2024 Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region
Social Work is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #3 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2024 ranking, College Factual looked at 46 schools in the Middle Atlantic Region to determine which ones were the best for social work students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 7,813 master's degrees in social work during the 2020-2021 academic year.
What's on this page: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Social Work School for Your Master's Degree
The social work master's 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
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree 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
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's 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 - The number of social work students who choose to seek a master'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 master's degree.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized social work related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for social work students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Social Work Schools
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 Master's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Social Work in the Middle Atlantic Region
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in social work.
10 Top Middle Atlantic Region Schools for a Master's in Social Work
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in social work has to take a look at Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of New York.
Master's recipients from the social work program at Columbia University in the City of New York earn $5,024 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
More information about a master’s in social work from Columbia University in the City of New York
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in social work needs to look into New York University. NYU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York.
Social Work master's degree recipients from New York University get an earnings boost of around $3,979 above the typical income of social work graduates.
More information about a master’s in social work from New York University
Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in social work needs to check out University of Maryland - Baltimore. UMB is a moderately-sized public university located in the city of Baltimore.
Master's recipients from the social work degree program at University of Maryland - Baltimore earn $3,425 above the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
More information about a master’s in social work from University of Maryland - Baltimore
University of Pennsylvania is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in social work. UPenn is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Philadelphia.
After graduation, social work master's recipients generally earn an average of $45,778 at the beginning of their careers.
More information about a master’s in social work from University of Pennsylvania
Located in the large city of New York, Yeshiva is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Those social work students who get their master's degree from Yeshiva University receive $2,453 more than the standard social work graduate.
More information about a master’s in social work from Yeshiva University
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