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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 3 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Arkansas ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 175 master's degrees in social work to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Social Work School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of social work for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. 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 make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to social work students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other social work students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt social work students go into to obtain their master's 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 master's degree.
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 Arkansas.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Social Work in Arkansas
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in social work.
Top Arkansas Schools for a Master's in Social Work
Every student who is interested in a master's degree in social work has to look into University of Arkansas. Located in the small city of Fayetteville, UARK is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the social work program earn an average of $52,499 in the first couple years of working.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in social work. UA Little Rock is a moderately-sized public university located in the midsize city of Little Rock.
Master's students who receive their degree from the social work program make about $52,010 in the first couple years of working.
Arkansas State University - Main Campus is a wonderful option for students interested in a master's degree in social work. A-State is a large public university located in the city of Jonesboro.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the social work program earn around $51,220 for their early career.
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).