Social Work is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #66 most popular associate degree program in the country. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual reviewed 3 schools in the Middle Atlantic Region to determine which ones were the best for associate degree seekers in the field of social work. Combined, these schools handed out 299 associate degrees in social work to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Social Work School for Your Associate Degree
The social work associate 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
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To account for this we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of associate graduates during the early years of their career. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their associate 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 - How many other social work students want to attend this school to pursue a associate degree.
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 much debt social work students go into to obtain their associate 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 full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for social work students working on their associate degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Social Work Associate Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Social Work in the Middle Atlantic Region
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for social work students seeking a an associate degree.
Top Middle Atlantic Region Schools for an Associate in Social Work
Camden County College is one of the best schools in the United States for getting an associate degree in social work. Camden County College is a moderately-sized public college located in the suburb of Blackwood.
Those social work students who get their associate degree from Camden County College make $3,840 more than the typical social work student.
Passaic County Community College is one of the best schools in the country for getting an associate degree in social work. Located in the suburb of Paterson, PCCC is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
After graduating, social work associate recipients usually earn about $25,337 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).