Ranked #16 in popularity, mental & social health services is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 27 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Mental & Social Health Services Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,578 master's degrees in mental & social health services during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Mental & Social Health Services School for Your Master's Degree
The mental health services master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality mental health services program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
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
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 mental & social health services students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other mental & social health services 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 much debt mental & social health services 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 mental & social health services related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for mental & social health services 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 Mental & Social Health Services Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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Grand Canyon University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in mental & social health services. Grand Canyon University is a very large private for-profit university located in the large city of Phoenix.
Soon after graduating, mental health services master's recipients usually earn an average of $48,673 at the beginning of their careers.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in mental & social health services. Located in the large city of Houston, UTHealth is a public university with a medium-sized student population.
Master's recipients from the mental & social health services major at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston earn $24,902 more than the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
University of Arizona is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in mental & social health services. University of Arizona is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Tucson.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the mental health services program make an average of $48,361 in their early career salary.
Located in the large city of Phoenix, UOPX - Arizona is a private for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those mental & social health services students who get their master's degree from University of Phoenix - Arizona earn $10,558 more than the standard mental health services student.
Located in the remote town of Las Vegas, New Mexico Highlands University is a public university with a small student population.
Master's recipients from the mental & social health services program at New Mexico Highlands University get $2,374 more than the typical college 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.
The mental health services master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality mental health services program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
