If you pursue a master's degree in student counseling, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #20 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 26 schools in the Far Western US Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of student counseling. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,387 master's degrees in student counseling during the 2022-2023 academic year.
DEBUG: Checking offer "Educational Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Educational Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Grad Cert - School Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Grad Cert - School Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "School Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 1
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "School Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 1)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Grad Cert - Child Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.9
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Grad Cert - Child Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.9)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Counseling Graduate Certificate Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Counseling Graduate Certificate Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Counseling Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Counseling Bachelors Programs (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Counseling Masters Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Counseling Masters Programs (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Counseling PhD Programs (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Counseling PhD Programs (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Grad Cert - Mental Health Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "Grad Cert - Mental Health Counseling (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "School Psychology (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "School Psychology (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "School Psychology (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "School Psychology (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "School Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "School Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "School Psychology (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 0.8
DEBUG: ✓ Offer "School Psychology (I Have a Masters)" ACCEPTED (relevance 0.8)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Child Psychology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Child Psychology (I Have a HS Diploma or Associate Degree)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Child Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" with relevance 0.6
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Child Psychology (I Have a Bachelors)" REJECTED (relevance 0.6)
DEBUG: Checking offer "Counselor Education (I Have a Masters)" with relevance 0.5
DEBUG: ✗ Offer "Counselor Education (I Have a Masters)" REJECTED (relevance 0.5)
DEBUG: relevant_offers count = 13
DEBUG: relevant_offers > 0, checking for ESYOH offers
DEBUG: ESYOH filtering - found 13 ESYOH offers with relevance >= 0.8
DEBUG: esyoh_offers count = 13
DEBUG: ESYOH offers found, rendering ESYOH widget
DEBUG: most_relevant_only = true, filtering for most relevant
DEBUG: Found 3 offers with relevance >= 1.0
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools 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 Far Western US Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "education//student-counseling"
California State University - Los Angeles is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in student counseling. Cal State LA is a very large public university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Master's recipients from the student counseling program at California State University - Los Angeles get $7,670 above the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
Every student who is interested in a master's degree in student counseling has to take a look at National University. Located in the city of San Diego, National University is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Student Counseling master's degree recipients from National University receive an earnings boost of approximately $5,180 above the typical income of student counseling graduates.
Seattle Pacific University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in student counseling. SPU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Seattle.
Master's recipients from the student counseling major at Seattle Pacific University get $9,935 more than the standard graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Fresno, Fresno Pacific is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Student Counseling master's degree recipients from Fresno Pacific University receive an earnings boost of around $20,902 over the average earnings of student counseling graduates.
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).