2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in New Jersey

The national median annual wage for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors was $59,350 in May 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook). This measures workers across experience levels and workplaces, not the earnings of New Jersey graduates or newly licensed counselors. It is useful as a benchmark, but local offers, supervision status, hours, benefits, and practice setting will shape your actual compensation.

When assessing return on investment, compare likely earnings after training with what you earn now. Include tuition and fees, fieldwork travel, any reduction in paid work, borrowing costs, the chance of finishing, and the time until independent licensure. A lower-priced program is not necessarily the better financial choice if its schedule makes completion or required placements impractical.

The programs below are worth comparing for different reasons. Their degree titles and emphases are not interchangeable; verify each school's current credits, fieldwork arrangements, accreditation status, and New Jersey licensure alignment before applying. For another way to narrow the field, compare the best clinical mental health counseling programs alongside this popularity-focused ranking.

• Montclair State University: Its MA is titled Counseling rather than solely Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Montclair State University). Confirm the specific concentration and its course sequence; the broader degree title makes that check particularly important for applicants pursuing the clinical license.
• Rutgers School of Health Professions: Its featured MS is in Rehabilitation Counseling, a distinct professional focus rather than a degree explicitly titled Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Rutgers School of Health Professions). It deserves closer consideration if disability and rehabilitation services interest you, but verify its fit with your intended clinical credential before treating it as a substitute.
• Kean University: Kean presents an MA in Counseling, so the selected pathway matters more than the umbrella degree name (Kean University). Ask for the current clinical pathway's required courses and fieldwork plan when comparing it with degrees explicitly named for clinical mental health counseling.
• The College of New Jersey: Its MA is explicitly identified as Clinical Mental Health Counseling (The College of New Jersey). That clear focus may simplify an initial curriculum comparison, though you should still confirm current board alignment rather than infer eligibility from the title.
• Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham Campus: Its MA is explicitly in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Fairleigh Dickinson University). Florham is a practical location distinction for students planning in-person classes or placements in that area; compare the full tuition bill and travel time with nearby options.
• Stockton University: Stockton's graduate offering is titled Counseling rather than a single clinical-only degree (Stockton University). Applicants should identify the applicable track and ask where its supervised placements are available before deciding whether its location works for them.
• William Paterson University of New Jersey: Its featured route is an MEd in Professional Counseling with a clinical mental health counseling focus (William Paterson University). Compare the actual clinical coursework, not the MEd label, with MA and MS alternatives if your aim is counselor licensure.
• Georgian Court University: Its graduate program is explicitly identified as Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Georgian Court University). Students considering it should compare its published sequence and placement expectations with their work schedule, especially if changing careers while employed.
• Monmouth University: Its featured credential is an MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Monmouth University). For applicants weighing it against nearby MA or MEd options, the useful distinction is the verified curriculum and placement fit - not an assumption that one master's degree abbreviation leads to a better license.

Full-time clinical mental health counseling master's study commonly takes about two to three years; part-time study can take longer. The timetable depends on course sequencing, summer availability, and when required practicum and internship placements can begin. Ask for a term-by-term plan based on your intended enrollment pace rather than relying on an advertised fastest completion time.

Time to the degree is also not time to independent practice. New Jersey's licensing process includes requirements beyond graduation, including supervised experience and an examination (New Jersey Professional Counselor Examiners Committee). An accelerated degree may save tuition-related living costs or time away from work, but only if you can realistically complete its clinical schedule.

Online study can reduce routine commuting and expand course access; campus study may make scheduled skills practice and contact with local classmates easier. Neither format removes the need to complete clinical training under the program's rules. Compare where in-person activities occur, whether classes meet live, and who secures placements - not simply whether the catalog calls the degree "online."

This comparison is particularly important if you live far from a New Jersey campus or plan to seek licensure in another state. Ask the program for written confirmation of how its curriculum and placements relate to the licensing rules of the state where you intend to practice. Online delivery, institutional accreditation, programmatic accreditation, and state licensure eligibility are separate questions (New Jersey Professional Counselor Examiners Committee; Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs).

There is no single reliable statewide price for a clinical mental health counseling master's: published graduate tuition can be quoted per credit or term, while programs differ in required credits, fees, and time to completion. Institution-wide graduate tuition figures from IPEDS are useful starting points but are not a verified average total price for this specific degree (National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS).

Request each school's current program-specific estimate, including mandatory fees, summer enrollment, books, travel to clinical sites, and any costs associated with required screening or insurance. At public universities, check whether residency changes your rate; at private nonprofit universities, compare the net price after institutional aid rather than assuming the published rate is what you will pay. The most affordable clinical mental health counseling programs can help you build a shortlist, but confirm every quote directly.

Start with the FAFSA and the school's graduate aid office. Depending on eligibility and availability, funding may include federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans, institutional scholarships or assistantships, employer tuition assistance, and relevant external awards. State aid programs often have their own eligibility rules, so ask specifically whether any New Jersey award covers your graduate program rather than assuming an undergraduate benefit carries over (Federal Student Aid; New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority).

Federal graduate borrowing rules have changed. Graduate PLUS is generally unavailable to new graduate borrowers beginning July 1, 2026, although qualifying continuing students may have a limited transition exception; check your personal eligibility and current terms with Federal Student Aid before budgeting around that loan (Federal Student Aid). Compare written aid offers by the amount you must repay, not the headline "aid" total. The most valuable clinical mental health counseling programs provide a further comparison point, but your own net cost and completion plan determine value.

Applicants generally need a bachelor's degree, transcripts, and materials that let the program assess their readiness for graduate clinical work. Schools may also request recommendations, a statement of purpose, an interview, or specified prior coursework; requirements vary, so use each program's current admissions page as the authority. A bachelor's in psychology can be useful preparation, but do not assume it is required - or that it substitutes for a missing prerequisite.

Before paying an application fee, ask admissions whether your prior credits satisfy prerequisites and whether relevant graduate transfer credits could reduce the degree. Then ask the program, separately, whether transferred courses will satisfy its clinical sequence and the requirements for your intended New Jersey credential. Admission, transfer approval, and licensure eligibility are different decisions (institutional admissions offices; New Jersey Professional Counselor Examiners Committee).

Typical subjects include counseling theories, interviewing and helping skills, assessment and diagnosis, ethics, research, group counseling, multicultural counseling, and clinical fieldwork. Substance-use counseling, crisis work, and career development may also appear in the required sequence or as electives. Course titles alone are not enough to establish licensing fit: compare syllabi, credit requirements, supervised training, and the board's current education rules (New Jersey Professional Counselor Examiners Committee; Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs).

If you expect to work with a particular client group, look for both relevant coursework and placements where you can develop those skills under supervision. An attractive elective has limited value if it is rarely offered or conflicts with required internship hours.

Programs may offer electives or focused training in areas such as addiction, trauma, children and adolescents, or family-related counseling. These options can help you explore a client population, but an emphasis is not a separate professional license. Confirm that pursuing it does not delay required clinical courses or fieldwork.

Also distinguish an emphasis within clinical mental health counseling from a separate rehabilitation or school counseling degree. The latter may be the better choice when its specific professional role is your goal, but it should not be selected on the assumption that every counseling master's satisfies the same New Jersey licensing requirements (New Jersey Professional Counselor Examiners Committee).

Start with the credential and setting you want, then compare programs that can plausibly support that route. Popularity is a useful way to discover options, not a substitute for checking whether a particular degree works for your budget and licensing plan.

Use these checks before accepting an offer:

1. Ask the New Jersey Professional Counselor Examiners Committee about current requirements, and request the program's written explanation of how its curriculum addresses them.
2. Verify current institutional accreditation and, if important to your decision, the specific program's CACREP status; do not infer programmatic accreditation from a university's general accreditation.
3. Request a term-by-term course and placement plan for your intended full-time or part-time schedule.
4. Compare total estimated net cost, expected borrowing, placement travel, and income you may give up while studying.
5. Ask for program-level completion, licensure-exam, and placement information with its reporting period, and find out what support the school provides if a clinical site falls through.

Two costly mistakes are choosing by degree title alone and comparing tuition without fees or lost work time. If a school cannot clearly answer a licensure or placement question, resolve it before enrolling - not after starting the clinical sequence.

The most direct path is supervised counseling work followed, if you meet all requirements, by independent professional counselor licensure. Clinical experience can later support work with a chosen population or movement between agency, hospital, and private-practice settings. Exact duties depend on employer requirements and your credential status (New Jersey Professional Counselor Examiners Committee).

The related occupations below illustrate why choosing the right type of counseling degree matters. The wages are national occupational medians for May 2025 - not salaries promised by any program - and the roles can have different credential requirements (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook).

National employment for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors is projected to grow 18% from 2025 to 2035 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections). That signals demand for the occupation nationally, but it is not a New Jersey placement rate or a forecast for any individual graduate.

For a local reality check, review current openings in the part of New Jersey where you intend to work. Note how often employers ask for an LAC versus an LPC, the populations they serve, whether supervision is offered, and whether the schedule is compatible with your training stage. That exercise tests a program's placement claims against the jobs you could realistically pursue.

Investing in graduate education is a consequential decision. Research.com's team uses multiple education datasets and checks program information to make its counseling rankings more credible and useful for comparison. The rankings consider graduate outcomes, applicable licensure-exam results, accreditation, federal aid eligibility, and cost; a popularity ranking should not be read as a judgment that the most popular program is the best personal fit.

The ranking draws on these data sources:

• IPEDS database - institutional enrollment, completions, and cost reporting.
• Peterson's database - program and institution information.
• College Scorecard database - federal institution-level education and outcome data.
• National Center for Education Statistics - federal education data and definitions.

Research.com's Best counseling ranking first combines program completion, employment or doctoral admission, applicable licensure-exam pass rates, CACREP programmatic accreditation, and Title IV institutional eligibility. Their respective weights are 40%, 20%, 20%, 16%, and 4%, with inapplicable criteria renormalized; cost then accounts for about 7% of the final score. The same approach applies to online and campus programs, while other rankings order programs by the dimension named in the ranking. See Research.com's methodology for further detail. Use the ranking to identify candidates, then confirm current program and licensure details directly.

• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Pennsylvania
• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in New York
• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Maryland
• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Connecticut
• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Virginia
• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Massachusetts
• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Ohio
• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Kentucky
• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in North Carolina
• 2027 Most Popular Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in South Carolina

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Counselors
  Used to verify salary, employment outlook, and typical education requirements.
  https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/
• CACREP - Directory of Accredited Programs
  Used to verify CACREP accreditation status of specific programs.
  https://www.cacrep.org/directory/
• NBCC - NCE / NCMHCE
  Verified professional/licensure/career reference.
  https://www.nbcc.org/exams
• Montclair State University - M.A. in Counseling
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.montclair.edu/academics/programs/ma-counseling
• Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, School of Health Professions - M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling-Clinical Mental Health Counseling Track
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://shp.rutgers.edu/ms-rehabilitation-counseling/
• Kean University - Counseling - Clinical Mental Health Counseling (M.A.)
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.kean.edu/academics/programs/counseling-ma
• The College of New Jersey - Clinical Mental Health Counseling, MA
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://programs.tcnj.edu/graduate/clinical-mental-health-counseling-ma
• Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham Campus - MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.fdu.edu/program/ma-clinical-mental-health-counseling/