town of Kutztown.
Kutztown University graduate students pay an average of $16,997 in tuition and fees each year.
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With a ranking of #7, University of California - Los Angeles did quite well on this year’s best value schools for social work students working on their doctor’s degree. UCLA is a fairly large public school located in the large city of Los Angeles.
UCLA graduate students pay an average of $28,138 in tuition and fees each year.
UCLA excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 15% of all schools on our Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list.
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The University of Texas at Austin landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value doctor’s degree social work programs. UT Austin is a very large public school located in the large city of Austin.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at UT Austin are $22,944 per year.
As a testament to the quality of education it offers, UT Austin also is in the top 10% of our Best Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking.
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Millersville University of Pennsylvania ranked #9 on this year’s Best Value Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Millersville is a moderately-sized public school located in the suburb of Millersville.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Millersville are $16,794 a year.
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University of Houston came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Social Work Doctor’s Degree Schools ranking. Located in the city of Houston, UH is a public school with a very large student population.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at UH are $18,871 per year.
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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 Value Social Work Doctor's Degree Schools award.
| Rank | College | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | University of Wisconsin - Madison | Madison, WI |
| 12 | Loyola University Chicago | Chicago, IL |
| 13 | Jackson State University | Jackson, MS |
Social Work by Region
View the Best Value 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 |
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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.
- 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.