2027 Best Master's in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Minnesota

Pay depends on occupation, employer, experience, and licensure - not the diploma alone. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 national data, the median annual wage was $59,350 for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors and $64,330 for school and career counselors and advisors. These occupation-wide medians include workers at different career stages; neither represents a guaranteed starting salary or a Minnesota-specific offer.

Use the occupation matching your intended role when weighing tuition against potential earnings. A prospective school counselor should not model a career using a clinical mental health counselor's wage, and someone changing careers should compare expected earnings with what they could have earned by remaining in their current job.

The strongest distinctions among these Minnesota options concern the career route a program is designed to support and the academic setting in which students train. Program titles and descriptions are a first filter; verify current credits, fieldwork, delivery, accreditation, and licensing disclosures directly with each school before applying.

• Minnesota State University, Mankato - mental health counseling M.S.: This is the university's mental health counseling route rather than its professional school counseling route. It is the more relevant Mankato option to investigate if your goal is clinical practice, subject to confirming current Minnesota licensure alignment.
• Bethel University - graduate counseling: Bethel offers counseling study within a Christian university setting. Students seeking faith-integrated education should ask how that perspective appears in clinical instruction and placements, while comparing the specific degree and credential route against other programs.
• St. Cloud State University - clinical mental health counseling: The program identifies clinical mental health counseling as its focus, making the intended professional direction clearer than a broadly named counseling degree. Prospective students should test that fit against its current curriculum and their intended license.
• Minnesota State University, Mankato - professional school counseling M.S.: This is the school-focused alternative to Mankato's mental health route. Choose it to investigate preparation for school counseling rather than assuming the two degrees lead to interchangeable Minnesota credentials.
• University of Minnesota Twin Cities - counselor education master's: The program sits within the university's Department of Educational Psychology, an academic context that may appeal to students interested in counseling alongside learning and development. Check the available track and its credential outcome before treating the department's broader research scope as a career advantage.
• Winona State University - school counseling: Its explicit school counseling focus gives applicants pursuing school-based work a direct program to compare with Mankato's school route. Ask each school how it arranges supervised experience and documents eligibility for Minnesota school counselor licensure.
• Minnesota State University Moorhead - graduate counseling: A graduate counseling option based in northwestern Minnesota may be worth examining if access to that area affects where you can study and complete fieldwork. Confirm the current specialization and placement arrangements rather than assuming a general counseling label identifies a particular license.
• Crown College - M.A. in Counseling: Crown's counseling degree is offered in a Christian college setting. Compared with explicitly school-focused degrees on this list, its broader title makes it especially important to confirm the exact clinical pathway, supervised training, and credential preparation you would receive.
• Bethany Lutheran College - clinical mental health counseling: Bethany names clinical mental health counseling as its graduate program's focus within a Lutheran college. For applicants comparing faith-based options, the practical distinction to verify is how its clinical curriculum and placements support the intended professional license.

If your priorities differ from those emphasized in the Best ranking, Research.com's most popular counseling programs offer another comparison lens. Popularity, however, does not establish licensure fit or individual value.

Plan on roughly two to three years for full-time graduate counseling study; part-time enrollment can take longer. The exact schedule depends on a program's credits, course rotation, and when required practica and internships are available. A program that looks fast on a course map may take longer if fieldwork cannot fit around your job.

Graduation and independent practice are separate milestones. Minnesota's Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy administers clinical counseling licenses with requirements beyond earning a degree, including applicable supervised experience and examinations. Ask the program for a term-by-term plan and ask the relevant licensing authority what must happen after graduation.

Online coursework can reduce travel and make graduate study more feasible for working adults, but it does not eliminate supervised field training. Campus study may make scheduled meetings and local placement coordination easier for some students. Neither format is inherently more licensure-ready: the decisive issue is whether its curriculum and supervised experiences satisfy the credential rules that apply to you.

For an online program, get written answers about where you may complete placements, who finds and approves sites, and whether the program meets Minnesota's relevant educational requirements. If you might practice in another state, check that state separately. Online access across state lines does not make licensing rules portable.

There is no single reliable statewide price for a counseling master's: public universities and private nonprofit colleges use different tuition structures, and published institutional averages may combine degrees with very different credit requirements. NCES/IPEDS institutional tuition data can help establish context, but a program's current graduate rate and required credits are better inputs for an individual budget.

Compare total expected cost: tuition across all required terms, mandatory fees, books and supplies, travel to placements, and any reduction in paid work. Public-school residency rules may change tuition for some applicants; a private college may instead offer institutional aid that changes its net price. Consult the most affordable counseling programs as a starting point, then request a written, program-specific cost estimate from each finalist.

Start with each school's graduate aid office and the federal aid application. Depending on individual eligibility and current federal rules, aid may include Direct Unsubsidized Loans, institutional scholarships, assistantships, and employer tuition assistance; grant aid is generally more limited at the graduate level. Federal Student Aid determines federal loan eligibility, while schools administer their own awards and deadlines.

Ask whether an assistantship covers tuition, pays a stipend, or requires hours that conflict with fieldwork. Compare offers using the amount you would actually pay and borrow, not the size of an advertised scholarship. If you expect to work in a qualifying public-service setting, review current federal loan-forgiveness rules before borrowing, but do not assume a particular job or loan will qualify.

Most applicants need a bachelor's degree and must submit materials specified by the program, often transcripts, recommendations, a statement of purpose, and evidence of readiness for graduate study. Schools may also require particular prerequisite courses or interviews; their official admissions pages, not general assumptions about counseling degrees, control.

Before applying, ask whether prior graduate coursework can transfer, whether transferred credits count toward the intended credential, and whether any prerequisite can be completed after admission. Transfer approval from a university does not by itself establish that a state licensing board will accept the resulting education.

Clinical counseling curricula commonly cover counseling theories, helping relationships, assessment, diagnosis, ethics, research, and supervised practice. School counseling programs also address student development and counseling in educational settings. Course titles alone cannot establish license eligibility: Minnesota regulators consider the applicable education and training requirements, while schools determine how their courses meet them.

Request a curriculum map tied to your intended credential. It should show required courses, when fieldwork begins, and what happens if a placement is delayed. This is especially useful when comparing a flexible-looking program with one that has a fixed course sequence.

The most consequential choice is often clinical mental health versus school counseling: they serve different clients and lead toward different licensing systems. Programs may also offer study relevant to addiction, rehabilitation, or work with couples and families. A concentration is not necessarily a separate qualifying degree, and an elective in a specialty does not automatically confer a new license or certification.

Compare the credential named in a program's official disclosure with the jobs you want. If your interests span schools and clinical practice, ask whether either route can accommodate both - and what additional education or supervised experience the second credential would require.

Start with the job and credential, then compare programs on evidence you can verify. A ranking can narrow the field, but a highly ranked program that does not match your licensing goal, placement needs, or budget is unlikely to be your best investment.

1. Identify your intended Minnesota credential and confirm its current education requirements with the Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy or, for school counseling, the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board.
2. Verify institutional accreditation, applicable programmatic accreditation such as CACREP, and the school's written explanation of how its specific degree supports your credential goal. Do not treat accreditation or graduation as automatic licensure.
3. Request the current curriculum, total cost estimate, completion schedule, and field-placement policy; ask how many placements you must arrange yourself.
4. Compare net cost and expected borrowing with your current earnings, likely time away from work, probability of finishing, and realistic post-degree options over a time horizon that matters to you.

Two common mistakes are choosing by the lowest tuition rate without pricing the full degree and choosing by a program title without checking the license it supports. Research.com's most valuable counseling programs can add perspective, but your own costs, career goal, and completion plan still determine value.

A qualifying degree can be one step toward work as a clinical mental health counselor or school counselor; addiction and rehabilitation counseling are other possible directions depending on the role's requirements. Early-career work may involve supervised practice before a graduate meets the requirements for independent clinical licensure. Minnesota's Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy and Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board set the relevant state licensing rules for clinical and school paths, respectively.

If you hope to enter private clinical practice, examine the entire path beyond graduation. If you prefer a school calendar and student-development work, prioritize school counselor preparation instead of assuming a clinical degree will serve the same purpose. Ask potential employers which credential they require for the actual position - not just whether they hire people with counseling degrees.

National demand provides context, not a count of Minnesota vacancies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 18% U.S. employment growth for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors from 2025 to 2035, compared with 3% for school and career counselors and advisors. These are different occupations, so the stronger clinical-related projection should not be used to predict school counseling openings.

For a local decision, review current openings by credential and setting in the part of Minnesota where you intend to live. Look at required licenses, supervision offered, schedules, and whether employers will consider newly graduated applicants. That evidence is more actionable than assuming a growing national occupation means a suitable job will be available near a particular campus.

Investing in graduate education is a consequential decision. Research.com developed its counseling rankings to help readers compare programs using documented outcomes, accreditation, and cost rather than reputation alone. The team draws on the following data sources and checks program information for quality, credibility, and accuracy:

• IPEDS database: institutional enrollment, completions, and cost information.
• Peterson's database: program and institutional information.
• College Scorecard database: federal institutional data and outcomes.
• National Center for Education Statistics: education statistics and institutional context.

For the Best ranking, Research.com first builds a graduate-outcomes-and-accreditation score: program completion receives 40%, employment or doctoral admission 20%, applicable licensure exam results 20%, CACREP programmatic accreditation 16%, and institutional Title IV eligibility 4%. Weights are renormalized when a measure does not apply. Cost contributes a smaller component - about 7% of the final score. The same approach applies to online and on-campus programs; other Research.com rankings order programs by the dimension named in each ranking.

This approach gives readers a structured starting point, not a substitute for checking a program's current licensure alignment, field placements, and personal net cost. See the full Research.com methodology for more about how the rankings are created.

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• 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/
• O*NET OnLine - Mental Health Counselors (21-1014)
  Verified professional/licensure/career reference.
  https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/21-1014.00
• Minnesota State University-Mankato - Counseling and Student Personnel (MS) - Mental Health Counseling
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.mnsu.edu/programs/counseling-and-student-personnel/counseling-and-student-personnel-mental-health-counseling-ms/
• Bethel University - M.A. in Counseling
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.bethel.edu/graduate/academics/counseling/
• St. Cloud State University - Clinical Mental Health Counseling M.S.
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.stcloudstate.edu/graduate/clinical-mental-health/default.aspx
• Minnesota State University-Mankato - Counseling and Student Personnel (MS) - Professional School Counseling K-12
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.mnsu.edu/programs/counseling-and-student-personnel/counseling-and-student-personnel-professional-school-counseling-ms/
• University of Minnesota-Twin Cities - M.A. in Counselor Education - Clinical Mental Health Counseling
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://edpsych.umn.edu/academics/counselor-education/masters