Visalia, CA (population: 127,444) has five social work schools within a 100-mile radius of its city center. Fresno Pacific University, the highest ranked school in this group with a social work program, has a total student population of 2,668. It is the 326th highest ranked school in the USA and the 24th highest in the state of California (#1 is University of California-Los Angeles). To learn more about social work programs in Visalia, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of social work professors at Fresno Pacific University such as Donna Callahan.
Social Work students from Visalia schools who go on to become social work case managers, social workers, social scientists, health and social service managers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 73,250 people working as social workers alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $50,470. Also, Community and social services employees make on average $42,750 per year and there are about 1,891,320 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Visalia-Porterville area alone, there are 2,570 employed community and social services employees earning an average salary of $45,410. Social workers in this area earn $59,250/yr and there are ** employed.
Visalia lies in Tulare county, which is one of the 57 counties in California. Overall, the Visalia-Porterville area has 131,930 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 4% unemployment rate, $18/hr average worker wage, and a $37,760 average annual salary. Thus, about ** out of every 1000 jobs in Visalia are held by social workers, and 19/1000 are held by community and social services employees.
Of the 5 social work schools with a 100-mile radius of Visalia, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Fresno Pacific University comes out as the most expensive ($17,068/yr) for social work students, with Porterville College as the lowest, reported at only $2,850/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Visalia |
| Hanford | CA | 51,853 | 0 | - | 0 | 18.4 miles |
| Porterville | CA | 53,185 | 1 | 11.8615 | 42 | 24.7 miles |
| Fresno | CA | 490,930 | 14 | 20.5897 | 403 | 40.6 miles |
| Bakersfield | CA | 336,429 | 7 | 22.9036 | 218 | 69.5 miles |
| Merced | CA | 78,579 | 3 | 29.789 | 150 | 92.9 miles |