Student Counseling is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #20 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 30 schools in the Middle Atlantic Region to determine which ones were the best for student counseling students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,843 master's degrees in student counseling during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Student Counseling Master's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in student counseling needs to take a look at New York University. Located in the city of New York, NYU is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Student Counseling master's degree recipients from New York University receive an earnings boost of approximately $3,605 over the typical income of student counseling graduates.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in student counseling needs to check out Alfred University. Located in the rural area of Alfred, Alfred is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Master's recipients from the student counseling major at Alfred University make $12,746 above the standard graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Montclair State University is a great decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in student counseling. Montclair State is a very large public university located in the large suburb of Montclair.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the student counseling program make around $54,513 for their early career.
Located in the city of New York, Hunter is a public college with a very large student population.
Student Counseling master's degree recipients from Hunter College get an earnings boost of approximately $6,337 over the average income of student counseling majors.
Loyola Maryland is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Baltimore.
Master's recipients from the student counseling degree program at Loyola University Maryland make $2,567 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large suburb of Ewing, TCNJ is a public college with a medium-sized student population.
Those student counseling students who get their master's degree from The College of New Jersey make $4,368 more than the typical student counseling grad.
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).