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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 102 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Social Work Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 5,287 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
Your choice of social work for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality social work program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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 bachelor'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 bachelor'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 bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Social Work Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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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Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Social Work in the Southeast Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in social work. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
20 Top Southeast Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Social Work
The University of Tennessee - Knoxville is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in social work. UT Knoxville is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Knoxville.
Those social work students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Tennessee - Knoxville make $4,428 more than the average social work graduate.
Virginia Commonwealth University is a good option for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in social work. VCU is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Richmond.
After graduating, social work bachelor's recipients usually make an average of $34,088 in the first five years of their career.
University of Kentucky is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in social work. Located in the large city of Lexington, UK is a public university with a very large student population.
Those social work students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Kentucky make $3,010 more than the average social work grad.
It is difficult to beat University of Central Florida if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in social work. Located in the large suburb of Orlando, UCF is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the social work major at University of Central Florida earn $2,056 more than the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Boca Raton, FAU is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the social work program at Florida Atlantic University earn $6,610 above the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the suburb of Miami, FIU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those social work students who get their bachelor's degree from Florida International University receive $8,324 more than the standard social work grad.
Located in the city of Tampa, USF Tampa is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those social work students who get their bachelor's degree from University of South Florida - Main Campus make $4,156 more than the standard social work student.
Located in the large city of Raleigh, NC State is a public university with a very large student population.
Those social work students who get their bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University earn $2,183 more than the typical social work graduate.
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Honorable Mentions
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Social Work Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region award.
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).
Your choice of social work for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality social work program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
