2024 Best Social Work Schools in the Southeast Region
111Colleges in the Southeast Region
11,649Social Work Degrees Awarded
$34,366Avg Early-Career Salary
Ranked #13 in popularity, social work is one of the most sought-after 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 111 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Social Work Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 11,649 degrees in social work during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Your choice of social work school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Social Work School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
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 Schools in the Southeast Region list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
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.
Best Schools for Social Work in the Southeast Region
If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the social work degrees they offer, see the list below. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Any student who is interested in social work has to take a look at University of Kentucky. UK is a very large public university located in the city of Lexington. This university ranks 1st out of 38 colleges for overall quality in the state of Kentucky.
There were roughly 346 social work students who graduated with this degree at UK in the most recent data year. Soon after graduation, social work degree recipients typically make around $33,478 in their early careers.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in social work. UNC Chapel Hill is a fairly large public university located in the city of Chapel Hill. A Best Colleges rank of #43 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UNC Chapel Hill is a great university overall.
There were approximately 137 social work students who graduated with this degree at UNC Chapel Hill in the most recent data year. Social Work degree recipients from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill receive an earnings boost of around $9,618 above the typical earnings of social work majors.
Every student pursuing a degree in social work needs to check out Florida Atlantic University. FAU is a fairly large public university located in the city of Boca Raton. This university ranks 13th out of 77 schools for overall quality in the state of Florida.
There were approximately 208 social work students who graduated with this degree at FAU in the most recent data year. After graduating, social work degree recipients usually earn around $31,638 in their early careers.
Florida State University is a good choice for students interested in a degree in social work. Located in the midsize city of Tallahassee, Florida State is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #121 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Florida State is a great university overall.
There were about 101 social work students who graduated with this degree at Florida State in the most recent year we have data available. Graduates who receive their degree from the social work program earn about $34,825 in their early career salary.
Tulane is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New Orleans. A Best Colleges rank of #78 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Tulane is a great university overall.
There were about 160 social work students who graduated with this degree at Tulane in the most recent data year. Social Work degree recipients from Tulane University of Louisiana earn a boost of around $8,127 above the typical income of social work graduates.
Located in the medium-sized city of Athens, UGA is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #72 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UGA is a great university overall.
There were about 240 social work students who graduated with this degree at UGA in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the social work major at University of Georgia get $7,228 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the medium-sized city of Knoxville, UT Knoxville is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #173 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UT Knoxville is a great university overall.
There were approximately 405 social work students who graduated with this degree at UT Knoxville in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the social work program make an average of $35,757 in their early career salary.
Located in the city of Richmond, VCU is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 7th out of 63 colleges for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were approximately 307 social work students who graduated with this degree at VCU in the most recent year we have data available. Social Work degree recipients from Virginia Commonwealth University get an earnings boost of about $4,470 above the average earnings of social work graduates.
FIU is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Miami. A Best Colleges rank of #183 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means FIU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 79 social work students who graduated with this degree at FIU in the most recent year we have data available. After graduating, social work degree recipients usually earn around $36,314 in their early careers.
Located in the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 2nd out of 29 colleges for overall quality in the state of Louisiana.
There were roughly 352 social work students who graduated with this degree at Louisiana State University in the most recent data year. Social Work degree recipients from Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College receive an earnings boost of about $4,666 above the average earnings of social work graduates.
Located in the city of Tuscaloosa, UA is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #139 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UA is a great university overall.
There were about 290 social work students who graduated with this degree at UA in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the social work program earn about $34,555 in the first couple years of their career.
GMU is a very large public university located in the suburb of Fairfax. A Best Colleges rank of #117 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means GMU is a great university overall.
There were approximately 128 social work students who graduated with this degree at GMU in the most recent year we have data available. Those social work students who get their degree from George Mason University earn $8,652 more than the standard social work student.
Located in the small city of Fayetteville, UARK is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 1st out of 34 schools for overall quality in the state of Arkansas.
There were roughly 105 social work students who graduated with this degree at UARK in the most recent data year. Social Work degree recipients from University of Arkansas receive an earnings boost of about $3,651 above the typical income of social work majors.
UofSC is a very large public university located in the city of Columbia. A Best Colleges rank of #152 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UofSC is a great university overall.
There were approximately 193 social work students who graduated with this degree at UofSC in the most recent year we have data available. After graduating, social work degree recipients typically earn an average of $31,638 at the beginning of their careers.
UCF is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Orlando. This university ranks 7th out of 77 schools for overall quality in the state of Florida.
There were roughly 386 social work students who graduated with this degree at UCF in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the social work program report average early career income of $34,449.
Located in the large city of Louisville, UofL is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 2nd out of 38 colleges for overall quality in the state of Kentucky.
There were about 261 social work students who graduated with this degree at UofL in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the social work major at University of Louisville earn $3,078 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
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 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).
Credit for the banner image above goes to Army Medicine.
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Your choice of social work school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Social Work School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
