If you pursue a master's degree in student counseling, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #20 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in Washington to determine which ones were the best for student counseling students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 140 master's degrees in student counseling to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Student Counseling School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of student counseling for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to student counseling students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of student counseling students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt student counseling students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized student counseling related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for student counseling students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Student Counseling Master's Degree Schools in Washington list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Student Counseling in Washington
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in student counseling.
Top Washington Schools for a Master's in Student Counseling
Seattle Pacific University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in student counseling. SPU is a small private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Seattle.
Those student counseling students who get their master's degree from Seattle Pacific University earn $7,108 more than the average student counseling graduate.
It's hard to beat Gonzaga University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in student counseling. Located in the midsize city of Spokane, Gonzaga is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the student counseling program earn about $51,410 in their early career salary.
Whitworth University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in student counseling. Whitworth is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Spokane.
Students who graduate with their master's from the student counseling program report average early career earnings of $54,775.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of student counseling for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
