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Valparaiso, Indiana has 5 accredited schools offering counseling programs, with tuition ranging from $8,675 to $16,094 per year for indexed programs. Valparaiso has a population of about 35,065. In the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area, the top-earning counseling-related role is Social and Community Service Manager at a median $79,150 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer counseling programs near Valparaiso, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Valparaiso city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from Valparaiso. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Indiana schools on the Indiana counseling page.
Valparaiso is part of the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area (BLS area code 16980). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Indiana statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselor | $61,600 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $59,459 |
| Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselor and Advisor | $64,730 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $62,481 |
| Marriage and Family Therapist | $61,360 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $59,228 |
| Rehabilitation Counselor | $49,350 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $47,635 |
| Counselor, All Other | $49,320 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $47,606 |
| Social and Community Service Manager | $79,150 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $76,400 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 103.6 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
| Counseling-related employment in Porter County | 808 workers, 201 establishments | BLS QCEW 2024 annual |
Our directory has 5 accredited schools offering counseling programs near Valparaiso. The closest is Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, IN (1.2 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is University of Chicago (35.5 miles). 5 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying counseling-related roles near Valparaiso are: Social and Community Service Manager ($79,150), Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselor and Advisor ($64,730), Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselor ($61,600). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Indiana statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Portage, IN is 10.0 miles from Valparaiso and has its own set of local counseling programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for Valparaiso:
Data verified: August 31, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Best Counseling Schools in Indiana: Online Programs (2026)
