2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Texas

There is no single reliable "doctoral counseling salary": pay depends on the job, setting, experience, and location, and an occupational median does not isolate the effect of a PhD. The following national figures offer benchmarks for two distinct paths, not earnings forecasts for Texas doctoral graduates.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook and Employment Projections; wage reference period: May 2025. A doctorate is more financially persuasive when it opens a job you intend to pursue, provides substantial funding, or supports advancement unavailable through your current credential. Compare offers against your present earnings rather than assuming the difference between occupational medians is a doctoral return.

The programs below warrant comparison for different reasons. Their published program or department descriptions establish the degree and academic setting, but they do not provide a comparable set of verified placement, funding, or completion outcomes; request those directly rather than treating these highlights as outcome rankings.

• University of North Texas: Its PhD is explicitly in counselor education and supervision, making the relationship between those two professional roles a useful focus for comparison (University of North Texas). Ask how doctoral students obtain supervised teaching and supervision experience if a faculty position is your goal.
• Sam Houston State University: Its graduate catalog presents a counselor education PhD within its counseling department (Sam Houston State University). Applicants with an established clinical specialty should compare its doctoral course and dissertation requirements with programs explicitly titled counselor education and supervision rather than assuming the titles mean identical training.
• The University of Texas at San Antonio: UTSA identifies its offering as a doctoral program in counselor education and supervision (The University of Texas at San Antonio). For applicants who need to remain in the San Antonio area, the decisive comparison is whether its actual course schedule and faculty interests fit their work and research plans.
• East Texas A&M University: Its published program is a PhD in counselor education and supervision (East Texas A&M University). Applicants based outside Texas's largest metros should examine attendance and residency rules before assuming that geographic proximity - or online coursework - eliminates travel.
• The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley: Its counseling department is a relevant point of contact for doctoral applicants in the Rio Grande Valley (The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley). Confirm the specific doctorate currently admitting students, its delivery requirements, and available faculty advisers before comparing it with a named PhD elsewhere.
• Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi: Its published doctoral offering is a counselor education PhD (Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi). For a student intending to study in the Coastal Bend, compare its dissertation advising and required campus presence with a longer commute to another Texas program.

Use the most popular counseling programs list as another way to discover options, but do not treat popularity as evidence of doctoral funding or faculty fit.

Plan on approximately three to five years of full-time doctoral study after a relevant master's degree, with additional time possible for part-time enrollment or a delayed dissertation. That is a planning range, not a promised completion date: each university's catalog controls its coursework, examinations, dissertation milestones, and time limits (University of North Texas; Sam Houston State University).

Ask for the recent completion times of students who entered with credentials like yours. A shorter advertised course sequence may save little if required classes rotate infrequently or dissertation advising extends beyond funded semesters. Working counselors should also check whether their employer can accommodate teaching, supervision, or daytime research obligations.

Online coursework can let a licensed counselor keep a job and serve clients while studying; campus study can make regular meetings with faculty and research collaborators easier. Neither format, by itself, establishes academic quality or Texas licensure eligibility. Compare the same essentials in both: required visits, synchronous meeting times, access to a dissertation adviser, and where teaching or supervision experiences occur.

For a student outside a university's commuting area, an online program is only less disruptive if its in-person requirements and any approved field experiences are feasible. Before enrolling, request the written residency schedule and ask the program how it supports students living in Texas. Do not assume an online doctorate replaces the separately required qualifying education or supervised experience for an LPC (Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council).

A defensible Texas-wide average price for these specific doctoral programs cannot be stated from a mix of institutional tuition pages: universities may quote per-credit tuition, semester charges, or rates that exclude fees, and students take different amounts of dissertation credit. NCES/IPEDS institutional graduate tuition is useful context, but it is not a doctorate-specific total (National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS).

Request a written estimate for your expected enrollment pattern. Include resident or nonresident tuition, mandatory fees, dissertation-continuation charges, books, travel, and earnings lost to reduced work. Then subtract confirmed assistantships and tuition waivers. Texas public universities can have materially different resident and nonresident prices; verify the institution's residency determination before comparing its quote with a private nonprofit offer. The most affordable counseling programs list can help identify schools to price, but compare total net cost rather than the posted tuition rate.

Start with program-specific research or teaching assistantships, tuition waivers, and university fellowships. Ask whether funding is guaranteed or competitive, how many years it lasts, whether summer enrollment is covered, and whether an assistantship restricts outside clinical work. Complete the FAFSA to establish eligibility for applicable federal aid; graduate students should review current borrowing terms directly with Federal Student Aid before relying on loans to cover a multi-year PhD (Federal Student Aid).

Texas aid programs have different eligibility rules and many are designed for undergraduates, so do not assume a state grant will fund a doctorate (Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board). An employer's tuition benefit may be valuable for a working counselor, but check service commitments and whether dissertation credits qualify. The strongest offer is not necessarily the largest first-year award: compare support through the likely dissertation period and the debt you would carry if funding ends.

Expect programs to review a relevant master's degree, graduate transcripts, a statement of research and career interests, recommendations, and evidence of counseling preparation. Some may seek professional licensure or clinical experience; admissions rules and test requirements must be checked in each current university catalog rather than assumed from another school (Sam Houston State University; University of North Texas).

Before applying, confirm whether your master's coursework meets any prerequisite or licensure-related expectation, identify faculty whose research matches your question, and ask how prior graduate credits are evaluated. Transfer acceptance does not necessarily waive doctoral residency, examinations, or dissertation requirements. If you hope to obtain a Texas LPC, separately check your qualifying degree against the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council's rules; doctoral admission is not a licensing determination.

Doctoral study typically moves beyond practicing counseling techniques to investigating how counselors are trained and supervised. Common subjects include advanced counseling theory, quantitative and qualitative research, counselor education pedagogy, clinical supervision, ethics, and dissertation research (University of North Texas; The University of Texas at San Antonio).

Compare course requirements, not just attractive electives. An applicant seeking a faculty job should look closely at supervised teaching and research-methods preparation; a prospective clinical supervisor should examine how supervision skills are assessed. Ask when required courses run, since an infrequently offered class can affect completion more than the catalog's credit total suggests.

Research emphasis often matters more than a formally named concentration. Depending on available faculty and courses, a student may focus on counselor supervision, counselor training, mental health counseling, school counseling, addiction, or other populations and settings. A program's website may describe interests without guaranteeing an adviser, elective, or dissertation opportunity in every area.

For a proposed specialty, ask whether a faculty member is taking new doctoral advisees, which relevant courses will run during your enrollment, and where you can obtain appropriate experience. Keep specialties distinct from credentials: a school-counseling research focus does not itself award Texas school counselor certification, and an addiction-focused dissertation does not itself confer a clinical license (Texas Education Agency; Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council).

Start with the position you want after graduation, then work backward to the training it requires. This keeps a strong-looking ranking position from obscuring a mismatch between a research PhD and a primarily clinical goal. Use the following checks when speaking with admissions staff and potential advisers:

1. Verify the exact degree, current programmatic CACREP status where applicable, and institutional accreditation directly with the university and accreditor; do not assume recognition of one counseling degree extends to every degree at the institution (Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs).
2. Ask for doctoral completion and placement results with the reporting period and number of students represented; small cohorts make isolated percentages easy to misread.
3. Get a personalized, multi-year cost and funding estimate, including the period after coursework ends.
4. Confirm faculty-adviser availability, research fit, teaching or supervision opportunities, and all campus attendance requirements.
5. Check any intended Texas license or school credential against the appropriate state authority before assuming the doctorate will satisfy it.

Compare the final options using likely completion time, foregone earnings, net cost and debt, completion probability, baseline and plausible post-degree earnings, and the years over which benefits might accrue. The most valuable counseling programs ranking offers another comparison, but no institutional value measure can replace your own discounted, career-specific return-on-investment calculation.

The clearest doctoral path is counselor educator: teaching, mentoring, researching, and sometimes supervising future counselors. Other possibilities include clinical supervision, behavioral health program leadership, and research or evaluation. A working LPC may also retain clinical practice while adding teaching or supervisory work; whether that combination pays enough to justify doctoral study depends on the actual roles available to them.

A doctorate is less compelling if the target is a clinical position accessible with a qualifying master's degree and license. School counselor certification, LPC licensure, and postsecondary faculty hiring follow different rules and employer expectations (Texas Education Agency; Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council). Match each program's documented training to the specific route you intend to take rather than treating "counseling careers" as one job market.

National demand is stronger for some counseling services than for doctoral teaching roles. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 18% employment growth for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors from 2025 to 2035. That signals a growing clinical occupation, but many of its jobs do not require a doctorate; it cannot be read as a forecast of Texas faculty openings.

For a Texas job search, investigate the market at the level of the position and location you want. Compare recent counselor-education faculty advertisements for required teaching and research experience, or clinical leadership listings for required licensure and supervisory experience. Universities recruit by specialty and opening, while providers' needs can differ across metro and less-populated areas. Ask prospective departments where recent graduates work, then judge whether those outcomes align with your willingness to relocate.

Investing in a doctorate is a consequential decision. Research.com designed its counseling rankings to help readers compare programs using documented outcomes, accreditation, eligibility for federal aid, and cost rather than reputation alone. The team checks the quality, credibility, and accuracy of the underlying information; readers should still confirm current details directly with each university.

The Best ranking begins with a graduate-outcomes-and-accreditation score: program completion contributes 40%; employment or doctoral admission, 20%; applicable licensure exam pass rates, 20%; CACREP programmatic accreditation, 16%; and institutional Title IV eligibility, 4%. Shares are renormalized when a measure does not apply. Program cost then contributes about 7% of the final score. Online and campus programs use the same method; other rankings order programs by the dimension named in each ranking.

The ranking draws on the following sources, which help readers assess the evidence behind a program comparison:

• IPEDS database - institutional reporting on enrollment, completions, and costs.
• Peterson's database - information used to compare graduate programs.
• College Scorecard database - federal institutional and student-outcome information.
• National Center for Education Statistics - federal education data and definitions.

These measures make the ranking a useful starting point, not a substitute for checking doctoral funding, dissertation support, faculty fit, and the requirements of your intended license. Read more about Research.com's methodology.

• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Colorado
• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Mississippi
• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Tennessee
• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Georgia
• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Florida
• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Kentucky
• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in North Carolina
• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Illinois
• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Virginia
• 2027 Best Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Ohio

• 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/
• Counseling Compact - Participating States
  Verified professional/licensure/career reference.
  https://counselingcompact.org/
• University of North Texas - Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.unt.edu/academics/programs/counselor-education-and-supervision-phd.html
• Sam Houston State University - Ph.D. in Counselor Education
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://catalog.shsu.edu/graduate-and-professional/college-departments/education/counselor-education/counselor-education-phd/
• The University of Texas at San Antonio - Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://future.utsa.edu/programs/doctoral/counselor-education-supervision/
• East Texas A&M University - Counselor Education and Supervision (PhD)
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.etamu.edu/programs/counselor-education-supervision-phd/
• The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley - Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Counseling
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.utrgv.edu/cep/schools-and-departments/department-of-counseling/