A counseling doctorate can prepare you to teach future counselors, lead clinical supervision, or conduct research - but it is a substantial investment, and the right program depends on your career goal. This guide accompanies the 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Mississippi, created by the Research.com team of data scientists to help students make informed choices about programs worth considering. You'll learn how to compare Mississippi options on training, licensure relevance, time, cost, and career prospects before committing.
Key findings about Counseling degrees in Mississippi
A counseling doctorate is most directly aligned with counselor education, supervision, and research; Mississippi clinical licensure follows a separate board-governed pathway and is not awarded automatically with the degree.
The national median annual wage for mental health and substance use counselors was $59,350 in May 2025, with employment projected to grow 18% from 2025 to 2035. Those occupation-wide figures are not a forecast of doctoral graduates' earnings (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Compare Mississippi programs on dissertation and teaching expectations, funding, and residency requirements - not tuition alone. A doctorate commonly takes several years beyond a master's degree, so lost earnings and debt can materially change its value.
What can I expect from a Counseling degree in Mississippi?
A doctorate in counseling is advanced preparation for producing research, teaching counselors, and supervising professional practice. In Mississippi, the relevant university offerings are principally counselor education doctorates, not entry-level degrees that replace a counseling master's. Expect graduate seminars, research methods, supervised teaching or supervision where required, comprehensive assessments, and a dissertation; the exact sequence depends on the program (University of Mississippi; Mississippi State University).
The degree choice matters because similar-sounding credentials serve different purposes. This comparison can help you identify which path matches the work you want to do.
Path
Primary fit
Key distinction
Master's in clinical mental health counseling
Someone seeking an initial route toward professional counseling licensure
Check the Mississippi licensing board's education requirements before enrolling.
Ph.D. in counselor education
A licensed or license-eligible counselor seeking faculty, research, or supervision roles
Research and a dissertation are central; the doctorate does not itself confer a license.
Clinical or counseling psychology doctorate
Someone whose goal is psychologist licensure
Psychologist and counselor licensing are different pathways governed by different boards.
If your sole objective is to begin seeing clients independently, establish the master's-to-licensure route first. A doctorate makes more sense when its additional training is necessary for your intended role.
Where can I work with a Counseling degree in Mississippi?
Potential settings include university counselor education departments, community mental health providers, hospitals, school systems, rehabilitation services, and private practices. The appropriate role depends on your existing license, doctoral training, and employer requirements; a faculty appointment, clinical supervisor position, and independent practice do not share one universal credential rule.
Location changes the practical calculation. Students targeting university teaching should assess whether they can move for faculty openings, which may be limited near any single campus. Those intending to remain in a particular Mississippi community may find that employer partnerships, access to approved supervision, and the ability to maintain their current caseload matter more than a program's proximity to a large city.
There is no single reliable "counseling doctorate salary": pay follows the job, employer, experience, and license. Nationally, the median annual wage for mental health and substance use counselors was $59,350 in May 2025; for school and career counselors and advisors, it was $64,330 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook). These are occupation-wide U.S. medians, not Mississippi doctoral-graduate outcomes or guaranteed post-degree raises.
A prospective counselor educator should request recent, program-specific graduate placement information and compare actual job offers with their current earnings. Someone already earning a clinical salary may see a weaker financial return than someone whose target faculty role requires a doctorate. Use Mississippi job postings and employer salary schedules to test the local opportunity before assuming the national median applies.
Mississippi applicants should compare doctoral programs by the work they expect students to produce and the support available to do it. Published program descriptions establish each degree's focus, but do not, by themselves, establish comparable placement rates, funding offers, or time to completion (University of Mississippi; Mississippi State University).
University of Mississippi: Its explicitly titled Ph.D. in Counselor Education is a direct match for applicants seeking doctoral preparation in the discipline rather than a clinically focused psychology degree (University of Mississippi). If college teaching is your goal, ask how doctoral students gain teaching assignments and how recent dissertations align with your research interests.
Mississippi State University: Its doctoral counselor education offering gives applicants another in-state route to advanced work in the field (Mississippi State University). Compare its current handbook, faculty supervision interests, and assistantship terms with Ole Miss's; those details are more decision-useful than assuming the two doctorates deliver identical experiences.
Neither program description should be read as a promise of licensure, funding, or a faculty job. Request current requirements and outcome information from both before choosing.
Plan on roughly three to five years of doctoral study after a relevant master's degree, with the dissertation and enrollment pace often determining the finish date. This is a planning range, not a published completion time for either Mississippi program. Full-time study may shorten the calendar but reduce paid work; part-time study may preserve income while extending tuition payments and time to the credential.
Ask each program for its current course sequence, maximum time-to-degree policy, dissertation milestones, and recent student completion times. Also ask whether prior graduate coursework can satisfy requirements: transfer or waiver approval is program-specific and should not be assumed from the number of credits on your transcript.
Online coursework can reduce commuting and make doctoral study more feasible for a working Mississippi counselor. It does not necessarily remove campus visits, scheduled live meetings, local supervision arrangements, or dissertation commitments. Campus study can make faculty collaboration and teaching appointments easier to access, but may require relocation or fewer work hours.
Compare the actual delivery schedule - not an "online" label. Ask which courses require real-time attendance, whether residencies are mandatory, where teaching or supervision experience occurs, and whether assistantships require a campus presence. If you also need initial licensure, verify the underlying clinical education pathway with the Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors; delivery format alone does not establish eligibility.
A single dependable average price for Mississippi counseling doctorates would obscure major differences in residency classification, credit loads, fees, assistantships, and completion time. Compare each university's current doctoral tuition schedule and written funding offer instead of treating an advertised per-credit rate as the total cost. Public-university resident and nonresident charges can differ; confirm how the school classifies you before budgeting.
Estimate the full investment as tuition and required fees plus travel, books, dissertation-related expenses, and income you forgo by reducing work. Then subtract confirmed grants, tuition waivers, and assistantship compensation - not funding you merely hope to receive. The most affordable counseling programs comparison can help you start a shortlist, but a longer unfunded program can cost more overall than one with a higher sticker price and dependable support.
Start with departmental teaching or research assistantships, university fellowships, employer tuition assistance, and federal aid eligibility. Ask whether an assistantship includes a tuition waiver, health coverage, and a guaranteed duration; an offer for one academic year should not be budgeted as support through dissertation completion. File the FAFSA and check each university's graduate funding deadlines (Federal Student Aid; University of Mississippi; Mississippi State University).
Federal borrowing rules deserve particular attention for a student entering in 2027. Graduate PLUS is generally unavailable to new graduate borrowers beginning with the July 1, 2026, changes; limited transitional eligibility may remain for qualifying students who were already enrolled and had a Direct Loan for the same program before that date. Confirm your individual eligibility and current loan limits with Federal Student Aid and the school's aid office rather than assuming Graduate PLUS will fill a funding gap (Federal Student Aid). The most valuable counseling programs comparison is another starting point, not a substitute for a personal debt-and-earnings calculation.
View the chart data as a table
Best score by program (Source: Research.com)
Category
Value
Mississippi State Univer
86.77
University of Mississipp
87.22
Expect admissions committees to examine your relevant master's preparation, academic record, professional counseling experience, research interests, recommendations, and fit with available faculty. Requirements for a counseling license, test scores, interviews, and particular prerequisite courses must be confirmed in each program's current admissions instructions; they should not be inferred from a different university's policy (University of Mississippi; Mississippi State University).
Before applying, send admissions staff your transcripts and ask whether your master's curriculum meets their entry requirements. If you intend to practice clinically, separately ask the Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors how your existing education and supervised experience relate to licensure. Doctoral admission and state licensure are distinct decisions.
Doctoral study commonly goes beyond master's-level counseling techniques into counselor education, clinical supervision, advanced research design, statistics or qualitative methods, ethics, and dissertation research. A program may also require teaching practice or advanced work tied to its faculty's specialties. Check current catalogs for required courses and sequencing rather than assuming similarly named degrees have interchangeable curricula (University of Mississippi; Mississippi State University).
Read the dissertation and research-methods requirements especially closely if you want a practice-focused career. If your goal is a faculty appointment, examine opportunities to design courses, teach, publish, and supervise - not merely whether those topics appear in a course title.
Specialization often comes through faculty mentorship, electives, clinical background, and a dissertation topic rather than a formally named doctoral concentration. Relevant interests may include clinical mental health, school counseling, addiction, rehabilitation, or counselor supervision. Do not assume every interest has a dedicated Mississippi doctoral track; ask who can supervise that research and which courses are offered regularly (University of Mississippi; Mississippi State University).
Choose a focus backward from the role you want. Research on school counseling may support a counselor educator's scholarly profile, for example, but it does not replace state requirements for a school-based credential. A prospective clinical supervisor should similarly check the applicable board and employer rules before treating a doctoral emphasis as a supervision credential.
First decide whether the target job actually calls for doctoral training. Then compare programs against that job, your existing credentials, and the amount of financial and geographic flexibility you have. Popularity can indicate where applicants are looking, but the most popular counseling programs are not automatically the best fit for your research question or budget.
Ask both universities the same questions so that their answers are comparable:
What degree and accreditation does the specific program hold, and how does that relate to my intended role? Verify programmatic status directly with CACREP when it matters to your plans.
Who could supervise my dissertation, and what teaching, research, or clinical-supervision experience can I realistically obtain?
What are the required campus visits, expected course schedule, transfer-credit rules, and recent completion patterns?
What is my written net-cost estimate across the likely years of enrollment, and which funding terms are guaranteed?
Where have recent graduates worked, and does that evidence resemble the job market I intend to enter?
A common mistake is choosing on ranking position or tuition alone. Assess completion probability, foregone earnings, debt, and likely post-degree opportunities over a realistic time horizon. If the target job does not require a doctorate, a focused certificate, supervised professional development, or a different master's pathway may be the better investment.
A counselor education doctorate can support applications for faculty, researcher, training director, and clinical supervision roles. Graduates who already meet licensing requirements may also continue counseling practice. Qualifications still vary by employer and position: a dissertation strengthens a research profile, while independent client care depends on the applicable state license (Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors).
For someone changing careers into counseling, the sequence matters. Identify the license or school credential required for the first job, obtain the qualifying education and experience, and consider a doctorate if a later teaching or leadership goal justifies it. Skipping that check risks paying for an advanced degree that does not qualify you for the role you expected.
View the chart data as a table
Median wage by counseling career path (U.S., BLS May 2025) (Source: BLS)
Category
Value
Psychologists
99,110
Postsecondary Teachers
85,330
Marriage & Family Therapists
66,940
School & Career Counselors
64,330
Mental Health Counselors
59,350
Rehabilitation Counselors
46,850
National employment of mental health and substance use counselors is projected to grow 18% from 2025 to 2035 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections). That signals demand in a major counseling occupation, but it does not measure Mississippi openings for counselor educators or guarantee a doctoral-level position. Faculty hiring is a separate, narrower market.
Test demand against your intended workplace. For a clinical career, review current Mississippi postings for license, supervision, and location requirements; for academia, search faculty vacancies across states as well as within Mississippi. This distinction is important when deciding whether to keep working during study or relocate after graduation. Treat employer requirements and current vacancies as evidence of opportunity, not as a promise that the degree alone will secure a job.
2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Mississippi
Investing in doctoral education is an important decision. Research.com designed this ranking to help readers compare programs using documented outcomes, accreditation, and cost rather than relying on reputation alone. The team draws on multiple education datasets and checks whether each measure applies to the program being scored.
The ranking uses these data sources:
IPEDS database: institutional reporting on enrollment, completion, and costs.
For the Best ranking, a graduate-outcomes-and-accreditation score combines program completion (40%), employment or doctoral admission (20%), applicable licensure-exam pass rates (20%), applicable CACREP accreditation (16%), and institutional Title IV eligibility (4%). Inapplicable criteria are excluded and the remaining shares are renormalized. Program cost contributes about 7% of the final score. Online and campus programs use the same method; other Research.com rankings order programs by the dimension named in their titles. Learn more on the Research.com methodology page.
A ranking is a starting point, not a determination that a doctorate meets your licensing requirements or offers the best financial return. Use it to identify candidates, then confirm current program details directly with each university.
# 1 position
University of Mississippi
Doctor
Ph.D. in Counselor Education
Delivery mode: campus
87.22
/ 100
Final score
Program length
4 years
Specialization
Counselor Education and Supervision
Required credits
68 semester credits
Program completion rate
100% (2024-25)
Employment or doctoral admission
100% (2024-25)
Application deadline
February 1
Application process
direct
GRE
no
Prerequisites
Completed master's degree in counseling or a related degree program; preference given to applicants who are graduates of CACREP accredited programs.
Additional requirements
Graduate School application with official transcripts, statement of purpose, resume, contact information for three references, and an interview with faculty.
Accreditation
Accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), with institutional accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).
University of Mississippi earned a Research.com Counseling Program Score of 87.22/100, supported by 100% program completion rate and 100% employment or doctoral admission rate. The program is CACREP-accredited, valid through 2033-04-30.
# 2 position
Mississippi State University
Doctor
Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision
Delivery mode: campus
86.77
/ 100
Final score
Program length
3 years, including summers
Specialization
Counselor Education and Supervision
Required credits
81 semester credits
GPA range
3.40 - 4.00
Program completion rate
90% (2023-24)
Employment or doctoral admission
100% (2023-24)
Application deadline
Priority: February 1; rolling thereafter until spots filled
Application process
direct
GRE
yes
Prerequisites
Masters degree, or its equivalent, from a fully accredited institution; must hold a masters degree from a CACREP or CORE accredited counselor education program or satisfy the CACREP/CORE masters curriculum requirements in their doctoral program of study.
Additional requirements
Official transcripts; GRE scores (within 5 years); three letters of recommendation; personal statement (incl. at least two years of full-time work experience); on-campus interview with clinical skills demonstration; vita; writing samples.
Accreditation
Accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), with institutional accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).
Mississippi State University earned a Research.com Counseling Program Score of 86.77/100, supported by 90% program completion rate and 100% employment or doctoral admission rate. The program is CACREP-accredited, valid through 2030-10-31.
Frequently asked questions about Counseling degree in Mississippi
Do I need a doctorate to become a counselor in Mississippi?
Not necessarily. Professional counseling licensure has its own education, examination, and supervised-experience requirements. Check your intended license with the Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors before selecting a degree.
Will a counseling doctorate automatically make me licensed?
No. Admission, graduation, program accreditation, and state licensure are separate matters. The licensing board determines whether your complete qualifications satisfy its rules.
Is a Ph.D. worthwhile if I want to keep seeing clients?
It may be if you also want to teach, research, supervise, or lead training. If clinical practice is your only goal, compare the doctorate's net cost and time away from work with less extensive options.
Can I complete the degree while working?
Possibly, depending on course scheduling, required campus attendance, assistantship terms, and dissertation demands. Request a realistic part-time plan from the program before assuming full-time employment will remain feasible.
How should I compare the Mississippi programs?
Ask for current handbooks, faculty research interests, recent completion and placement information, delivery requirements, and written funding offers. Compare those answers against the specific job you want - not the degree title alone.
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