The doctoral program is for those students who have completed a master's degree in counseling or counseling-related fields who aspire to careers in areas such as college, university, or community college teaching positions in counselor education or related fields; supervisory positions in schools, community agencies, state departments of education; counseling positions in student development programs and counseling centers in higher education; and/or private mental health counseling/consultation practice employee assistance programs.

The major requires advanced course work, practicum, internship, and dissertation hours of study beyond the master's degree. Students in the PhD major in counselor education can work toward endorsement for counseling licensure, if licensure has not been received prior to entering the doctoral program. Preference is given to those with a 3.5 GPA on any graduate work completed prior to application. Preference is also given to students who score equal to or higher than the 70th percentile on the verbal area and the 50th percentile on the quantitative area of the GRE, based on the norms that were in effect when the test was taken, and a 4.5 on the analytic writing subtest.