Cal State San Bernardino has been named third in the nation for the Top 25 Master’s in Social Work Programs Online with No GRE Requirement for 2019 ranking by Great Value Colleges.
 
“I’m so pleased that our online MSW program here at CSUSB continues to garner such positive acknowledgements. Each of these honors serves as a testament to the quality of our program and to the hard work and dedication of our faculty in the School of Social Work,” said Rafik Mohamed, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, where CSUSB’s School of Social Work is housed. “This ranking in particular not only recognizes that our online MSW is very well-designed, but also highlights the fact that our graduates are highly sought after as practitioners. I couldn’t be more proud of our team in the School of Social Work.”
 
“The School of Social Work is honored to see that the results of everybody’s hard work on this program is being recognized nationally,” said Teresa Morris, coordinator of the CSUSB Social Work Pathway Distance Education program. “We are proud of our students, our faculty, and our staff.”
 
According to the announcement made by email, CSUSB “was selected not only for the program’s affordability but also for the institution’s overall outstanding reputation, its faculty’s excellence, and the unerring commitment to providing non-traditional students a high-quality education and in doing so, giving them all the tools that they need to achieve their future career goals.”
 
CSUSB is one of only two California State Universities to make the list, with Cal State Northridge listed at No. 10.
 
The rankings were measured based on tuition, student-to-faculty ratio, return on investment according to Payscale.com, flexibility of the program, online student support network, concentrations/specializations, accreditation, and “wow” factor.
 
According to Great Value Colleges, the field of social work is growing rapidly.
 
“The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that jobs for social workers are projected to grow by 16% in the decade between 2016 and 2026,” the Great Value Colleges website says. “The required credentials for clinical social workers are increasingly convenient to attain, thanks to the development of online Master of Social Work (MSW) programs.”
 
CSUSB’s online Master of Social Work program is modeled on the requirements of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the national accrediting body for social work programs, and is offered online via the Pathway Distance Education program. 
 
The customizable curriculum of the program includes foundation courses such as Social Work Research, Human Behavior in the Social Environment: Birth Through Adolescence, and Foundation Micro Practice. Elective classes span titles like Public Child Welfare: Policy and Practice, Domestic Violence, and Social Work Intervention with the Elderly.
 
In the concentration (final) year of the program, students choose a specialization, which can be a social issue, client population or field of practice. There are numerous options to choose from, such as Physical and Mental Disabilities and Rehabilitation, Social Work in the Health Care System, Substance Abuse, and Racism and Ethnocentrism.
 
Visit CSUSB’s Master of Social Work website to learn more about the program.
 
Visit the Great Value Colleges website for the complete list of rankings.