2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2020-2021, 3,116 people earned their degree in pastoral counseling and specialized ministries, making the major the 171st most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, pastoral counseling and specialized ministries graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $31,592 and had an average of $26,577 in loans still to pay off.

Across Pennsylvania, there were 188 pastoral counseling and specialized ministries graduates with average earnings and debt of $27,224 and $27,729 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 61 pastoral counseling and specialized ministries graduates with average earnings and debt of $40,741 and $27,572 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania” ranking looked at 7 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in pastoral counseling and specialized ministries. That schools that top this list have a program in pastoral counseling and specialized ministries in which the largest percentage of students at the school are enrolled.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania

The colleges and universities below are the best for pennsylvania bachelor’s degree pastoral counseling students.

Top 7 Most Focused Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries in Pennsylvania

1

University of Valley Forge
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

$30,735 Average Early-Career Earnings

$31,000 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Valley Forge. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania list. This small school is located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and it awarded 9 bachelors’s pastoral counseling degrees in 2020-2021.

Read full report on Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries at University of Valley Forge

2

Lancaster Bible College
Lancaster, Pennsylvania

#24 overall quality in Pennsylvania

$27,628 Average Early-Career Earnings

$23,250 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Lancaster Bible College. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania list. This small school is located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and it awarded 21 bachelors’s pastoral counseling degrees in 2020-2021.

Full Lancaster Bible College Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries Report

3

Cairn University
Langhorne, Pennsylvania

$28,938 Average Student Debt

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Cairn University. The school came in at #3 for the Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania. Located in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, this small private not-for-profit school handed out 11 degrees to qualified bachelors’s pastoral counseling students in 2020-2021.

Read full report on Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries at Cairn University

4

Geneva College
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania

$21,255 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Geneva College. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania list. This small school is located in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and it awarded 11 bachelors’s pastoral counseling degrees in 2020-2021.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 3.8%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full Geneva Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries Report

5

Eastern University
Saint Davids, Pennsylvania

$29,279 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Eastern University. The school came in at #5 for the Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania. Eastern University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Saint Davids, Pennsylvania. The school has a small population, and it awarded 7 bachelors’s degrees in 2020-2021.

Read full report on Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries at Eastern University

6

Clarks Summit University
South Abington Township, Pennsylvania

Clarks Summit University landed the #6 spot on the 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania ranking. Clarks Summit University is a small school located in South Abington Township, Pennsylvania that handed out 2 bachelors’s pastoral counseling degrees in 2020-2021.

Read more about Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries at CSU

7

La Salle University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

La Salle University ranked #7 on this year’s Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on Pastoral Counseling Major in Pennsylvania list. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s pastoral counseling degrees to 0 students in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 5.0%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Full La Salle University Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries Report

• Most Focused Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries in the Middle Atlantic Region
• Most Focused Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Pastoral Counseling & Specialized Ministries

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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate 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.