How MSW Programs Are Verified and Ranked

Which Schools Were Checked

The starting list combined every school with a master's program in the CSWE directory of accredited programs (accredited, in candidacy or in pre-candidacy) with every institution that reported master's completions in social work (CIP 44.0701) to the U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS survey for 2022-23. 10 schools no longer offer an MSW and 5 have closed; they are left off the site. 7 schools block automated access to their websites and are being checked by hand.

What Counts as a Program

A program is an MSW path a student applies to: an online MSW and an on-campus MSW count separately when the school runs them separately (their own page, tuition or start dates). Advanced standing is recorded as a track within the program. The site includes the MSW, the MSSW and social work master's under other names that CSWE accredits as the school's master's program, such as the Master of Social Welfare. Counseling, marriage and family therapy, human services and psychology master's are left out.

Program Facts

Format, part-time options, credits, length, advanced standing (credits, length and eligibility), field education hours, specializations, GRE policy, start terms and published tuition come from the school's own program, catalog, admissions and tuition pages. Tuition is shown in the school's own words, with its basis (per credit, per course, per term, per year or total) and year; general graduate rates and cost-of-attendance figures are labeled as such. A detail is left out when the school's pages don't state it.

Estimated Tuition

Where a school publishes both a per-credit rate for the program and the credits it requires, the site multiplies the two and labels the result "estimated tuition". Where the school publishes a program total instead, that total is used. It is tuition only, before fees, books and living costs, and it uses the school's first published rate, which at public schools is usually the in-state rate; lists mark those figures "resident rate". Advanced standing tuition is the same rate times the school's stated advanced standing credits. Per-course, per-term and per-year prices, general graduate rates and cost-of-attendance figures are never turned into an estimate.

How the Ranked Lists Work

Every ranked list states its measure above the list, and the order follows that measure alone. Cost rankings order programs by estimated tuition (or advanced standing tuition), lowest first, one program per school; some lists include only programs at CSWE-accredited schools. The "one rate for every state" list only includes programs whose published rate doesn't change with residency. Size rankings order schools by MSWs awarded in 2022-23 (IPEDS), which describes how established a program is, not its quality. Schools that state admission is paused are left out of rankings. Advertising never affects a ranking.

Accreditation

CSWE status comes from CSWE's directory of accredited programs, captured September 30, 2026 (354 schools on this site are listed as accredited). CSWE accredits a school's MSW program, which covers every format the school offers. Programs in candidacy or pre-candidacy are labeled as such and never shown with the accredited badge. Where CSWE lists a school under a joint program that has since split, the school's own current listing is used. A school's claim of accreditation never overrides CSWE's directory; profiles note such claims.

Licensing

License tiers, exam requirements, supervised experience and independent-practice rules come from each state's social work licensing board or its administrative code (52 jurisdictions checked in September 2026), with a link to the page each fact came from. ASWB's own pages are cited only for what each exam is, and the Social Work Licensure Compact's pages only for membership. Figures are shown in the board's words and never converted (a board that states years is never turned into hours).

City Pages

89 city pages carry over from msw.degree because those pages had visitors from Bing or produced leads. Each lists verified campus and hybrid programs by straight-line distance from the city's center (U.S. Census Gazetteer) to each school's main campus (IPEDS), plus online options and the state license path. They are marked so Google doesn't index them, and they appear only in the sitemap submitted to Bing.

Guides and Program-List Pages

Guides and program-list pages are written from a data file of the site's verified program records plus facts read on official pages (CSWE, ASWB, state boards, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Student Aid and schools' own sites). Each outside fact is recorded with the page it came from and the date it was checked. Automated checks confirm that every dollar figure and percentage traces to those records.

Tools

The MSW cost and loan calculator applies the federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan rules for loans first disbursed from July 1, 2026 ($20,500 a year, $100,000 in total, 8.07% interest), estimates interest while you're in school as simple interest, and compares the payment with BLS median pay. The program matcher filters and scores the verified program records against your answers, the advanced standing checker reads each school's stated eligibility rule, and the license pathway planner lays out each board's steps. All four run in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to the site.

Pay Data

Wages are for the four BLS social worker occupations (SOC 21-1021 child, family and school; 21-1022 healthcare; 21-1023 mental health and substance abuse; 21-1029 all other), from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, with the number of jobs beside each median. BLS doesn't report pay by degree, so pay figures describe the occupation, not MSW graduates as a group.

Who Checks the Site

The site is researched and edited by Taylor Rupe. Program facts and board rules are reviewed at least every six months. Sponsored listings are supplied by advertisers and never affect which programs appear or how they rank. To report an error, use the contact form.