2025 Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Kentucky
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 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 7 schools in Kentucky 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 1,420 master's degrees in social work during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology
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 complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for social work students working on their master's degree.
One Size Does Not Fit All
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Social Work Master's Degree Schools in Kentucky list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Social Work in Kentucky
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in social work.
Top Kentucky Schools for a Master's in Social Work
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in social work needs to take a look at University of Kentucky. UK is a fairly large public university located in the city of Lexington.
Master's recipients from the social work degree program at University of Kentucky make $2,506 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
More information about a master’s in social work from University of Kentucky
It's difficult to beat University of Louisville if you want to pursue a master's degree in social work. Located in the large city of Louisville, UofL is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduating, social work master's recipients generally earn an average of $46,494 in their early careers.
More information about a master’s in social work from University of Louisville
Eastern Kentucky University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in social work. Eastern is a fairly large public university located in the distant town of Richmond.More information about a master’s in social work from Eastern Kentucky University
Western Kentucky University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in social work. Located in the city of Bowling Green, WKU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
After graduation, social work master's recipients typically earn an average of $44,263 at the beginning of their careers.
More information about a master’s in social work from Western Kentucky University
NKU is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Highland Heights.
Students who graduate with their master's from the social work program state that they receive average early career wages of $47,684.
More information about a master’s in social work from Northern Kentucky University
