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.
College Factual reviewed 18 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of student counseling. Combined, these schools handed out 2,032 master's degrees in student counseling to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Student Counseling School for Your Master's Degree
The student counseling master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality student counseling program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on student counseling students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other student counseling students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for student counseling to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
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.
The student counseling school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Student Counseling Master's Degree Schools in California.
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California State University - Los Angeles is a good option for students interested in a master's degree in student counseling. Located in the city of Los Angeles, Cal State LA is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the student counseling program at California State University - Los Angeles make $6,757 more than the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
It's hard to beat National University if you want to pursue a master's degree in student counseling. National University is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of San Diego.
Student Counseling master's degree recipients from National University earn a boost of around $4,267 above the average income of student counseling majors.
San Diego State University is a good choice for individuals interested in a master's degree in student counseling. Located in the city of San Diego, SDSU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the student counseling program state that they receive average early career earnings of $52,062.
Fresno Pacific is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Fresno.
Student Counseling master's degree recipients from Fresno Pacific University get an earnings boost of about $19,989 over the typical earnings of student counseling graduates.
Located in the city of San Francisco, SFSU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the student counseling major at San Francisco State University earn $13,043 above the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
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).
The student counseling master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality student counseling program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
