2024 Best Social Work Schools in the Great Lakes Region
81Colleges in the Great Lakes Region
10,126Social Work Degrees Awarded
Social Work is of the hottest degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #9 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 81 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for social work students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 10,126 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. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for social work schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.
The social work school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Social Work Schools in the Great Lakes Region.
You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Social Work in the Great Lakes Region
The schools below may not offer all types of social work degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer. 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 look into University of Chicago. Located in the large city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #2 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UChicago is a great university overall.
There were about 175 social work students who graduated with this degree at UChicago in the most recent year we have data available.
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in social work. U-M is a fairly large public university located in the city of Ann Arbor. A Best Colleges rank of #29 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.
There were roughly 403 social work students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent year we have data available.
University of Wisconsin - Madison is a wonderful option for students pursuing a degree in social work. Located in the city of Madison, UW - Madison is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #30 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UW - Madison is a great university overall.
There were roughly 208 social work students who graduated with this degree at UW - Madison in the most recent year we have data available.
Ohio State University - Main Campus is a great option for students interested in a degree in social work. Ohio State is a very large public university located in the city of Columbus. A Best Colleges rank of #69 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Ohio State is a great university overall.
There were about 526 social work students who graduated with this degree at Ohio State in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #34 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were roughly 226 social work students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year.
Located in the city of Chicago, Loyola Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #137 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Loyola Chicago is a great university overall.
There were approximately 317 social work students who graduated with this degree at Loyola Chicago in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Indianapolis, IUPUI is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 7th out of 42 schools for overall quality in the state of Indiana.
There were about 617 social work students who graduated with this degree at IUPUI in the most recent year we have data available.
Case Western is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Cleveland. A Best Colleges rank of #63 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Case Western is a great university overall.
There were about 202 social work students who graduated with this degree at Case Western in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the large suburb of Aurora, Aurora is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. This university ranks 15th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were approximately 712 social work students who graduated with this degree at Aurora in the most recent year we have data available.
UIC is a very large public university located in the large city of Chicago. A Best Colleges rank of #192 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means UIC is a great university overall.
There were approximately 251 social work students who graduated with this degree at UIC in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the city of Eau Claire, UW - Eau Claire is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 5th out of 46 colleges for overall quality in the state of Wisconsin.
There were approximately 108 social work students who graduated with this degree at UW - Eau Claire in the most recent data year.
Located in the small city of East Lansing, Michigan State is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #74 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means Michigan State is a great university overall.
There were about 76 social work students who graduated with this degree at Michigan State in the most recent data year.
Here are some additional great schools for Social Work students in the Great Lakes Region that almost earned our Best Social Work Schools in the Great Lakes 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.
college factual
Your choice of social work school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for social work schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.
