Michigan School Counselor
Michigan school counselors work with pre-K through 12th grade students. The state projects about 710 openings a year from 2024 to 2034, and the May 2025 median wage is $59,440. Most hold a master’s plus a School Counselor License or NT endorsement, and eligible applicants may qualify for preliminary or temporary licenses. Seven CACREP-accredited programs offer the degree.
Michigan Links
- Michigan School Counselor
- How to become a Michigan School Counselor
- Michigan School Counselor Certification
- Michigan School Counselor Association
- Michigan Department of Education
Marcus is a junior at a Detroit high school who hasn’t thought much about college. His grades are fine. He just doesn’t see a path. His school counselor spends three sessions mapping his interests. He’s good with numbers, likes building things, and never considered engineering. By spring, he’s got an application in to Michigan Tech. That’s the work: turning “I don’t know” into a direction, one student at a time.
Michigan school counselors work across pre-K through 12th grade, covering academic planning, career development, and social-emotional support. It’s demanding work, and Michigan caseloads are among the heaviest in the country. The right credential depends on your preparation and qualifications, not simply on whether you teach. Michigan issues a School Counselor License, a School Counselor (NT) endorsement on a Michigan teaching certificate, and preliminary and temporary licenses for eligible applicants. The certification page explains how each one works.
What School Counselors Do in Michigan
Michigan school counselors work across three overlapping areas: academic development, career development, and social-emotional support.
On the academic side, a counselor might monitor a student whose grades slipped after a family crisis, coordinating with teachers to ease short-term pressure while the student stabilizes. On the career side, they’re helping students weigh four-year colleges, career and technical education (CTE), apprenticeships, the military, and community college. In districts where fewer students go on to college, that guidance can change what a student does after graduation.
On the social-emotional side, students come to school counselors when everything outside the classroom makes it hard to function inside it. That includes individual and group counseling, crisis response, and connecting students and families to community resources when school-based support isn’t enough.
Most comprehensive programs are built on the ASCA National Model, the American School Counselor Association’s framework for what a school counseling program should look like. ASCA also publishes a list of appropriate and inappropriate duties, and it doesn’t hedge: building the master schedule, covering classes, and coordinating testing programs aren’t what counselors are trained to do.
In practice, those lines blur. With caseloads as high as they are in many Michigan districts, plenty of counselors still end up running test days and fixing schedules. That tension is part of the honest picture of this career.
Job Outlook in Michigan
Michigan projects about 710 openings a year for school and career counselors from 2024 to 2034, according to Projections Central. Very few of those are new positions. Employment is projected to change by just 1.6% over the decade, so most openings come from counselors who retire, change careers, or leave the state.
The bigger story here is caseload. ASCA’s analysis of federal data puts Michigan at roughly 565 students per school counselor in 2024-25, second only to Arizona and more than double the 250:1 ratio ASCA recommends. The national figure that year was about 372:1.
For someone entering the field, that cuts two ways. Districts have a steady reason to keep hiring as counselors retire, though vacancy numbers and locations vary by district. But a new counselor in Michigan should expect a caseload well above what any graduate program will describe as ideal.
About 9,170 people worked in this occupation in Michigan as of May 2025. That federal category also includes college and career advisors, so not every one of those jobs is in a K-12 school.
School Counselor Salary in Michigan
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, Michigan’s median wage for school and career counselors was $59,440 in May 2025, below the national median of $64,330. The BLS reports school counselors under the broader occupation of Educational, Guidance, and Career Counselors and Advisors, so these figures include college and career advisors. Your own pay will depend more on your district’s salary schedule and your years of experience than on any statewide number.
| Percentile | Annual Salary (May 2025) |
|---|---|
| 10th | $42,380 |
| 25th | $47,290 |
| Median (50th) | $59,440 |
| 75th | $75,870 |
| 90th | $89,280 |
Pay also varies widely by region. In the BLS OEWS May 2025 data for the six Michigan metro areas with the most counselors, medians run from $68,280 in Lansing to $48,500 in Flint.
| Metro Area | Median Salary |
|---|---|
| Lansing-East Lansing, MI | $68,280 |
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | $62,840 |
| Ann Arbor, MI | $62,710 |
| Kalamazoo-Portage, MI | $57,890 |
| Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI | $49,960 |
| Flint, MI | $48,500 |
CACREP-Accredited School Counseling Programs in Michigan
Seven Michigan universities offer a CACREP-accredited master’s in school counseling. The table lists five of them, ordered by the number of master’s graduates each reported for 2023, which measures size, not quality.
| Institution | City | Degree | Accredited Through | Master’s Graduates (2023) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayne State University | Detroit | M.A. | October 31, 2032 | 61 |
| Eastern Michigan University | Ypsilanti | M.A. | October 31, 2030 | 23 |
| Oakland University | Rochester | M.A. | October 31, 2027 | 19 |
| Western Michigan University | Kalamazoo | M.A. | October 31, 2031 | 10 |
| Central Michigan University | Mt. Pleasant | M.A. | October 31, 2029 | 9 |
Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor is also CACREP-accredited, through October 31, 2033. It does not report graduates under the federal code used here, so it is listed separately rather than placed in the size order.
University of Detroit Mercy in Detroit is also CACREP-accredited, through October 31, 2033. It does not report graduates under the federal code used here, so it is listed separately rather than placed in the size order.
Oakland University and Western Michigan University both hold CACREP Accredited (Progress Report Required) status. Oakland’s current accreditation cycle ends October 31, 2027.
CACREP accreditation does not automatically establish eligibility for Michigan school counselor credentials. Confirm that the program meets Michigan Department of Education requirements before enrolling.
How this table was built. Every program here is accredited by CACREP as a School Counseling program, verified against the CACREP register on September 30, 2026. Any program whose CACREP status shows a teach-out, closure, show-cause or withdrawal is excluded, because a reader cannot reliably enroll in it. Programs are ordered by the number of master’s graduates each university reported to the federal IPEDS survey for 2023 under CIP code 13.1101, which measures size, not quality. That count covers the whole university, so a school running more than one school counseling master’s reports them together, and a low count can mean some graduates are reported under a different code. Treat the order as a rough guide to size rather than a ranking. Where a university reports no graduates under that code we name it below the table rather than place it in the order. CACREP accreditation is not the same as state approval: check the Michigan requirements for school counselor certification before you enroll.
- Openings, not growth. Michigan projects about 710 openings a year from 2024 to 2034, mostly from retirements and turnover, with employment close to flat.
- Heavy caseloads. At roughly 565 students per counselor in 2024-25, Michigan has the second-highest ratio in the country.
- Pay sits below the national median. The May 2025 median is $59,440, below the national median of $64,330, and metro medians range from $48,500 to $68,280.
- Seven accredited programs. Wayne State, Eastern Michigan, and Oakland report the most graduates. Check Michigan’s certification requirements before you enroll anywhere.
Picked a program or two from the list above? Next, map your Michigan credential path, from degree to internship to the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC) School Counselor test (Field 051), where your pathway requires it.
