Bachelor of Social Work Programs, Compared, With the License Path in Your State

What a Bachelor of Social Work Is and What It Qualifies You for

A bachelor of social work is a professional degree, not just a major. Its courses lead somewhere specific: a supervised placement in a real agency, and then a first job helping people get housing, food, safety, treatment or benefits. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calls the BSW “the most common requirement for entry-level nonclinical social worker positions.”

Schools give it different names. You will see BSW, BSSW, BASW, a BA or BS in Social Work, and in Puerto Rico the Bachillerato en Trabajo Social. The name does not change what you can do with it. Accreditation does. CSWE, the Council on Social Work Education, accredits social work degrees, and most states require a CSWE-accredited degree before you can sit for a license exam.

Of the 631 BSW options listed here, 605 are CSWE-accredited. The other 26 are in candidacy or pre-candidacy, which means they are working through CSWE’s review. Six schools run social work majors with no CSWE status at all; this site leaves them out because they do not lead to licensure or advanced standing.

Every accredited BSW teaches generalist practice. In CSWE’s words it is “grounded in the liberal arts and the person-in-environment framework,” and you learn to work with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. CSWE’s 2022 standards organize the degree around nine competencies, starting with ethical and professional behavior and running through assessment, intervention and evaluating your own practice.

Who a BSW Suits

A BSW fits you if you already know you want to work with people in crisis or in need, and you want a job offer at graduation rather than after graduate school. It also suits three groups this site sees often:

• High school seniors and first-year students who want a direct route. Most programs admit you to the university first and then to the social work major around your sophomore or junior year.
• Community college students planning a transfer. 199 programs here publish a transfer pathway, and 18 are built as degree-completion programs for students who already have an associate degree or about two years of credits.
• Working adults finishing a degree. 132 programs can be taken online and 48 publish a part-time plan.

If you think you will want to become a therapist, a BSW still helps. Clinical social workers typically need an MSW, and a CSWE-accredited BSW is the only degree that qualifies you for advanced standing, which can cut the MSW to about a year.

What BSW Programs Cost and How They Differ

The fairest cost comparison is the federal tuition and fees figure every school reports to the U.S. Department of Education. For a full-time undergraduate year in 2023-24 (NCES College Navigator), the 565 schools here range from $2,684 at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota to $68,237 at the University of Southern California, whose BSW is in CSWE candidacy. The median school charges $13,212.

Public or private matters more than anything else. The median public university charges residents $9,708, while the median private college charges $35,910. Among the most affordable public options are Dalton State College at $3,283 for Georgia residents, Elizabeth City State University at $3,412 for North Carolina residents and Western Carolina University at $4,532. Private colleges can still be affordable: Brigham Young University-Idaho reports $4,656.

Some schools publish a per-credit rate for the BSW itself. Across the 91 that do, rates run from $148 (the Montana resident rate at Salish Kootenai College) to $1,140, with a median of $371. Use the BSW cost comparison tool to line up schools you are considering, and read the BSW cost and financial aid guide before you compare sticker prices.

How You Get Into the Social Work Major

Getting into the university and getting into the social work major are usually two steps. Most programs let you declare pre-social work, take introductory courses, then apply to the professional program. Typical requirements, in the schools’ own words:

• The University of Alabama: apply to the BSW Professional Program after 54 credit hours, with a 2.25 overall GPA and a 2.50 social work GPA.
• Western Carolina University: begin as a Pre-Social Work major and apply after at least 35 credit hours with a 2.5 GPA.
• University of North Carolina at Pembroke: apply in the junior year with a minimum 2.5 GPA, 40 hours of volunteer experience and references.
• Dalton State College: selective cohort admission each spring for fall, with a 2.5 GPA, volunteer hours, an application and an interview.

Some schools admit you to the major from the start. At Molloy College, admission to the BSW program requires a high school GPA of 3.0 or higher and completion of 20.5 academic units. The BSW admission requirements guide covers GPA floors, prerequisites and deadlines in more depth.

Field Practicum: Where the Degree Becomes a Job

CSWE calls field education “the signature pedagogy for social work,” and it sets a floor of 400 hours for a bachelor’s degree. Many programs go further. Across the 161 programs here that publish an hour count, the median is 430.

Program	Field practicum, as the school states it	Federal tuition and fees, 2023-24
Providence College	600 hours of supervised internships across the junior and senior years	$60,848
Brigham Young University-Idaho	Two 250-hour internships, 500 hours total	$4,656
Arizona State University (ASU Online)	480-hour in-person practicum in the final two semesters, near home	$12,051 in-state
University of Alaska Anchorage	448 hours over fall and spring	$7,566 in-state
California State University-Los Angeles	420 hours in the senior year, typically two full days a week	$6,818 in-state
Middle Georgia State University	400 hours in the senior year, 200 each semester	$4,432 in-state

Plan your senior year around the placement. A practicum of two full days a week, or a single block semester of 30 or more hours a week, is hard to combine with a full-time job. The BSW coursework and field practicum guide explains how placements are arranged.

BSW Degree Formats: Campus, Online, Hybrid and Transfer

Of the 631 options, 494 are offered on campus, 132 online and 33 in a hybrid format. Online coursework does not mean an online practicum: every program requires in-person field hours at an agency, usually one near where you live. Ohio State’s online BSSW, for example, places students in a 400-hour field placement near their own community.

For transfer students, look for named agreements. UT Arlington lists direct transfer pathways with Collin College, Dallas College, Tarrant County College and Weatherford College. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has a 2+2 agreement that lets students with a two-year degree finish the BSW in two years. Try the transfer finder or browse BSW degree completion programs. For distance study, start with online BSW programs.

The Bachelor’s-Level License in Your State

Whether you can hold a social work license with a BSW depends on your state. 42 of 52 licensing jurisdictions issue a bachelor’s-level license, under 14 different titles including LBSW, LSW, RSW and SWA. 31 of them use the ASWB Bachelors exam, which has 122 questions (110 scored) and a four-hour time limit.

Ten states have no bachelor’s-level license: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. You can still work in social services there with a BSW, but you will not hold a protected social work license until you earn an MSW. Check your state with the BSW license checker or read the LBSW license guide.

Jobs and Pay With a BSW

BSW graduates work in child welfare, case management, hospitals, schools, courts, shelters and community organizations. Here is what the occupations they enter pay nationally, from the BLS wage survey for May 2025:

Occupation	Median annual wage	Middle half earns	Employed
Child, family and school social workers	$59,550	$48,270 to $76,070	392,550
Healthcare social workers	$67,880	$56,710 to $82,240	187,630
Mental health and substance abuse social workers	$60,280	$47,070 to $79,730	132,810
Probation officers and correctional treatment specialists	$66,270	$54,250 to $84,780	89,390
Social and human service assistants	$45,930	$38,150 to $54,350	437,860
Social and community service managers	$80,390	$64,290 to $103,200	209,330

Clinical social workers typically need an MSW, so the healthcare and mental health rows include many master’s-level workers. Child welfare, case management, victim advocacy and probation are entry-level routes with a BSW. Explore each route on what you can do with a BSW, including child protective services worker and case manager.

BSW to MSW: Advanced Standing

A CSWE-accredited BSW is the only degree that qualifies you for advanced standing in an MSW program, which skips the generalist first year. 323 of the schools here also run an MSW you can enter this way, and 61 offer combined BSW-to-MSW tracks. A few examples, as each school states the advanced standing route:

• University of Alabama: 42 credit hours, 1 year (three semesters full time), starting in summer.
• Western Carolina University: 33 graduate credit hours, 1 year full time (can be completed in 10 months) or 2 years part time.
• California State University-Los Angeles: 33 units, 11 months, at the downtown LA campus.

Find same-school routes with the BSW to MSW route finder, read the BSW to MSW guide, or compare MSW programs on mswdegree.com.

How to Choose a BSW Program

Use these checks on every school on your list:

• CSWE status. Accredited or candidacy only. CSWE retroactively recognizes graduates of candidacy programs that reach initial accreditation, but only if the program held candidacy by the year you started.
• Federal tuition and fees. Compare the 2023-24 figures first, then each school’s own aid offer. Public schools charge residents a median of $9,708.
• Admission to the major. Note the GPA floor and when you apply. Alabama wants a 2.50 social work GPA; Pembroke asks for 40 volunteer hours.
• Field hours and schedule. At least 400 hours is the rule; ask yourself whether you can manage two full days a week or a block semester.
• Transfer fit. If you are at a community college, pick a school with a named agreement or a degree-completion format, and remember CSWE bars credit for life or work experience.
• Your state’s license. If you plan to stay in one of the ten states without a bachelor’s license, factor the MSW into your plan from the start.
• A same-school MSW. One of 323 schools with an advanced standing route can save you a move later.

Start with all BSW programs, filter to CSWE-accredited BSW programs, or let the program matcher narrow the list to your state and budget.