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Escondido, California has 23 accredited schools offering mental health counseling programs, with tuition ranging from $12,540 to $64,984 per year for indexed programs. Escondido has a population of about 149,913. Median household income is $84,477 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 27.8% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro area, the top-earning mental health counseling-related role is Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker at a median $75,570 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer mental health counseling programs near Escondido, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Escondido 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 Escondido. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior Colleges and University CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all California schools on the California mental health counseling page.
Escondido is part of the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA metro area (BLS area code 41740). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to California statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselor | $57,660 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $51,528 |
| Marriage and Family Therapist | $49,610 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $44,334 |
| Clinical and Counseling Psychologist | $72,090 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $64,424 |
| Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker | $75,570 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $67,534 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 149,913 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $84,477 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 27.8% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 111.9 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 23 accredited schools offering mental health counseling programs near Escondido. The closest is Alliant International University-San Diego in San Diego, CA (16.5 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is The Chicago School at Anaheim (65.7 miles). 7 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying mental health counseling-related roles near Escondido are: Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker ($75,570), Clinical and Counseling Psychologist ($72,090), Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselor ($57,660). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with California statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
San Marcos, CA is 5.9 miles from Escondido and has its own set of local mental health counseling programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Escondido’s median household income of $84,477 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Escondido while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and California public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
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 Escondido:
Data verified: August 11, 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 Mental Health Counseling Schools in California (2026)
