Ranked #20 in popularity, student counseling is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 26 schools in the Plains States Region to determine which ones were the best for student counseling students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 1,465 master's degrees in student counseling to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Student Counseling School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of student counseling for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to student counseling students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of student counseling students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt student counseling students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized student counseling related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for student counseling students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Student Counseling Master's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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University of Missouri - Columbia is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in student counseling. Mizzou is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Columbia.
Those student counseling students who get their master's degree from University of Missouri - Columbia make $2,809 more than the average student counseling grad.
Kansas State University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in student counseling. K -State is a fairly large public university located in the city of Manhattan.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the student counseling program earn around $47,436 for their early career.
It's difficult to beat University of Missouri - St Louis if you wish to pursue a master's degree in student counseling. UMSL is a large public university located in the suburb of Saint Louis.
After graduation, student counseling master's recipients typically make about $44,437 in the first five years of their career.
It is hard to beat North Dakota State University - Main Campus if you wish to pursue a master's degree in student counseling. North Dakota State University is a large public university located in the city of Fargo.
Those student counseling students who get their master's degree from North Dakota State University - Main Campus receive $2,939 more than the average student counseling graduate.
Located in the medium-sized city of Des Moines, Drake is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Master's recipients from the student counseling program at Drake University get $5,585 more than the standard graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of student counseling for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
