Cheapest, 100% online schools for Social Work or Counseling?

[jazzbutler]

Recently finished my undergraduate degree in Sociology from a local state university. I would like to move on and complete a Masters in either Social Work or Counseling. As with most of us, I imagine, I would really like it to be as affordable as possible. 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[bjcheung77]

@jazzbutler, Welcome to the board, great intro post with an inquiry to get the ball rolling... It's best for you to fill us in with the information on the addendum and template as it would provide a bigger overall picture of your scenario. I would also take some time to review some posts or threads, maybe even the WIKI by doing a search, there are plenty of threads in the last few months alone for people looking for similar Masters. Link: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Area-works

[Duneranger]

What do you mean 100% online? With these degrees there is going to need to be some sort of practicum/clinicals and maybe campus visits.

[Stonybeach]

https://online.uwa.edu/online-degrees/ms...ounseling/

[Messdiener]

What do you mean 100% online? With these degrees there is going to need to be some sort of practicum/clinicals and maybe campus visits.

After MSW discussions have exploded in the last few weeks here and on the sister forum, I did spend a few minutes googling around and discovered quite a few 'fully online' MSW offerings. Naturally, the 'fully online' bit speaks specifically about the coursework. Obviously, you would still need to put in your practicum hours somewhere, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be 'on-campus'.

So, perhaps 'fully online' is a bit of a misnomer, but there's still a huge amount of flexibility (far as I could tell) as long as you could arrange your hands-on experience.

[Duneranger]

What do you mean 100% online? With these degrees there is going to need to be some sort of practicum/clinicals and maybe campus visits.

After MSW discussions have exploded in the last few weeks here and on the sister forum, I did spend a few minutes googling around and discovered quite a few 'fully online' MSW offerings. Naturally, the 'fully online' bit speaks specifically about the coursework. Obviously, you would still need to put in your practicum hours somewhere, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to be 'on-campus'.

So, perhaps 'fully online' is a bit of a misnomer, but there's still a huge amount of flexibility (far as I could tell) as long as you could arrange your hands-on experience.

Obviously, but this needs to be clarified as many people on here think 100% means 100%.

Arranging your hands on experience is a HUGE problem. I think people dont understand how difficult it is to set up clinicals on your own and it is a massive cop out for schools not to provide this. Nursing has been plagued by this for a decade and I know DOZENS of students who dropped out because they couldnt find placement.

[Stonybeach]

Many schools are now allowing supervised clinical hours over the telemedicine platform. I can't speak for these programs, but some psych nurse practitioner programs will accept a significant portion of clinically supervised psychiatric telemedicine towards the hour requirements. Sadly, Covid-19 can be thanked for that!

[MichiganMax]

Recently finished my undergraduate degree in Sociology from a local state university. I would like to move on and complete a Masters in either Social Work or Counseling. As with most of us, I imagine, I would really like it to be as affordable as possible. 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

I earned my Masters in Counseling from a small, local Christian college that offered most of the degree online. I don't regret my choice. If you can find a local state college offering an accredited program online, I think that's the best choice. You will have an easier time finding placing for practicum and internship this way. Internships and practicums are important and really hard to get on your own. So going to a local college in your state, is a good move, in that regard. 

If you have to go online,  there's only two programs that I found affordable in my past research: 

- University of the Cumberland's Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
- Liberty University's  Master's in Counseling (They have a MSW, but it's not accredited)

The other online programs from the private universities are too expensive IMHO, and never overpay for a degree in counseling or social work. It's very poor ROI, and not worth the debt.

[bjcheung77]

Those are a couple of programs, I would look at a few more mentioned on the board, I would also recommend the local, public/state institution as well...