Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries isn't the most popular associate program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #150 in popularity out of 328 majors in the country. So, it might take a little more work to find colleges and universities that offer the degree program.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 3 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for pastoral counseling & specialized ministries students pursuing a associate degree. Combined, these schools handed out 100 associate degrees in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries School for Your Associate Degree
The pastoral counseling associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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 account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their associate degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. That is, everyone wants their associate degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on pastoral counseling & specialized ministries students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of pastoral counseling & specialized ministries students who choose to seek a associate degree at the school.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How easy is it for pastoral counseling & specialized ministries to pay back their student loans after receiving their associate degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized pastoral counseling & specialized ministries related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for pastoral counseling & specialized ministries students working on their associate degree.
More Ways to Rank Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries Schools
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries Associate Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list to help you make the college decision.
Best Schools for Associate Students to Study Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries in the Great Lakes Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing an associate degree in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries.
Top Great Lakes Region Schools for an Associate in Pastoral Counseling
Indiana Wesleyan University - National & Global is a great option for students interested in an associate degree in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries. IWU is a large private not-for-profit university located in the rural area of Marion.
Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries associate degree recipients from Indiana Wesleyan University - National & Global get an earnings boost of around $2,095 above the typical income of pastoral counseling & specialized ministries graduates.
Grace Christian University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting an associate degree in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries. Grace is a fairly small private not-for-profit university located in the city of Wyoming.
Associate graduates who receive their degree from the pastoral counseling program earn around $33,522 in the first couple years of working.
Every student pursuing a degree in an associate degree in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries has to take a look at Valor Christian College. Located in the city of Canal Winchester, Valor Christian College is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Associate students who receive their degree from the pastoral counseling program earn an average of $29,571 in the first couple years of working.
One of 7 majors within the Theology & Religious Vocations area of study, Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries has other similar majors worth exploring.
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.
The pastoral counseling associate degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. 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.
