Ranked #24 in popularity, social work is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 6 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Social Work Bachelor's Degree Schools in Massachusetts ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 255 bachelor's degrees in social work during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 schools for social work students working on their bachelor'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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in Massachusetts ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
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Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in social work has to check out Simmons University. Simmons is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Boston.
Soon after graduation, social work bachelor's recipients generally make an average of $34,496 at the beginning of their careers.
Bridgewater State University is a great option for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in social work. Bridgewater State is a medium-sized public university located in the suburb of Bridgewater.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the social work program report average early career income of $41,187.
Westfield State University is a good option for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in social work. Located in the suburb of Westfield, Westfield is a public university with a small student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the social work program make about $38,596 for their early career.
Salem State University is a good decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in social work. Located in the suburb of Salem, Salem State is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the social work degree program at Salem State University earn $6,093 above the standard college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
UMass Boston is a fairly large public university located in the city of Boston.
Those social work students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Massachusetts - Boston make $5,870 more than the average social work student.
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
