SUMMARY
Going to school for Pastoral Counseling is a valuable choice and ordinarily a mandatory first step for undergraduates aspiring to enter a career as a religious therapist, a marriage counselor, or a bible camp counsellor. Interestingly, pastoral counseling is an uncommon degree being the 183rd most popular area of study. Last academic year alone, there were 1,323 pastoral counseling degrees conferred. In-state tuition for pastoral counseling at private colleges is, on average, Infinity times more expensive than their public rivals.
There are 163 colleges that offer pastoral counseling. This number of universities is fairly average in terms of the number of institutions which offer each degree. If you are looking to immerse yourself with other pastoral counseling undergraduates, consider looking at schools in Texas which have more undergraduates admitted to pastoral counseling than any other state. More generally, the top region to get a degree in pastoral counseling is in the Southeast region with Lee University, Regent University, and Liberty University best representing the region. Interestingly, our selection of the best conference to study pastoral counseling is the Crossroads League with Grace College and Theological Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion, and Spring Arbor University representing the conference. Based on our extensive list of the best colleges, our choice for the best school for pastoral counseling is Columbia International University.
The overall 'best' school is not necessarily the 'best' school for every student. There might be a bunch more perspectives to think about when choosing school. Features such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food would definitely change one's thoughts of where to go to university. At authority.org, we've weighed the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you want to know which pastoral counseling college has the best campus, the winner is Liberty University. If you are mostly interested in which school has the finest campus, we have an entire page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through student reviews, professor reviews, government databases, and more so we can compare every major in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our comprehensive list for the colleges with the best student life here and our choice for the college with the best student life for pastoral counseling is Ouachita Baptist University. Curious why? Continue reading to find out more about Authority's top choices. Many of our picks might shock you.
If cost is a primary deciding factor in your choice of where you attend school, you might be cautious about Bethel University. Bethel University is the most expensive college for pastoral counseling, at least for out of state attendance. We have an entire page for the most expensive colleges that could put the price tag of Bethel University into perspective. Additionally, you could be interested to know that pastoral counseling is the 273rd most expensive major in the United States, with an average bill of $25,800. To zoom out a little, the most expensive state for pastoral counseling in the country is Massachusetts demonstrated by a cost of $37,000 at the main college in the state Gordon College. To zoom out even further, the most expensive region of the U.S. for pastoral counseling is unfortunately unavailable due to missing data.
Our cheapest region for pastoral counseling is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Nazarene Bible College with a cost of $8,880. More optimistically, the most affordable university for pastoral counseling is Selma University. Our entire list of the most affordable schools can be found here.
In-state attendees can expect to pay around $0 for a degree in pastoral counseling. The cost swells substantially to an average of $0 for the out-of-state public-school student. Our pick for the university constituting the best value for pastoral counseling: Bethel University. Here you will find our comprehensive list about the schools we see as being the best value in general. That being said, this list is based on the assumption that you are an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition is considered, as such, we are using out-of-state tuition as the baseline.
Earnings for pastoral counseling majors can differ, but within two years completing the major graduates will typically make around $43,000. There can be much variation in earnings potential; top earners can make up to $91,400. Even right out of college, the lowest earning positions within the pastoral counseling field earn $20,000, which could be worse. The highest earning grads from pastoral counseling have come from Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion and if you are looking for schools with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.
The overall diversity of pastoral counseling falls below average, falling in the 33rd percentile of all programs. The university with the most composite diversity for pastoral counseling is Liberty University and here you can find our general list for the universities with the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Pastoral Counseling major ranks only in the 74th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is even lower in the 25th percentile. White undergraduates make up the largest proportion at 72% of students studying pastoral counseling. Additionally, 53% of students seeking a pastoral counseling major are men.
The median ranking of pastoral counseling professors is 4 stars, a ranking that is surprisingly the median for every major; which is a fine. If you want to find the most popular pastoral counseling instructor in the nation, consider looking up Cindy Bronson at Ohio State University-Main Campus. It might come as a surprise, but the highest rated pastoral counseling instructors from student rankings are found at Weber State University. As we consider information beyond basic rankings it becomes clear that the university with the overall best professors for pastoral counseling is Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion. You can find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, along with many of the top professors nationwide.
Finally, the hardest university to get into for pastoral counseling is Columbia International University. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we do have an extensive page of the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, here at Authority we hope you believe that looking at higher education from examples only informed by superlatives could cause problems. We hope you explore our more nuanced pages on different universities and read some of our helpful background articles on important things to look for as your school search develops.