Bachelor’s degree · earnings 4 years after completing
Highest-Paying Colleges for Social Work (Bachelor's)
Graduates who complete a bachelor's degree in Social Work earn a median of $51,790 four years after finishing, and the middle half earn between $39,212 and $64,160. We rank the 326 U.S. colleges whose Social Work programs have at least 25 graduates in the Scorecard earnings sample, 25,023 graduates in all. That puts Social Work at #97 of 131 bachelor's degree fields we rank by national median earnings.
CUNY Hunter College, in New York, leads at $70,273, 35% above the median ranked school ($51,969). Most schools are tightly bunched: the middle half of ranked schools earn between $48,775 and $56,115, and the lowest earns $37,656, so outside the leaders the choice of school moves earnings less than the choice of major. 167 of the 326 ranked schools (51%) match or beat the national median.
The top 20 mix sectors: 9 public, 11 private nonprofit and 0 for-profit. California places 6 schools in the top 20, ahead of New York (5).
The top 20 schools cost more than most: a median net price of $20,416 a year, against $16,098 across all 326 ranked schools. Their graduates who borrowed carry a median of $22,000 in federal loans, about 35% of one year of earnings. Measured against a typical high-school graduate in the same state, the median top-20 school recovers its net cost in about 3.4 years.
Showing the top 50 of 326 ranked schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table. † = fewer than 40 graduates in the earnings sample.
| 1 | CUNY Hunter College New York, NY Public · 4-year | $70,273 | 42 | — | $2,984 | 0.3 |
| 2 | La Sierra University Riverside, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $69,244 | 29 † | $35,167 | $45,566 | 5.6 |
| 3 | California State University-San Bernardino San Bernardino, CA Public · 4-year | $69,201 | 71 | $11,000 | $4,564 | 0.6 |
| 4 | San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA Public · 4-year | $68,524 | 29 † | — | $12,278 | 1.6 |
| 5 | California State University-Long Beach Long Beach, CA Public · 4-year | $68,448 | 94 | $11,716 | $10,440 | 1.3 |
| 6 | University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA Public · 4-year | $67,393 | 116 | $13,000 | $13,481 | 1.8 |
| 7 | Fordham University Bronx, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $66,349 | 28 † | $27,000 | $44,338 | 5.8 |
| 8 | Adelphi University Garden City, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $66,162 | 54 | $20,750 | $30,783 | 4.0 |
| 9 | Texas Christian University Fort Worth, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $65,536 | 27 † | $22,500 | $36,660 | 4.8 |
| 10 | Boston University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $63,594 | 39 † | — | $24,402 | 4.3 |
| 11 | Seton Hall University South Orange, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $63,559 | 33 † | $23,783 | $31,446 | 4.7 |
| 12 | Portland State University Portland, OR Public · 4-year | $63,456 | 89 | $23,000 | $9,552 | 1.4 |
| 13 | Simmons University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $62,992 | 31 † | $10,888 | $25,265 | 4.6 |
| 14 | CUNY Lehman College Bronx, NY Public · 4-year | $62,955 | 209 | $14,000 | $3,148 | 0.5 |
| 15 | St Catherine University Saint Paul, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $62,227 | 48 | $28,020 | $19,764 | 3.2 |
| 16 | George Fox University Newberg, OR Private nonprofit · 4-year | $62,201 | 32 † | $21,000 | $31,679 | 5.0 |
| 17 | Fresno Pacific University Fresno, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $61,951 | 86 | $23,750 | $13,630 | 2.2 |
| 18 | Eastern Connecticut State University Willimantic, CT Public · 4-year | $61,908 | 54 | $21,500 | $21,067 | 3.5 |
| 19 | Anna Maria College Paxton, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $61,652 | 26 † | $25,000 | $28,333 | 5.5 |
| 20 | College of Staten Island CUNY Staten Island, NY Public · 4-year | $61,558 | 33 † | — | $5,579 | 0.9 |
| 21 | College of Our Lady of the Elms Chicopee, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,938 | 41 | $28,250 | $17,545 | 3.5 |
| 22 | Syracuse University Syracuse, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,920 | 53 | $26,950 | $38,793 | 6.2 |
| 23 | CUNY York College Jamaica, NY Public · 4-year | $60,820 | 146 | $8,080 | $4,456 | 0.7 |
| 24 | CUNY Medgar Evers College Brooklyn, NY Public · 4-year | $60,755 | 99 | $10,750 | $5,718 | 0.9 |
| 25 | Metropolitan State University Saint Paul, MN Public · 4-year | $60,755 | 76 | $17,698 | $16,863 | 2.9 |
| 26 | Eastern Washington University Cheney, WA Public · 4-year | $60,696 | 106 | $15,768 | $13,886 | 2.8 |
| 27 | University of Nevada-Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV Public · 4-year | $60,344 | 69 | $19,000 | $10,359 | 1.8 |
| 28 | University of Nevada-Reno Reno, NV Public · 4-year | $60,320 | 119 | $19,019 | $15,927 | 2.7 |
| 29 | Siena University Loudonville, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $60,100 | 32 † | $26,000 | $33,733 | 5.5 |
| 30 | Morgan State University Baltimore, MD Public · 4-year | $60,082 | 97 | $31,254 | $14,985 | 2.7 |
| 31 | Salem State University Salem, MA Public · 4-year | $60,026 | 90 | $24,991 | $15,996 | 3.4 |
| 32 | State University of New York at Plattsburgh Plattsburgh, NY Public · 4-year | $59,925 | 50 | $21,515 | $17,156 | 2.8 |
| 33 | The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX Public · 4-year | $59,850 | 83 | $19,125 | $19,857 | 3.2 |
| 34 | University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT Public · 4-year | $59,551 | 71 | $13,903 | $16,200 | 3.1 |
| 35 | California State University-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA Public · 4-year | $59,545 | 295 | $11,000 | $3,967 | 0.7 |
| 36 | Bridgewater State University Bridgewater, MA Public · 4-year | $59,510 | 103 | $25,000 | $16,383 | 3.5 |
| 37 | University at Albany Albany, NY Public · 4-year | $59,475 | 59 | $20,565 | $17,167 | 2.9 |
| 38 | University of Saint Joseph West Hartford, CT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $59,465 | 37 † | $26,500 | $27,989 | 5.1 |
| 39 | Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY Public · 4-year | $59,449 | 81 | $20,098 | $18,784 | 3.2 |
| 40 | Southern Connecticut State University New Haven, CT Public · 4-year | $59,438 | 109 | $22,500 | $20,857 | 3.8 |
| 41 | Long Island University Brookville, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $59,425 | 27 † | — | $33,062 | 5.6 |
| 42 | Central Connecticut State University New Britain, CT Public · 4-year | $59,309 | 95 | $23,250 | $16,857 | 3.1 |
| 43 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA Public · 4-year | $59,256 | 80 | $13,400 | $14,091 | 3.0 |
| 44 | Loyola University Chicago Chicago, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $59,206 | 51 | $19,589 | $36,079 | 6.2 |
| 45 | Monmouth University West Long Branch, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $59,147 | 78 | $27,000 | $30,988 | 5.6 |
| 46 | Molloy University Rockville Centre, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $59,130 | 33 † | $23,000 | $24,347 | 4.2 |
| 47 | Salisbury University Salisbury, MD Public · 4-year | $59,110 | 197 | $22,250 | $17,743 | 3.3 |
| 48 | Stockton University Galloway, NJ Public · 4-year | $59,102 | 144 | $25,000 | $20,670 | 3.7 |
| 49 | Mercy University Dobbs Ferry, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $59,024 | 63 | $21,073 | $14,072 | 2.4 |
| 50 | Heritage University Toppenish, WA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $58,634 | 56 | $13,620 | $14,598 | 3.2 |
How this ranking is built
A school appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Which programs count
- Main campuses only, one entry per institution. Scorecard reports program outcomes for the whole six-digit federal ID (OPEID6), so branch campuses share their parent’s numbers and are not listed twice.
- Only bachelor's degree programs in Social Work (CIP 4407, the four-digit code Scorecard uses to group related programs).
- At least 25 graduates in the earnings sample. Smaller samples are left out because their medians swing too much and the counts carry a little privacy noise.
- A major gets a page only when at least 20 schools qualify. This one has 326.
- Ranked by median earnings 4 years after completing, highest first. Ties go to the larger sample, then to the school name.
- Schools missing earnings or a sample size are left out rather than estimated.
- What the numbers mean
- Earnings: median annual earnings of graduates four years after completing. The cohort completed in academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was measured in calendar years 2022 and 2023, in 2024 dollars.
- Who is counted: graduates who received federal student aid (Title IV grants or loans), and only those who were working and not enrolled in more school that year. Graduates without federal aid, those who went on to further study and those with no earnings are not in the median.
- Scorecard adds privacy noise to counts and medians and hides values it cannot protect, so a gap of a few percent between two schools is not meaningful.
- Graduates: the number of graduates in that earnings sample. A † marks fewer than 40, where the figure is less precise.
- Debt: median federal loan debt (Stafford and Grad PLUS loans disbursed at that school) of graduates who borrowed, from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 completers. Parent PLUS and private loans are not included.
- Net price: average yearly cost after grants and scholarships for the whole institution, not this major, academic year 2023-24.
- Payback: 4 years of net price divided by how much these earnings exceed a high-school graduate’s in the school’s state. Shown only when that gap is at least $2,000, the same formula as the rest of the site.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard field-of-study data, June 2026 release.
Top states for Social Work earnings
Median of the school medians for states with at least 3 ranked schools. The best school in each state is shown.
| State | Median earnings | Ranked schools | Top school |
|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | $60,482 | 8 | Boston University |
| New York | $59,449 | 23 | CUNY Hunter College |
| Connecticut | $59,374 | 6 | Eastern Connecticut State University |
| Washington | $59,256 | 3 | Eastern Washington University |
| California | $58,913 | 14 | La Sierra University |
| New Jersey | $58,371 | 7 | Seton Hall University |
| Maryland | $57,224 | 7 | Morgan State University |
| Colorado | $55,915 | 3 | Colorado State University Pueblo |
| Utah | $55,757 | 4 | University of Utah |
| Minnesota | $54,448 | 11 | St Catherine University |
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