2027 Most Popular Master's in Counseling Degree Programs Ranking in Portland

Pay varies by occupation, employer, experience, and location. The table shows U.S. occupational medians - not salaries promised to new graduates in Portland - and projected national employment change (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 wages and 2025-2035 projections).

The figures compare occupations, not the earnings outcomes of particular degrees. Marriage and family therapy also has a distinct professional pathway; do not treat its median as an expected return from any general counseling program. For a personal estimate, compare likely local job offers with your current pay, expected borrowing, and any time away from work.

These Portland-area options differ most meaningfully by professional focus. Compare each program's current catalog and credential disclosures against your intended job before treating any one feature as an advantage.

• Lewis & Clark College - mental health master's degrees: Its counseling and psychology department presents multiple mental health master's pathways, allowing applicants to compare clinical interests within one department (Lewis & Clark College). This is useful if you are still deciding which mental health focus best matches the clients you hope to serve.
• Western Seminary - M.A. in Counseling: The program identifies CACREP accreditation and is situated in a seminary, a combination worth examining if you want accredited counselor preparation alongside a faith-informed educational setting (Western Seminary). Ask how that setting shapes required coursework and clinical placements rather than assuming it will suit every practice environment.
• Portland State University - clinical mental health counseling: This is the clinical mental health option among PSU's listed counseling pathways (Portland State University). Prioritize it if your goal is clinical behavioral health work rather than a school-specific or disability-focused role, and verify its current alignment with Oregon counselor licensure.
• Portland State University - school counseling: Its dedicated school counseling pathway distinguishes it from the clinical tracks (Portland State University). It is the more relevant PSU option if your goal is to counsel students in schools; confirm current Oregon school personnel licensure alignment before applying.
• Portland State University - clinical rehabilitation counseling: Its explicit rehabilitation focus is the clearest distinction for applicants interested in disability-related counseling and access to services (Portland State University). Compare its coursework and placements with clinical mental health counseling if you are undecided between those career settings.

Plan on roughly two to three years for a counseling master's, with part-time study potentially taking longer. Your actual timeline depends on the program's course sequence, when required classes run, and how practicum and internship placements are scheduled; check each school's current catalog rather than treating the typical range as a completion promise (Lewis & Clark College; Portland State University; Western Seminary).

Ask whether placements can be completed alongside paid work and whether summer enrollment is required. An accelerated calendar may reduce time away from full-time earnings but make it harder to maintain a job; a slower schedule can ease weekly demands while extending living costs and delaying entry into credentialed work.

Online delivery changes where you take classes, not whether supervised clinical or school-based training is required. A Portland campus program may make in-person relationships and local placement searches easier; an online program may better accommodate work or travel constraints. Neither format alone establishes licensure eligibility.

Before selecting a remote option, ask where you can complete fieldwork, who arranges and approves supervisors, and whether the curriculum meets the requirements of the state where you intend to practice. This is especially important if you live in Oregon but expect to work in Washington. Compare required campus visits and placement travel alongside tuition to understand the real flexibility of each format (Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists; Washington State Department of Health).

There is no single reliable Portland program average that captures what every counseling student will pay. Published graduate tuition can be institution-level, while bills differ by credit load, program fees, residency classification, and aid; NCES IPEDS figures therefore should not be mistaken for a complete counseling-degree price (National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS). Compare each school's current per-credit or term charges using the credits required for your chosen pathway.

Add books, transportation to placements, any required background checks or insurance, and living expenses. Then subtract grants or assistantship funding and consider earnings lost if your placement schedule reduces paid work. The most affordable counseling programs can help identify options to price out, but the lowest advertised tuition need not mean the lowest total cost.

Start with each school's graduate aid office for scholarships, departmental awards, assistantships, and placement-related support. Eligible students may also consider federal graduate aid by submitting the FAFSA and reviewing their school's aid offer; eligibility and borrowing terms depend on current federal rules and individual circumstances (Federal Student Aid). Ask whether an assistantship's work schedule can coexist with required fieldwork.

Compare offers by the funding you do not have to repay, the amount you would borrow, and the semesters funded. A first-year award may be less valuable than it appears if the program's internship term receives little support. For a fuller investment comparison, weigh aid and debt alongside completion time, your current earnings, plausible post-degree pay, and the years over which you expect to use the credential.

Applicants generally need a bachelor's degree and must meet the chosen program's current admissions requirements. Schools may request transcripts, recommendations, a statement of purpose, and an interview; prerequisite courses and application rules vary, so verify them on the official program page rather than assuming a psychology major is required (Lewis & Clark College; Portland State University; Western Seminary).

Before paying an application fee, ask admissions which prior courses are required and whether any graduate credits can transfer. Separately, ask the program to identify the state credential its curriculum is designed to support. Admission, degree completion, examination, supervised post-degree experience, and licensure are different steps (Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists; Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission).

Expect foundations in counseling theory, human development, ethics, assessment, research, and culturally responsive practice, followed by supervised practicum and internship. A clinical mental health pathway may emphasize diagnosis and treatment planning; school counseling shifts attention to student development and school systems; rehabilitation counseling adds disability and vocational contexts (Portland State University; Lewis & Clark College).

Review required courses rather than concentration labels alone. If you intend to seek Oregon licensure, ask the program to map its coursework and supervised training to the applicable board or commission requirements - and get clarification before enrolling if that mapping is unclear (Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists; Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission).

The clearest local choices include clinical mental health, school, and clinical rehabilitation counseling, with mental health programs also offering opportunities to investigate focused interests such as substance-use work (Portland State University; Lewis & Clark College). A specialization should determine which curriculum and supervised setting you compare - not simply provide a label for your résumé.

If you are unsure between clinical and school work, examine both job settings before applying: their day-to-day clients, institutional responsibilities, and Oregon credentialing authorities differ. If you want to become a marriage and family therapist, check programs specifically against that licensing goal instead of assuming a counseling concentration is interchangeable (Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists; Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission).

Start with the job you want, then work backward to the credential, program, placement, and price. A program that is popular or relatively inexpensive is a poor investment if it does not support your intended practice pathway. The most valuable counseling programs comparison is another useful screen, but your own return depends on aid, debt, time to completion, existing earnings, and realistic career options.

Use these checks when you contact schools; written answers make competing offers easier to compare:

1. Identify the intended Oregon license or school credential, then ask the program how its current curriculum meets the relevant authority's educational requirements.
2. Check institutional and, where relevant, programmatic accreditation directly with the school and accreditor; ask what any accreditation status means for your goal.
3. Request the total required credits, expected completion schedule, full cost estimate, and policies for accepting prior graduate credit.
4. Ask who secures placements, what local sites are available, and how many students obtain suitable supervision without delaying graduation.
5. Compare net cost and borrowing with your current income and plausible jobs; ask for documented program outcomes rather than relying on a ranking position.

A red flag is an assurance that a degree automatically confers a license. Another is a price quote that excludes fieldwork-related costs or extra terms. Resolve either question before depositing.

A clinical mental health graduate may pursue supervised steps toward professional counselor licensure and roles in behavioral health; a school counseling graduate may pursue the school credential needed for education settings; rehabilitation-focused graduates may seek disability and vocational service roles. Actual eligibility depends on the position, curriculum, experience, and relevant state rules (Oregon Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists; Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission).

The master's makes most sense if the work you want requires - or substantially benefits from - that graduate training. If you mainly want to explore helping professions, first compare entry-level support roles and their requirements. That can help you test the setting before committing to graduate tuition and a supervised-training schedule.

Nationally, employment in mental health and addiction counseling occupations is projected to grow 18% from 2025 to 2035 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). That supports investigating clinical pathways, but it is not a forecast of Portland openings or an individual graduate's chance of being hired. School and rehabilitation counseling have different national outlooks, so choose a career track before using a growth figure to assess demand.

For a local reality check, review recent Portland-area postings for the exact role you want: note the required license, preferred experience, work setting, and whether employers accept candidates still completing supervision. Ask programs which placements connect students with those settings. Employer requirements offer a more useful near-term test of your plans than applying a national projection directly to Portland.

Investing in graduate education is a consequential decision. Research.com's team uses multiple education datasets and checks program information to make its counseling rankings more credible and useful for comparing options. The ranking is a starting point: applicants should still confirm current program details and licensure eligibility with each school.

Research.com evaluates counseling programs using completion, employment or doctoral admission, applicable licensure-exam results, accreditation, federal aid eligibility, and cost. Its Best ranking first combines completion (40%), employment or doctoral admission (20%), applicable exam pass rates (20%), CACREP recognition (16%), and institutional Title IV eligibility (4%); unavailable or inapplicable criteria are renormalized. Cost contributes about 7% of the final Best score. Online and campus programs use the same method, while other rankings order programs by the dimension named in their title. A popularity ranking should therefore not be read as a promise of better clinical outcomes.

The team used these sources to build and check the rankings:

• IPEDS database - institutional enrollment, completion, and cost reporting.
• Peterson's database - program and institution information.
• College Scorecard database - federally reported institution information and outcomes.
• National Center for Education Statistics - federal education data and definitions.

These sources help readers compare programs on more than reputation alone. See Research.com's methodology for further detail, and check the ranking's stated popularity measure and data year before interpreting its order.

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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/
• Lewis & Clark College - Master of Arts in Professional Mental Health Counseling
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://graduate.lclark.edu/departments/counseling_psychology/mental_health/masters_degrees/
• Western Seminary - MA in Counseling - Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Portland Campus)
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.westernseminary.edu/academics/masters-degrees/ma-counseling-cacrep-accredited
• Portland State University - M.S. in Counseling: Clinical Mental Health
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.pdx.edu/academics/programs/graduate/counseling-clinical-mental-health
• Portland State University - Counseling: School Counseling (M.S.)
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.pdx.edu/academics/programs/graduate/counseling-school-counseling
• Portland State University - Counseling: Clinical Rehabilitation
  Official program page (curriculum, tuition, admissions).
  https://www.pdx.edu/academics/programs/graduate/counseling-clinical-rehabilitation