Why a Ph.D. at UW-Madison School of Social Work?

• Our school has a national reputation of academic excellence and is consistently ranked among the leading schools of social work in the country.
• We have been highly successful in placing recent graduates in tenure track academic positions at major public or private research institutes.
• Our program is individually tailored to meet your unique educational needs. You will work collaboratively with your faculty mentor to design a program of study based on your research interests and career goals.
• We offer an intensive research mentoring experience. It is our belief that doctoral training is most effective when it offers the opportunity to receive hands-on experience on an ongoing research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor.
• We provide an opportunity to work with an interdisciplinary team of researchers and scholars. Our faculty are affiliated with several major research centers and institutes on campus, including the Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development, the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Institute on Aging, the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and the Center for the Demography of Health and Aging.
• Students have a wide selection of courses in world-renowned social and behavioral science departments. The curriculum is designed to encourage students to take courses in departments throughout the campus, including economics, educational psychology, human development and family studies, the LaFollette Institute, psychology, nursing, and sociology.
• Wisconsin is known for the diversity of faculty research interests and methodological approaches. Faculty conduct research on a wide range of social problems (e.g., aging, child welfare, developmental disabilities, family caregiving, health, mental health, and poverty and welfare reform). The University provides state-of-the-art training in experimental and survey methodologies and statistics.
• Our available Ph.D. minors include, among others, Aging, Prevention Intervention Science, and Women's Studies.