Minnesota supports one accredited doctoral MFT program, University of Minnesota (PhD). That is the norm rather than the exception at this level, and it means your real comparison is not within the state at all but against programs elsewhere and against studying at a distance.
Every accredited doctoral MFT program in Minnesota, ranked
All 1 of Minnesota’s accredited doctoral MFT programs carry a score out of 100. One publishes nothing, so it forfeits the 60 points for results and cannot pass 40. That is a statement about disclosure, not about teaching.
- #1
University of Minnesota (PhD)
St. Paul, MN
20.2
program score
Campus-basedDoctoralWhere it leads in Minnesota
Qualifying here means qualifying into one of the densest markets in the country: 9.9 times the jobs per head of a typical state, paying a median of $72,470. The range behind that runs from about $54,430 to $99,920, and where you land in it is mostly a question of setting rather than of seniority.
What to know about it
University of Minnesota runs this doctorate from St. Paul, MN. No licensure rate is published, so the score rests on graduation and job placement alone. Ask this accredited program for the numbers it has not posted, specifically graduation and licensure across recent cohorts. A program that has them will send them, and one that hesitates has told you something. The disclosure is not optional under COAMFTE accreditation, so read the gap as something to raise with the program, not as something unremarkable. Three completed cohorts is a thin record, so ask what the years still in progress look like.
Why it sits here A score of 20.2 out of 100 with the outcomes component empty. Read it as the ceiling for a program that has not disclosed, not as a verdict on how it teaches.
University of Minnesota program page The address COAMFTE lists for its outcome data
Score breakdown
- Outcomes 0/60no completed-cohort outcomes published
- Transparency 7.5/25publishes a document with no cohort table in it
- Standing 12.7/15accredited without conditions, current term runs to 2029-11
-
How is this ranking of Minnesota MFT programs ordered?
This ranking of Minnesota MFT programs is ordered on disclosure rather than on results, because nothing in the state has a published record at this level yet. The scores below are capped at 40 out of 100. Three components make up the 100: results carry 60, publishing them at all carries 25, and the accreditor's own verdict on the program carries 15.
Nothing is redistributed away from a program that publishes no results. The alternative is perverse, because it would put every silent program above every program honest enough to report a middling year.
Read a score in the twenties as "this program has not shown its results", never as "this program's results are poor". Nothing is imputed on a program's behalf; the missing component simply goes unearned, and the card explains that where it appears. COAMFTE requires this data to be published, which is why the absence is scorable at all.
Weights, thresholds and what the score deliberately leaves out are on the methodology page.
Does a doctorate change what you earn in Minnesota?
A doctorate does not change what you earn in Minnesota so far as the published figures are concerned, because they cover the license and not the degree. Master's and doctoral holders sit inside the same number, so any claim about what a doctorate earns here is an inference rather than a measurement.
What the doctorate reliably changes is the range of work open to you rather than the rate for clinical hours: faculty posts, program directorships and approved-supervisor roles are gated behind it in a way ordinary practice is not.
The state's own figures, the median, the percentile range and the employment count, are set out alongside the master's programs in Minnesota, and the salary page compares every state and setting.
How do you get licensed as an MFT in Minnesota?
Getting licensed as an MFT in Minnesota starts with a qualifying doctorate, and the state offers exactly one accredited doctoral program to get it from, which is why the out-of-state and distance options on this page matter more here than they would in California. The rest of the route, hours and examination and the paperwork around them, is defined by the Minnesota state board rather than by the accreditor, and this page sends you there rather than paraphrasing rules that move.
The value of the accreditation every program here holds is procedural: it lets a state board accept the MFT degree on its face instead of reviewing your transcript line by line. Qualifying here also means qualifying into an unusually dense market: Minnesota carries 3.85 times the national rate of these jobs per head, so staying after graduation is a more realistic plan than it is in most states.
Ask the Minnesota state board two things in writing: what it counts as a qualifying degree, and how it treats supervised hours accrued out of state. Those answers shape the choice between accredited programs more than any brochure will.
The career page walks the same route in order, and the methodology sets out how the programs above were scored.
MFT programs in Minnesota by city
One city in Minnesota has a page of its own, covering the programs based there and what the license pays in that metropolitan area. Programs in the rest of the state are on this page and nowhere else.
Where else can you study if Minnesota does not have what you want?
If Minnesota does not have what you want, looking outward is the normal case here rather than a fallback, because the state holds one accredited program.
The nearest alternatives with accredited doctoral MFT programs are Illinois (one), Kansas (one), Michigan (one). 34 states have no accredited programs at this level at all, which is the gap the accredited distance programs exist to fill.
If moving is off the table, the online and hybrid doctoral ranking is the page to read next.
Widen it further and the national ranking covers all 18 programs with a publishable record.
Cities near Minnesota with their own page
These sit elsewhere in the midwest, and each has a page covering the programs based there and what the job pays in that metropolitan area rather than statewide.
Common questions about MFT programs in Minnesota
How many accredited doctoral MFT programs are in Minnesota?
Can you get licensed as an MFT in Minnesota with an online degree?
Does a doctorate pay for itself for an MFT in Minnesota?
What if the one accredited doctoral program in Minnesota is not right for you?
Where do these figures come from?
These figures come from Minnesota's programs and from two public bodies. Nothing here is an estimate of ours, and where a program has published nothing the page says so rather than filling the gap.
- COAMFTE Directory of Accredited Programs Accredited programs in Minnesota, their level, city and status. Read 2026-08-21.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2025 release, SOC 21-1013, all Minnesota postholders.
- Ranking methodology The three factors, their weights, and the eligibility floor.