About
About DSW Degree
What Is DSW Degree?
An independent guide to every Doctor of Social Work (DSW) and PhD in social work program in the United States. It lists 115 programs at 96 schools in 38 states (38 DSW and practice doctorates, 77 PhDs), each checked on the school's own website in October 2026, so you can compare format, residencies, cost, funding, admission requirements and CSWE status in one place.
What the Site Covers
Every program listing shows what a doctoral applicant weighs: whether it runs online, hybrid or on campus and what residencies it asks for; whether part-time study is possible; its credits and length; whether it ends in a capstone or a dissertation; the post-MSW experience, license and test policy it asks for; published tuition with its basis and year; and, for PhDs, whether the school states full funding and the stipend it publishes. DSW programs also show their status in the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) practice doctorate directory: 4 are accredited and 11 are in candidacy or pre-candidacy.
Guides explain what a DSW is, how it differs from a PhD, what it costs, how long it takes and where it leads, and three free tools help you choose a doctorate, shortlist programs and price them.
How Programs Are Verified
The list of schools combines every institution that reported doctoral degrees in social work to the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS, 2022-23), CSWE's practice doctorate directory (captured September 30, 2026) and earlier research on master's programs. A program appears only after its current pages were reviewed on the school's own website. CSWE status comes from CSWE's directory itself, never from a school's claim. The methodology explains each step.
Independence and Advertising
Some pages carry sponsored listings from schools that advertise through our partner, ESYOH. Each is labeled "Ad," sits in its own box apart from the research, and never changes which programs appear, their order or what we say about them. The advertising disclosure explains how the site is funded.
Corrections
Programs change their formats, prices and admission rules. If a listing is out of date, send the page and a link to the school's page through the contact form, and it will be reviewed.
Who Researches and Edits This Site
Taylor Rupe researches and edits DSW Degree. He studied psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he became interested in how people make decisions about education and careers, then earned a second degree in computer science at Oregon State University. He founded PsychPrograms to fill gaps in education guidance.
- B.A. in Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle
- B.S. in Computer Science, Oregon State University
He isn't a social worker, so every page is built from primary sources rather than opinion: each school's own program, admissions and tuition pages, CSWE's directory, federal IPEDS completions and Bureau of Labor Statistics pay data (OEWS, May 2025), with the source cited on the page.
The Rest of the Social Work Degree Ladder
A doctorate is the top rung of a ladder that starts with the BSW and runs through the MSW. Our publisher covers the earlier steps on two sister sites, researched the same way:
- Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) programs, compared on our bachelor's degree site.
- Master of Social Work (MSW) programs and licensing, on our master's degree site.
Publisher
DSW Degree is published by Rupe Enterprises LLC, a Washington company. It is not affiliated with CSWE, NASW, any state licensing board or any school listed.