School Counseling and Guidance Services
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OverviewSalary and DebtIs a Bachelor's EnoughCareersSchoolsRelated ProgramsGenderRace/Origin
Overview
School counseling and guidance services is a program that prepares individuals to apply the theory and principles of guidance and counseling to the provision of support for the personal, social, educational, and vocational development of students, and the organizing of guidance services within elementary, middle and secondary educational institutions. includes instruction in legal and professional requirements, therapeutic counselor intervention, vocational counseling, and related sociological and psychological foundations.
Highlights
School with the highest reported median starting salary ($90K) with a Doctorate: Regent University
Explore Pathways
Careers for program graduates
School counseling and guidance services majors work in these careers, which are sized by percentage of majors in the career (at least 1%) and colored by the predominant level of education.
Educational, Guidance, and Car...Elementary and Middle School S...Specialized CounselorsMental Health CounselorsSubstance Abuse and Behavioral...General Office ClerksEducation and childcare admini...Secondary School TeachersTeaching AssistantsSpecialized Social WorkersPostsecondary TeachersMedical and Health Services Ma...Specialized ManagersMarriage and Family TherapistsRehabilitation Counselors
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Current completions
What level of degree do most graduates achieve, and do they match what your goals?
05K10K15K0-1 Year Certificate1-2 Year CertificateBachelor's DegreePostbaccalaureate CertMaster's DegreePost-master's CertResearch Doctorate
SOURCES:
Completions over time
Have completions for school student counseling changed over time? Increasing completions may mean you'll likely have an easier time finding a school that offers this degree, with the opposite being true as well.
Show percentages
Number of graduates
05,00010,00015,000200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019
Other Doctorate
Research Doctorate
Post-master's Cert
Master's Degree
Postbaccalaureate Cert
Bachelor's Degree
1-2 Year Certificate
0-1 Year Certificate
Salary and Debt
How are students who recently completed a degree in school counseling and guidance services doing?
Below is the distribution of starting salaries along with accumulated federal and private education loans across schools that offer a degree in the field student counseling and personnel services, which includes school counseling and guidance services.
Median starting salaries
$44K$67K$0$50K$100KDoctorateMaster's
Median cumulative loan amount
$41K$0$20K$40K$60K$80KMaster's
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Context: median salaries
How does the median (middle) salary for school student counseling majors compare to the median salaries for other college majors?
$54K$0$20K$40K$60K$80K$100K
Distribution: school student counseling majors' salaries by education level
What is the salary distribution for graduates with a bachelor's inschool student counseling by the level of their highest degree (Graduate degrees may not be in the same field as the bachelor’s)
$55K$81K$62K$43K$0$20K$40K$60K$80K$100KBachelor'sMaster'sDoctorateProfessional
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
Is a bachelor's degree all you need?
Education level of workers with a bachelor's in school student counseling
Is a bachelor's degree going to be sufficient to make you competative in the job market? We can look at the education level of workers with a bachelors in this degree to see if there is a likely need for a graduate degree. You'll also want to check out the careers section on this page to where they are employed.
This chart shows the level of education of workers with a bachelor's degree in school student counseling. The worker's graduate degree may have been completed in a different field.
Education level of workers
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
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Context: Graduate degrees in any field by undergraduate ACS degree
About 88% of school student counseling majors chose to also earn a graduate degree (possibly of a different major). The percentage of school student counseling majors who also earned a graduate degree is higher than about 99% of other fields.
88%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Context: Percentage salary boost obtained with a graduate degree
How important is a graduate degree for earning a higher salary? We can see the difference in salary of workers with a bachelors in this degree to workers with a bachelor’s AND a graduate degree.
29%91%45%0%20%40%60%80%100%Bachelor's to Master'sBachelor's to DoctorateBachelor's to Professional
Careers
Top careers for those with a degree in school student counseling
Following are the most frequent jobs held by people who earned a bachelor's degree in School Student Counseling (which combines 3 programs), though may not be limited to just those with a bachelor’s.
  1. Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors
  2. Elementary and Middle School School Teachers
  3. Specialized Counselors
  4. Mental Health Counselors
  5. Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors
  6. General Office Clerks
  7. Education and childcare administrators
  8. Secondary School Teachers
  9. Teaching Assistants
  10. Specialized Social Workers
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Careers for school student counseling majors
Where do school student counseling majors work, and how well do those jobs pay? A ** in the job title indicates that the Department of Education recommends this job for this program.
Not so much?
The top ten careers for workers with a bachelor's in school student counseling
Take a minute to interact with this sankey diagram. Follow the top ten jobs held by school student counseling graduates through to their most hired majors. Learn where it may easiest to find work. Expand the careers to explore other majors that might lead to the job that excites you the most. *For many majors, the top ten jobs don't even include half of graduates!*
Expand careers
Educational, Guidanc...Elementary and Middl...Specialized Counselo...Mental Health Counse...Substance Abuse and ...General Office Clerk...Education and childc...Secondary School Tea...Teaching AssistantsSpecialized Social W...All othersThis degreeTop 10 Careers
Where can I complete this degree
Explore schools that offer school counseling and guidance services degrees and certificates
You can use this table to find schools that offer this program based on location and program level offered. Each entry goes to a school page similar to this one with all our information about that school.
Understanding the columns

The school list includes a few facts about each school that give you an idea of the educational quality each school might offer:

  • Student-Faculty Ratio: A small number of students per full-time instructor suggests individual attention for each student and an up-to-date curriculum.

  • Satisfaction Rate: A high percentage of returning first-year students should correlate with satisfaction (schools call this their retention rate).

  • Repayment Rate: A high repayment rate means most alumni earn enough to make progress repaying loans within 7 years of leaving.

We also show the total enrollment for the school as measured by full-time-equivalent (FTE) students enrolled annually.

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Related Programs
Fewer details
Careers for school student counseling majors
school student counseling is part of a larger collection of programs: Student Counseling, Library Science, and other Education-adjacent fields. Is there a different program that's close to school student counseling that might be a better match for your interests? You can use this table to see a little about the programs that fall under this umbrella. If you click on any of the table headers, that will sort the table by that column, or click on a row and see Ididio's profile for that program.
Gender
Gender of recent graduates
Of all people with any degree in school counseling and guidance services earned in the last academic year, 83% were women.
Gender
Men
Women
SOURCES:
Fewer details
Completions over time
Have completions by gender changed over time, or at specific levels of education?
Award level
All levels
05K10K15KNumber of graduates200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019
Women
Men
Context: Gender representation
How does the gender distribution in this major compare to all other majors?
81%19%0%20%40%60%80%100%WomenMen
Context: Percentage women
This major has a higher percentage of women than 84% other programs.
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary with this degree? The closer the bar are, the less discrepancy there is.
$53K$65K$0$50K$100K$150K$200K$250KWomenMen
Context: Salary inequity
For school student counseling graduates, men have a 21% higher median salary than women, This is high: 62% of programs have graduates with lower salary inequities.
21%21%0%20%40%60%80%100%
Race/Origin
Race/Origin of recent graduates
Here is an overview of race/origin for all school counseling and guidance services graduates from this last academic year. We found a lower percentage of international graduates than in 55% of other programs.
Race/Origin
White
Black
Pacific Islander
Hispanic
Asian
American Indian
Multiracial
Not Reported
International
SOURCES:
Fewer details
Completions over time
Have completions by race/origin changed over time, or at specific levels of education?
Award level
All levels
05K10K15KNumber of graduates200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019
International
Not Reported
Multiracial
American Indian
Asian
Hispanic
Pacific Islander
Black
White
Context: Percentage of Minority Graduates
Minority students comprise a lower percentage of graduates than in 54% of other programs.