It depends on what you want to study, and, honestly, a lot of the top tier ivy schools have remote masters and executive masters programs. Read up on ROI and determine how you would benefit with in person or remote and at what price.

A master’s degree (should) be a specialized training in a specific career path, so it really depends what you’re hoping to do with the degree. Without knowing the program you’re interested in there really is no “best” option. Every school runs masters programs differently, some are fully remote now, some are cohort style and you’d take all of your classes with the same students, some offer funding and stipends, some are meant for working students. It all depends on your goals.

This is all entirely dependent on what you want to go to school for, so that would be helpful info.

ETA that the only MSW program in the area is VCU, so that’s your option there.

Re: the commute, I went to UVA and had a bunch of friends at VCU, so I made that drive quite a bit back in my day, and I can tell you that doing that drive back and forth in the same day absolutely sucks. If you find a program you like at Virginia and you’re accepted but you’re not keen on living in Charlottesville, I’d definitely recommend moving further out west in Henrico or perhaps Goochland/Louisa.

As far as schools, it’s really dependent on what you want to do. The universities in this area and in Virginia more broadly are all pretty good, but they each have their strengths. I have a master’s that I don’t and will never use, so my personal advice would be to make sure that it’s worth it to you and useful in your field. They cost a lot of money, time, and energy, and having it for nothing is no fun.

I would say a commute to UVA isn’t really realistic. You might be able to get away with it if you live in Short Pump and don’t hate driving.

VCU has a strong MSW program but unlike a lot of MSW programs, they emphasize and prioritize people having work experience in the field before going into their program (at least that was the case in 2014 when I applied.)

If you really want to do straight clinical work, I would suggest going for an M.Ed. I have an MSW and know plenty of people from my program (UT Austin) that are now therapist but if you don’t have a strong interest in the other aspects of social work (social justice, macro issues, etc), I would say a counseling degree is a better, more focused choice.

VCU is the biggest/most well known but that's because its a large state school while other universities in Richmond are all private. University of Richmond (expensive) and Virginia Union (HBCU) are the other two schools that would likely have a MSW program in addition to VCU.

Virginia State is a public HBCU in Petersburg though I have no idea about any of their programs.

UVA could work depending on the course load but in that case, so could William and Mary in Williamsburg. But it would really depend on how the courses are done. If you can't do much of it remote then that would be tough assuming you're also working full time. It's tough to go to school locally while working full time.

Or:

Randolph - Macon in Ashland (about 20-30 minutes from downtown richmond) or Longwood in Farmville (hour-ish).

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Other state universities have satellite campuses in Richmond as well but I think unless you have really specific requirements you'll have plenty to see just talking to the departments at VCU and other locals.

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Okay based on your edit: counseling in a education setting will never pay super well. So “best” in your case is most financially feasible. Some programs offer graduate internships and tuition waivers for MEd students, some are part time and intended for students already working in the field so they won’t offer much in the way of financial aid. The best program for you is going to be the lowest cost. Once you’re done employers won’t care where the degree is from.

UVA is best school in area, university of Richmond is best school in Richmond, VCU might well be best school for yoy