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 reviewed 8 schools in Pennsylvania to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of social work. Combined, these schools handed out 1,381 master's degrees in social work to qualified students.
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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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 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
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 complete 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.
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 Pennsylvania.
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Widener University is a good choice for students interested in a master's degree in social work. Widener is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Chester.
Master's recipients from the social work major at Widener University make $4,859 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Temple University is a great decision for individuals pursuing a master's degree in social work. Located in the large city of Philadelphia, Temple is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the social work program make an average of $51,621 in their early career salary.
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in social work. Kutztown University is a medium-sized public university located in the fringe town of Kutztown.
After graduation, social work master's recipients generally make an average of $49,108 at the beginning of their careers.
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).
by our College Data Analytics Team
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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
