Editorial Methodology

We currently list 235 counseling programs at 59 universities, 191 of them matched to a CACREP-accredited program in CACREP's directory, and record 134 related offerings we checked and did not list (certificates, Ed.S. degrees, social work, psychology and standalone marriage and family therapy degrees, and others), shown on each school page with the reason. Coverage is partial and growing; a program missing from the directory has not been verified yet.

Which programs are eligible

The awarded degree and the official program identity decide; the department name does not. We display the complete official title. When the evidence is ambiguous — for example a faith-based degree whose page does not say whether it is a licensure track — a program goes to editorial review and is not published until an editor decides, with the reason recorded.

Specialty and professional purpose

Each program carries separate facts, each with its own source:

• Degree level and award — bachelor's, master's or doctoral, with the exact award (M.A., M.S., M.Ed., PhD…).
• Specialty — clinical mental health, school, addiction, rehabilitation, clinical rehabilitation, marriage, couple and family, career, college counseling and student affairs, or counselor education and supervision. A program can carry more than one.
• Professional purpose — preparation for clinical counselor licensure, school counselor certification, counselor education (doctoral), undergraduate preparation, or a nonclinical / pastoral degree. A purpose is recorded only when the university states it; otherwise it is shown as not verified.
• Classification — counseling (counselor preparation) or related field (counseling psychology).

Accreditation

Institutional accreditation (the university as a whole) comes from the Department of Education's DAPIP database; a university is listed only with current institutional accreditation by a recognized accreditor. CACREP accreditation belongs to individual programs — a specialty, at a degree level, at a campus or in an online format. We take it from CACREP's own directory and match each directory row to a listed program. A program is shown as CACREP-accredited only when that match succeeds; an online program is matched only when CACREP lists the program as online. A university page that claims CACREP accreditation the directory does not show is not published; an editor reviews it. Other program accreditations (MPCAC for counseling psychology, for example) are shown only from the university's own wording. See CACREP-accredited programs.

Delivery, campus visits and fieldwork

Delivery is one of: on campus, online or hybrid. For online and hybrid programs, academic campus attendance is a separate fact: no campus visits required, required campus visits (residencies, immersions, orientations — each listed with its own quote), a hybrid schedule, or not verified. “Fully online coursework” never means that the whole degree happens online: counseling programs require an in-person practicum and internship, usually completed at an approved site near the student.

Practicum, internship, supervision, placement location and who arranges the site (the student, the program, or both) are recorded separately, with clock hours exactly as published. Placement assistance is shown only when the university describes it; it is never assumed.

A university's location is not a student's eligibility to enroll or to be licensed. Online programs listed under a state are offered by universities based there; published enrollment restrictions (state authorization) are recorded separately.

Licensure disclosures

Universities that offer programs leading to licensure or certification publish whether the program meets the educational requirements in each state. We show those statements and state tables exactly as published — meets, does not meet or not determined — with their source and date. We never say that a program qualifies you for a license. Licensing boards set the requirements (degree, credits, coursework, supervised hours, examinations) and change them; confirm with the board where you plan to practice.

Tuition

Tuition is recorded exactly as published: amount in USD, basis (per credit, per term, per semester, per academic year or whole program), student category (resident, nonresident, online, international or all students), academic year when printed, and whether it comes from the program's own page or a university-wide table. Figures on different bases are never compared to call one program cheaper. An estimated total tuition is calculated only as published per-credit rate × published required credits (or taken from a published whole-program figure), on one consistent residency basis, with fees excluded — see the affordable online counseling master's page for the method. Practicum, liability-insurance and residency fees are listed separately when published. Missing tuition is shown as not published, never as zero.

Deadlines

Each deadline belongs to an intake with its year (for example Fall 2027) and, where the university distinguishes them, to domestic or international applicants. A date is stored as a date only when the year is printed with it; otherwise the printed wording is shown. Past deadlines are marked as passed and are never rolled forward into a new cycle. Rolling admission is shown only when the university says so.

Admissions and tests

Requirements are shown with their published status — required, optional, recommended, not required or waived — including psychology prerequisites, interviews and background checks. Missing GRE information is shown as not verified; it never means “no GRE”. We do not publish acceptance rates or estimate admission chances.

Funding

Doctoral funding has a classification backed by sourced facts: guaranteed, conditional, competitive full, tuition only, partial, or not verified. A proposed classification that is not supported by verified quotes is downgraded to not verified. That assistantships exist does not establish guaranteed funding. Loans are never shown as scholarships.

Sources and verification

Every fact carries the URL of the university page it came from and a verbatim quote. Before publication a script re-fetches each page and searches for the quote; a fact whose quote is not found is stored but never shown. Only the university's own domains (and catalog systems the university runs) count as official sources — never another directory, ranking or lead-generation site. Institutional identity comes from IPEDS (U.S. Department of Education), institutional accreditation from DAPIP and program accreditation from CACREP. Details on the data sources page.

Pages behind bot protection are not bypassed; when an official page cannot be read, the fact stays unverified and the gap is recorded. Each profile shows its last verification date. Deadlines and tuition older than their academic year are flagged for review rather than silently kept.

Independence and advertising

Listing is free. Paid placements are labelled “Sponsored”, appear in their own section, and only where the sponsored program already matches the page's results. Sponsorship never changes what we list, how a program is described, its verified status, its accreditation information, or our editorial selections. See the sponsorship disclosure and the rankings methodology.

What we do not claim

• No licensure eligibility determinations: we report what universities publish.
• No salaries, job-placement, pass or graduation rates for programs, and no implied graduate outcomes.
• No student reviews, ratings or testimonials.
• No partnerships with the universities listed or with CACREP, and no application processing.
• No guarantee that a program will admit you, fund you, find you a practicum site, or enroll students from your state.

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