2027 Most Affordable Master's in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Louisiana

Pay depends on the occupation entered, not simply the degree printed on a diploma. The table shows U.S. occupational medians for May 2025 and national employment projections for 2025-2035; it does not predict a starting salary or a Louisiana-specific wage (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook and Employment Projections).

The substantial difference among these national medians makes specialization relevant to a financial decision, but occupational pay also reflects experienced workers. Before borrowing, compare Louisiana job postings for your intended credential and region, including whether positions accept graduates still completing supervised experience.

The programs below differ most meaningfully in the professional route their published degree descriptions support. These highlights describe program-specific features, not placements, pass rates, or tuition figures that should be assumed without a current school disclosure (program and catalog pages of the named institutions).

• Nicholls State University - clinical mental health counseling: Nicholls identifies a dedicated clinical mental health counseling master's rather than a general education degree. It is a relevant public-university option for students who want to investigate a clinical route and arrange fieldwork in or near the Thibodaux area.
• New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary - mental health counseling: This Master of Arts is situated within a theological seminary. Students interested in that academic setting should compare its clinical coursework and placements with Louisiana counselor-licensure requirements, rather than treating the institution's religious orientation as a substitute for professional eligibility.
• New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary - marriage and family counseling: This separately identified Master of Arts emphasizes marriage and family counseling instead of the seminary's mental health counseling route. It is the more pertinent curriculum to examine for a family-systems career, subject to verification against Louisiana's marriage and family therapy requirements.
• Xavier University of Louisiana - graduate education and counseling options: Xavier presents counseling within its graduate education offerings. That organization is useful to applicants considering school-facing work, but they should identify the exact degree and credential pathway before comparing its price with a clinical counseling program.
• Xavier University of Louisiana - catalog-listed program: Xavier's program catalog provides the degree-specific curriculum rather than only a graduate-school overview. Use that catalog entry to check required courses and field experiences against your intended Louisiana credential; the distinction matters when similar counseling labels lead to different careers.
• Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans - clinical rehabilitation counseling: Its clinical rehabilitation counseling program sits within an allied health setting and centers rehabilitation as a professional focus. It warrants particular attention from applicants interested in disability-related counseling rather than a general school counseling route.
• Loyola University New Orleans - marriage, couple, and family counseling: Loyola identifies a marriage, couple, and family counseling pathway separately from clinical mental health counseling. Applicants drawn to relationship-focused practice can compare that curriculum with family-therapy credential requirements before choosing between Loyola's tracks.
• Loyola University New Orleans - clinical mental health counseling: This is Loyola's explicitly clinical mental health pathway, distinct from its marriage, couple, and family option. It is the track to examine first if your intended work centers on broader mental health assessment and treatment; confirm its current fieldwork and Louisiana licensure alignment directly.

Degree titles establish useful differences, but they do not establish a cost winner. Request each program's current credit requirements, tuition schedule, fees, placement rules, and recent program-level outcomes before drawing a value conclusion.

Plan on about 2-3 years for a full-time counseling master's, with part-time study often taking longer. Actual time depends on the required credits, course rotation, when field placements start, and whether a student can meet daytime clinical schedules. Ask for a term-by-term plan based on your intended start date - not just an advertised minimum.

A faster option can reduce living expenses and time away from full-time earnings, but it may be impractical if placement hours conflict with work. Also distinguish graduation time from the additional supervised experience and examinations that may be required for independent Louisiana licensure (Louisiana Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners). Transfer credit, if allowed, may shorten coursework without replacing required supervised training.

Online delivery changes where you take academic courses; it does not eliminate supervised practice or Louisiana credential requirements. A campus program may simplify access to local faculty and placement relationships. An online program may help a working student remain in their community, provided the school can approve nearby sites, qualified supervisors, and any required in-person activities.

For an online option, ask whether the institution confirms that the specific track meets Louisiana educational requirements and whether it supports placements where you live. For a campus option, calculate commuting and schedule costs as well as tuition. Neither format is inherently the cheaper or safer licensure choice. Comparing the most popular counseling programs can reveal additional options, but popularity is not evidence of local placement availability or credential fit.

There is no single dependable Louisiana counseling-master's average that captures every program's required credits, tuition category, and fees. IPEDS publishes institutional graduate tuition and charges, but an institution-wide figure may not equal the price of a particular counseling track (National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS). For a useful comparison, request a current total program estimate from each school.

Include tuition for all required credits, mandatory fees, books, placement-related travel, and any additional terms needed to finish. Ask public universities which residency rate applies to you and whether tuition changes after a particular credit load. A lower per-credit price can lose its advantage if a program requires more credits or delays completion; a higher published price may be offset by institutional aid. Compare net cost and realistic time to completion, not tuition alone.

Start with the FAFSA and each university's graduate aid office. Depending on eligibility, students may be able to use federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans, institutional scholarships, assistantships, employer tuition benefits, or outside awards; terms and availability vary (Federal Student Aid; individual institutions). Louisiana's undergraduate-focused aid programs should not be assumed to cover a counseling master's - check eligibility before putting an award into your budget.

Ask the aid office for a written estimate that separates grants or assistantship funding from loans, identifies renewal conditions, and covers the semesters containing internship. Federal graduate borrowing rules can change, so prospective 2027 entrants should confirm their own loan eligibility and limits with Federal Student Aid and the school rather than rely on an older financing plan. Borrow only after estimating the payment alongside plausible early-career earnings.

Applicants generally need a bachelor's degree and must meet the individual university's graduate admission rules. Programs may also request transcripts, recommendations, a statement of purpose, an interview, or prerequisite study; requirements differ by track and institution (institutional graduate admissions and program pages). A psychology bachelor's degree should not be assumed mandatory without checking the specific program.

Before applying, match the curriculum to the credential you want and ask whether admission has additional requirements for clinical placement. If you already hold graduate credits, request a written transfer-credit evaluation. A school may accept prior academic work while still requiring its own counseling sequence and supervised fieldwork. This is particularly important for career changers trying to shorten the degree.

Expect coursework in counseling theories and techniques, ethics, assessment, research, human development, multicultural counseling, and supervised practicum or internship. The emphasis then diverges: a clinical mental health track may focus more on diagnosis and treatment; a school track on student development and educational systems; a rehabilitation track on disability and service coordination; and a family-focused track on relationships and family systems (institutional program catalogs).

Compare required courses rather than electives alone. Louisiana credential authorities assess educational preparation for particular professional routes, so an appealing elective does not repair a missing required component (Louisiana Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners; Louisiana Department of Education). Ask the program to identify the catalog year governing your degree and how it documents completed field experience.

Louisiana options represented in this guide include clinical mental health, school-oriented counseling, marriage and family counseling, and clinical rehabilitation counseling (institutional program pages). Addiction-focused coursework may also appear within a broader clinical program, but an elective emphasis is not necessarily a separate degree or credential.

Choose by the clients and settings you intend to serve, then work backward from the relevant Louisiana requirements. Someone committed to school employment should not select a clinical program solely because it is cheaper; someone pursuing independent therapy should not assume a school counseling credential serves the same purpose. If you are undecided, ask how much coursework is shared across tracks and whether switching after enrollment would add terms or cost.

The best investment is the program you can afford and complete that also supports your intended credential. Institution type alone cannot determine return on investment: compare net price, likely borrowing, program length, income forgone during study, completion prospects, baseline earnings, plausible post-degree earnings, and the time needed to realize any gain. Discounting future earnings is appropriate when making a detailed financial comparison.

Use these checks to turn a shortlist - including the most valuable counseling programs - into a decision you can defend:

1. Identify the Louisiana license or school credential tied to your intended job, and request written confirmation of how each specific track addresses its educational requirements.
2. Verify institutional accreditation and any claimed CACREP programmatic accreditation in the relevant accreditor's directory; ask whether accreditation applies to your track and delivery format.
3. Request a full cost and term-by-term completion plan, including fees, aid renewal, and the semesters requiring field placement.
4. Ask who finds placements, which sites are approved near you, and what happens if a placement or required course is delayed.
5. Compare program-level completion, examination, and employment information where available; ask for definitions and reporting periods rather than accepting an unexplained success claim.

Red flags include treating a ranking position as proof of licensure eligibility, comparing only sticker tuition, or assuming "online" means clinical work can be completed remotely. If a program cannot clearly answer credential and placement questions before you enroll, keep looking.

A graduate might pursue supervised clinical counseling, school counseling, marriage and family therapy, rehabilitation counseling, or substance-use treatment work, depending on training and credentials. These are distinct pathways rather than interchangeable job titles. Louisiana's licensing board and Department of Education should be your primary references for the professional route you choose (Louisiana Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners; Louisiana Department of Education).

If your goal is an entry-level helping role rather than licensed practice, first check whether the jobs you want actually require a master's. If your goal is independent clinical work, include the post-degree supervision period in your career and debt plan. A degree may be worthwhile for access to that longer-term path even when the first job after graduation pays less than an occupational median.

National projections point to different levels of demand across counseling specialties: employment for substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors is projected to grow 18% from 2025 to 2035, compared with 3% for school and career counselors (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections). That contrast can inform specialization choice, but it is not a forecast of openings in a particular Louisiana parish.

For a local reality check, search current positions in the region where you intend to live and note the credential, supervision status, schedule, and setting each employer requires. Compare those postings with the placements a prospective program can arrange. This is especially valuable if you cannot relocate: a nationally growing occupation may still offer fewer practical opportunities in your commuting area than a different counseling pathway.

Investing in a graduate degree is a consequential decision. Research.com developed this ranking to make program comparisons more transparent, using institutional and program information and checking the quality, credibility, and accuracy of the underlying data. The most-affordable ranking orders programs by cost; a low-cost position should therefore be read alongside outcomes, accreditation, and licensure fit, not as a claim that every program offers the same value.

Research.com's counseling rankings also evaluate completion, employment or doctoral admission, applicable licensure-exam pass rates, CACREP programmatic accreditation, and federal Title IV eligibility. In its separate Best ranking, the graduate-outcomes-and-accreditation score weights completion at 40%, employment or doctoral admission at 20%, applicable exam results at 20%, CACREP recognition at 16%, and Title IV eligibility at 4%; inapplicable criteria are reweighted. Cost contributes about 7% of that ranking's final score. The same approach applies to online and campus programs.

The ranking draws on these data sources; each contributes a different perspective on institutions, programs, costs, or student outcomes:

• IPEDS database - institutional reporting, including graduate enrollment and published charges.
• Peterson's database - program and institutional information used in comparisons.
• College Scorecard database - federal institutional and outcome information.
• National Center for Education Statistics - federal education data and definitions.

These sources can help narrow a shortlist, but an institution-wide figure may not describe a specific counseling track. Verify current tuition, field-placement arrangements, and licensing alignment with each school. See Research.com's methodology for more information about how its 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/
• Counseling Compact - Participating States
  Verified professional/licensure/career reference.
  https://counselingcompact.org/
• Nicholls State University - Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.nicholls.edu/education/graduate-programs/clinical-mental-health-counseling-mcmh/
• New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary - MA in Counseling (Specialization in Clinical Mental Health)
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://catalog.nobts.edu/graduate/masters/degrees/arts/mentalhealthcounseling
• New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary - MA in Counseling (Specialization in Marriage and Family)
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://catalog.nobts.edu/graduate/masters/degrees/arts/marriagefamilycounseling
• Xavier University of Louisiana - M.A. in Counseling - Professional School Counseling
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.xula.edu/graduateschool/masterineducationandcounseling.html
• Xavier University of Louisiana - Counseling, M.A.
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://catalog.xula.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=30&poid=6595