If you pursue a bachelor's degree in social work, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #24 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 27 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Social Work Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 2,193 bachelor's degrees in social work to qualified students.
DEBUG: Checking offer "BSW - Social Work (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "BSW - Social Work (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "DSW - Social Work (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "DSW - Social Work (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "MSW - Social Work (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "MSW - Social Work (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "PhD - Social Work (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "PhD - Social Work (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Doctorate Programs (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Doctorate Programs (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Masters Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Social Work & Social Sciences Masters Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Sociology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Sociology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 7
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 7 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 7
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 7 offers with relevance >= 1.0
Choosing a Great Social Work School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The social work bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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 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 bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor'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 bachelor'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 bachelor'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 bachelor's degree.
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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list to help you make the college decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "social-services-public-administration//social-work"
It's difficult to beat University of California - Berkeley if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in social work. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Berkeley.
Bachelor's recipients from the social work major at University of California - Berkeley make $5,644 more than the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in social work needs to look into University of Washington - Seattle Campus. Located in the large city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population.
After graduating, social work bachelor's recipients typically earn an average of $40,969 at the beginning of their careers.
San Diego State University is a good option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in social work. SDSU is a fairly large public university located in the large city of San Diego.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the social work program report average early career wages of $36,916.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in social work has to take a look at California State University - Sacramento. Located in the large city of Sacramento, Sac State is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the social work program earn around $37,290 for their early career.
Portland State University is a very large public university located in the large city of Portland.
Bachelor's recipients from the social work program at Portland State University make $2,332 above the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
CSULB is a very large public university located in the city of Long Beach.
Those social work students who get their bachelor's degree from California State University - Long Beach earn $3,663 more than the typical social work graduate.
UNLV is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Las Vegas.
Bachelor's recipients from the social work major at University of Nevada - Las Vegas make $5,165 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
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 bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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:
