2023 Best Value Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2020-2021, 1,430 people earned their degree in pastoral studies/counseling, making the major the 364th most popular in the United States.

Across the Middle Atlantic region, there were 63 pastoral studies/counseling graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking looked at 3 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in pastoral studies/counseling. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality pastoral studies/counseling programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the pastoral studies/counseling program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Pastoral Studies/Counseling 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 Value Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list to help you make the college decision.

One of our other unique offerings is College Combat. This tool lets you build your own customized comparisons utilizing the factors that are most important to you. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Best Value Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for middle atlantic region pastoral studies/counseling students.

Top 3 Best Value Colleges for Pastoral Studies/Counseling in the Middle Atlantic Region

1

Lancaster Bible College
Lancaster, Pennsylvania

#1 in overall quality

$21,430 Average Net Price

$26,849 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Lancaster Bible College. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region. Lancaster Bible College is a small school located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that handed out 36 ’s pastoral studies/counseling degrees in 2020-2021.

Lancaster Bible College also took the #1 spot in our “Best Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Lancaster Bible College is $21,430 for Middle Atlantic Region Pastoral Studies/Counseling students.

Full Lancaster Bible College Pastoral Studies/Counseling Report

2

University of Valley Forge
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

#2 in overall quality

$21,509 Average Net Price

$30,162 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Valley Forge landed the #2 spot on the list. University of Valley Forge is a small school located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania that handed out 4 ’s pastoral studies/counseling degrees in 2020-2021.

UVF not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list. The yearly cost to attend UVF is $21,509 for Middle Atlantic Region Pastoral Studies/Counseling students.

Read more about Pastoral Studies/Counseling at University of Valley Forge

3

Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
New York, New York

#3 in overall quality

$101,525 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion landed the #3 spot on the list. Located in New York, New York, this small private not-for-profit school handed out 4 diplomas to qualified ’s pastoral studies/counseling students in 2020-2021.

HUC - JIR did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Pastoral Studies/Counseling Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list.

Since the school has a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.0% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Full HUC - JIR Pastoral Studies/Counseling Report

• Best Value Colleges for Pastoral Studies/Counseling

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.