If you pursue a degree in social work, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #9 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 9 schools in Virginia to determine which ones were the best for degree seekers in the field of social work. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,010 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. For our Best Overall Social Work School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that 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 Virginia.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the social work degree levels they offer.
Virginia Commonwealth University is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a degree in social work. Located in the midsize city of Richmond, VCU is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #240 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means VCU is a great university overall.
There were roughly 307 social work students who graduated with this degree at VCU in the most recent data year.
George Mason University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in social work. GMU is a fairly 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 roughly 128 social work students who graduated with this degree at GMU in the most recent data year.
James Madison University is a great option for students pursuing a degree in social work. JMU is a very large public university located in the city of Harrisonburg. A Best Colleges rank of #169 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means JMU is a great university overall.
There were approximately 57 social work students who graduated with this degree at JMU in the most recent year we have data available.
Liberty University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in social work. Located in the city of Lynchburg, Liberty University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #352 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means Liberty University is a great university overall.
There were roughly 192 social work students who graduated with this degree at Liberty University in the most recent data year.
Radford is a medium-sized public university located in the small suburb of Radford. This university ranks 23rd out of 63 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were approximately 92 social work students who graduated with this degree at Radford in the most recent data year.
CNU is a small public university located in the midsize city of Newport News. This university ranks 17th out of 63 colleges for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were roughly 22 social work students who graduated with this degree at CNU in the most recent year we have data available.
Mary Baldwin is a small private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Staunton. This university ranks 36th out of 63 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were roughly 25 social work students who graduated with this degree at Mary Baldwin in the most recent year we have data available.
Located in the medium-sized city of Norfolk, Norfolk State is a public university with a moderately-sized student population. This university ranks 47th out of 63 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were roughly 91 social work students who graduated with this degree at Norfolk State in the most recent year we have data available.
Virginia State is a small public university located in the suburb of Petersburg. This university ranks 60th out of 63 colleges for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 35 social work students who graduated with this degree at Virginia State in the most recent data year.
Social Work is one of 3 different types of Social Work programs to choose from.
Notes and References
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. For our Best Overall Social Work School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
