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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 5 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Wisconsin ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 431 master's degrees in social work to qualified students.
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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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Wisconsin ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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It's hard to beat University of Wisconsin - Madison if you wish to pursue a master's degree in social work. UW - Madison is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Madison.
Those social work students who get their master's degree from University of Wisconsin - Madison receive $2,551 more than the average social work graduate.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in social work needs to take a look at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. UWM is a fairly large public university located in the city of Milwaukee.
After graduation, social work master's recipients typically earn about $53,515 in their early careers.
It's difficult to beat University of Wisconsin - Whitewater if you want to pursue a master's degree in social work. Located in the distant town of Whitewater, UW - Whitewater is a public university with a large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the social work program report average early career income of $48,870.
University of Wisconsin - Green Bay is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in social work. Located in the city of Green Bay, UW - Green Bay is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the social work program report average early career wages of $52,985.
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).
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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
