2025 Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Washington

Social Work is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #3 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual reviewed 3 schools in Washington to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of social work. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 381 master's degrees in social work during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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

Your choice of social work for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to social work students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other social work students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How much debt social work students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• 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 colleges for social work students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The social work school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Washington.

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

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in social work.

Top Washington Schools for a Master's in Social Work

1

University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Seattle, WA

135 Annual Graduates

$61,696 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat University of Washington - Seattle Campus if you wish to pursue a master's degree in social work. Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population.

Those social work students who get their master's degree from University of Washington - Seattle Campus receive $2,605 more than the typical social work grad.

More information about a master’s in social work from University of Washington - Seattle Campus

2

Eastern Washington University
Cheney, WA

100 Annual Graduates

$57,493 Median Starting Salary

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in social work needs to take a look at Eastern Washington University. Located in the fringe town of Cheney, EWU is a public university with a large student population.

Soon after graduation, social work master's recipients usually make about $57,493 in the first five years of their career.

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

3

University of Washington - Tacoma Campus
Tacoma, WA

47 Annual Graduates

$61,696 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat University of Washington - Tacoma Campus if you want to pursue a master's degree in social work. UW Tacoma is a small public university located in the city of Tacoma.

Those social work students who get their master's degree from University of Washington - Tacoma Campus make $2,605 more than the average social work student.

More information about a master’s in social work from University of Washington - Tacoma Campus

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
Oregon	158	304
Nevada	105	235
Hawaii	85	95
Alaska	52	27

View All Rankings >

Social Work Related Rankings by Major

Social Work is one of 0 different types of <nil> programs to choose from.

Social Work Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Social Work	340
Other Social Work	41

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.