2027 Most Popular Doctorate in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Mississippi

There is no single "counseling doctorate salary." Pay depends on the job, employer, experience, and clinical credentials - not the degree title alone. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 national medians below provide occupational context; they are not Mississippi doctoral-graduate earnings.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures describe different occupations, not the wage premium from completing a doctorate. For an investment decision, compare the pay and advancement available in your current role with specific jobs you could pursue after graduation. A higher-paid faculty position may be attractive, but its availability, required credentials, and foregone earnings during study matter just as much as the national median.

The two university offerings are worth comparing on the work each doctorate prepares you to do. Their published program descriptions provide a starting point, but neither a similar title nor a popularity ranking replaces a review of current degree plans, funding offers, and faculty fit. The best counseling programs ranking offers another lens when outcomes and accreditation matter more to you than popularity.

• University of Mississippi: Its published offering is specifically a Doctor of Philosophy in Counselor Education, making it a direct option for applicants seeking a research-oriented doctoral credential in that field (University of Mississippi program description). Ask about dissertation supervision and faculty research interests if your goal is a teaching or research appointment.
• Mississippi State University: Its doctoral counselor education offering gives applicants another in-state department and faculty group to evaluate (Mississippi State University program description). For a prospective supervisor or faculty member, the decisive comparison is its current supervision preparation, research expectations, and available mentorship - not an assumed difference in prestige.

Neither program highlight should be read as a claim about placement, licensure pass rates, or completion time. Request each program's current handbook and program-level outcome disclosures before making that comparison.

Plan for roughly three to five years of full-time doctoral study as a general planning range, with part-time enrollment or a prolonged dissertation potentially extending it. This is not a published completion-time estimate for either Mississippi program. The most useful figure is each department's recent median time to degree for students entering with a comparable master's degree.

Time also has a financial cost. A working counselor might keep earning while studying part time but take longer to finish; a full-time student might finish sooner while giving up more income. Ask when courses meet, whether summer enrollment is expected, which prior graduate credits may count, and how long dissertation-stage students typically remain enrolled.

Online coursework can reduce relocation and commuting, an important consideration for counselors working outside Mississippi's university communities. Campus study can make scheduled faculty collaboration, teaching assignments, and research participation easier. Neither format, by itself, establishes eligibility for licensure or guarantees a better academic job.

Compare the actual delivery schedule, not just an "online" label: required campus visits, synchronous classes, supervision activities, research meetings, and dissertation defenses can change the time and travel budget. If you intend to practice in Mississippi or another state, confirm that your earlier clinical degree and supervised experience satisfy that state's board requirements; do not assume a remotely delivered doctorate resolves a clinical-licensure gap.

A single statewide average would hide the costs that determine a doctoral student's bill: residency classification, annual tuition and fees, enrollment during dissertation work, travel, and any assistantship tuition support. Compare each university's current graduate tuition schedule and a written, program-specific estimate rather than applying an undergraduate price or assuming every doctoral student receives funding.

Calculate total expected cost over your likely completion period, then subtract confirmed grants or tuition waivers and add living and travel expenses. An assistantship may lower the bill but require work that limits other earnings. If price is your main constraint, use the most affordable counseling programs comparison alongside written funding offers; the lowest tuition is not necessarily the lowest net cost.

Start with departmental teaching or research assistantships, university fellowships, employer tuition assistance, and federal aid eligibility. Ask whether an offer covers tuition, mandatory fees, health coverage, summer enrollment, and dissertation-stage semesters. A stipend is less valuable if support ends before students typically complete the degree.

Federal loan rules deserve particular attention for a 2027 entrant. Under the federal changes described by Federal Student Aid, Graduate PLUS is generally unavailable to new graduate and professional borrowers beginning July 1, 2026; limited transition eligibility can apply to qualifying students who were already enrolled and had borrowed for the same program before the change. Confirm your status and current Direct Unsubsidized Loan limits with the university financial aid office and Federal Student Aid before using Graduate PLUS in a budget.

Expect doctoral admissions to examine prior graduate preparation, academic records, counseling or related experience, recommendations, a statement of goals, and fit with available faculty. Requirements such as an existing counseling master's degree, a professional license, interviews, or particular prerequisite courses must be checked against each university's current admissions page; they are not interchangeable across programs.

Before applying, send admissions staff your transcript and intended career goal and ask which prior credits can transfer, whether licensure is expected at entry, and which faculty are accepting doctoral students. A common mistake is to choose a doctoral program first and investigate clinical eligibility afterward. If independent practice is your objective, check the Mississippi State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors' education rules before selecting a degree path.

Counselor education doctorates commonly develop four connected abilities: designing and interpreting research, teaching counseling students, supervising developing counselors, and evaluating counseling practice. Coursework may therefore cover research design and statistics, advanced counseling theory, counselor education pedagogy, supervision, ethics, and dissertation research. Verify the required sequence in the current university catalog rather than assuming that similarly named degrees have identical courses.

Read course requirements against your goal. An aspiring faculty member should look closely at opportunities to teach and publish; a future clinical supervisor should ask how supervision is taught and assessed. Neither set of doctoral courses should be assumed to replace the clinical coursework required for initial licensure by the Mississippi counseling board.

At the doctoral level, a specialization may be expressed through an adviser, electives, teaching assignments, and dissertation topic rather than a formally named concentration. Relevant directions include counselor education, clinical supervision, school counseling research, addiction counseling, and mental health services research. Ask whether a proposed focus has an available faculty mentor and appropriate field or research access; a catalog topic alone is not evidence that supervision is available.

If your primary goal is a specialized clinical caseload rather than research or teaching, a targeted master's pathway, post-master's training, or professional credential may require less time. Check any certification or Mississippi licensure requirements independently: a dissertation topic does not confer a clinical specialty credential.

Choose backward from the position you want, then test whether the program supplies the credential, mentorship, and affordable path needed to reach it. A popularity list identifies options to investigate; the most valuable counseling programs comparison can add a cost-and-outcomes perspective, but neither replaces an individual financial calculation.

Use these checks when speaking with both departments:

1. Verify the credential: Ask for the exact degree title, current programmatic accreditation status where relevant, and written guidance on any licensure implications.
2. Test career fit: Identify a potential research mentor and request program-level completion, placement, and time-to-degree information.
3. Price the whole path: Compare written funding terms, remaining tuition, likely years enrolled, debt, and earnings you would forgo.
4. Check feasibility: Confirm course schedules, residency requirements, transfer-credit decisions, and support through dissertation completion.

For return on investment, compare your likely post-degree opportunities with your existing earnings over a realistic time horizon, accounting for completion uncertainty and the value of money over time. A doctorate can be worth it for a well-funded student targeting faculty work and a poor investment for someone who only needs an entry-to-practice counseling qualification.

Potential paths include counselor educator, researcher, clinical supervisor, program director, and licensed counselor with advanced academic training. These are different hiring markets. Faculty roles typically call for demonstrated scholarship and teaching; clinical leadership may depend more heavily on licensure, practice experience, and an employer's supervisory standards.

Work backward from postings for the role you want. If they consistently require a professional license, verify your master's preparation and Mississippi board eligibility before considering doctoral admission. If they emphasize publications and teaching, seek a program where you can develop evidence of both while enrolled. The degree can strengthen a candidacy, but it does not substitute for requirements specified by employers or regulators.

The national outlook differs sharply by occupation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 2.5% employment growth for counselor-education-related work and 18% for clinical mental health counseling over 2025-2035. Faster growth in clinical counseling should not be mistaken for equivalent demand for doctoral faculty: the jobs have different qualifications, and those national projections do not measure Mississippi openings.

For a locally constrained job search, check current university faculty advertisements, health-system and agency leadership vacancies, and their required licenses before estimating the payoff. If suitable academic openings are scarce in the places you can work, a portable clinical credential and continued employment may offer a more dependable path than paying for a doctorate in expectation of a specific faculty job.

Investing in a doctorate is a consequential decision, so Research.com uses multiple education and outcomes sources to improve the quality, credibility, and accuracy of its counseling rankings. The team used these sources to create the ranking:

• IPEDS database - institutional reporting on enrollment, completions, and costs.
• Peterson's database - information on institutions and academic programs.
• College Scorecard database - federal information on institutions, costs, and outcomes.
• National Center for Education Statistics - federal education statistics and definitions.

Research.com's counseling rankings consider graduate outcomes, applicable licensure exam pass rates, accreditation, federal Title IV eligibility, and program cost. Its Best ranking first weights program completion at 40%, employment or doctoral admission at 20%, applicable licensure exam performance at 20%, CACREP recognition at 16%, and Title IV eligibility at 4%; inapplicable criteria are reweighted. Cost then contributes about 7% of the final score. The same approach applies to online and campus programs, while rankings named for another dimension order programs by that dimension.

A popularity ranking helps you identify programs attracting attention; it does not establish that a program has the strongest outcomes or lowest cost. Use it as a shortlist, then verify program-level results and your own fit. Research.com explains its approach further on its methodology page.

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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/
• NBCC - NCE / NCMHCE
  Verified professional/licensure/career reference.
  https://www.nbcc.org/exams
• University of Mississippi - Ph.D. in Counselor Education
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://olemiss.edu/programs/educ/doctor-philosophy-counselor-education/
• Mississippi State University - Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.chef.msstate.edu/programs/doctoral/coed