Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries isn't the most popular bachelor's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #161 in popularity out of 363 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
College Factual looked at 4 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 262 bachelor's degrees in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The pastoral counseling bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality pastoral counseling program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 pastoral counseling & specialized ministries students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of pastoral counseling & specialized ministries students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 pastoral counseling & specialized ministries students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 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 bachelor's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s 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 a bachelor's degree in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries.
Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Pastoral Counseling
It's hard to beat Indiana Wesleyan University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries. Located in the town of Marion, IWU is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
After graduation, pastoral counseling bachelor's recipients typically earn around $19,836 at the beginning of their careers.
It's hard to beat Moody Bible Institute if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries. Moody Theological Seminary and Graduate School is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Chicago.
Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries bachelor's degree recipients from Moody Bible Institute receive an earnings boost of approximately $4,444 over the typical earnings of pastoral counseling & specialized ministries majors.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries needs to check out Grace College and Theological Seminary. Grace College is a small private not-for-profit college located in the town of Winona Lake.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the pastoral counseling program state that they receive average early career earnings of $25,060.
Grace Christian University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in pastoral counseling & specialized ministries. Located in the small city of Wyoming, Grace is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly small student population.
Those pastoral counseling & specialized ministries students who get their bachelor's degree from Grace Christian University make $17,934 more than the average pastoral counseling grad.
Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries Related Rankings by Major
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.