Editorial Standards
Editorial Policy
How Does DSW Degree Decide What to Publish?
A doctorate costs years and often tens of thousands of dollars, so every page favors traceable facts over broad claims. Program facts come from each school's own pages, CSWE status from CSWE's directory, program size from federal IPEDS data and pay from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and each figure is shown with its source and year.
Where the Facts Come From
- Official school pages for format, residencies, credits, length, the final project, admissions, funding, tuition and other school-controlled facts, reviewed in October 2026.
- Accreditor and government sources for accreditation, program size, pay and loan rules: the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) practice doctorate directory, the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS, Federal Student Aid) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Original analysis built only from those sources, with its method stated on the page, such as estimated tuition or a ranking measure.
What Every Page Goes Through Before Publishing
- It answers one distinct reader question, directly, near the top.
- Every number is tied to its source and year, and outside facts are recorded with the page they came from and the date they were checked.
- Automated checks confirm that dollar figures and counts trace to those records, that internal links work, and that no page quotes a figure the data no longer supports.
- Program names use the school's own wording, and a school claim is removed when its source doesn't support it.
- Sponsored listings are labeled "Ad" before a reader interacts with them.
How Rankings Are Made
Where the site ranks programs, the measure is stated above the list (for example, estimated tuition, lowest first, or the stipend a funded PhD publishes), applied the same way to every program, and explained in the methodology. Programs that say admission is paused are left out. Advertising and commercial relationships never change which programs appear or their order.
How Corrections Work
Factual errors are corrected when an authoritative source shows the page is wrong. A material correction updates the claim, cites the supporting source and changes the review date. A source-backed fact isn't changed because a school or partner dislikes it. To report an error, use the contact form with the page and a link to the source.
Who Is Responsible
Pages are researched and edited by Taylor Rupe and published by Rupe Enterprises LLC.
What to Confirm Before You Apply
Tuition, start dates, residency schedules, admission rules and CSWE status can change after the review date shown on a page. Confirm them with the school before you apply or pay a fee.