2025 Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Oregon

If you pursue a master's degree in social work, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #3 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.

College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Oregon ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 358 master's degrees in social work to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Social Work School for Your Master's Degree

The social work master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality social work program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on social work students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of social work students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for social work to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized social work related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for social work students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Social Work Schools

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Oregon list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Social Work in Oregon

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in social work.

Top Oregon Schools for a Master's in Social Work

1

Portland State University
Portland, OR

290 Annual Graduates

$57,241 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat Portland State University if you want to pursue a master's degree in social work. Located in the large city of Portland, Portland State University is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the social work program make an average of $57,241 in the first couple years of their career.

More information about a master’s in social work from Portland State University

2

George Fox University
Newberg, OR

34 Annual Graduates

$57,299 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat George Fox University if you want to pursue a master's degree in social work. GFU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the fringe town of Newberg.

After graduating, social work master's recipients usually make about $57,299 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a master’s in social work from George Fox University

3

Pacific University
Forest Grove, OR

34 Annual Graduates

$51,507 Median Starting Salary

Pacific University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in social work. Pacific is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Forest Grove.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the social work program earn about $51,507 for their early career.

More information about a master’s in social work from Pacific University

Best Social Work Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Social Work Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
California	253	3,075
Washington	183	398
Nevada	105	235
Hawaii	85	95
Alaska	52	27

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Social Work

One of 0 majors within the <nil> area of study, Social Work has other similar majors worth exploring.

Social Work Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Social Work	358

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• 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.