All three of Texas's accredited doctoral MFT programs are ranked below, not just the ones with results to show. One score covers all of them, combining published outcomes with disclosure and accreditation standing.
Every accredited doctoral MFT program in Texas, ranked
All 3 of Texas’s accredited doctoral MFT programs carry a score out of 100. Two have a full published record behind their outcomes component. 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
Texas Tech University (PhD)
Lubbock, TX
86.1
program score
Campus-basedDoctoral4 yearsAccredited since May 1, 19816 scored cohortsWhat Texas Tech University publishes about its graduates, against the median for comparable programs - Finish on time62.9%typical is 66.7%
- Working in the field100%typical is 100%
From 6 completed cohorts the program published itself. The mark on each bar is the median for comparable programs.
Where it leads in Texas
Texas carries less of this work per head than most states, at a median of $46,300, so it is worth asking the program where its graduates end up. Ten per cent earn under $36,700 and ten per cent over $93,500, a spread driven more by whether you are salaried or in practice than by years served.
What to know about it
Texas Tech University has been accredited on this doctorate since 1981, and now admits about 26 students a cohort. Direction of travel is the worry, falling from 85.5% in the earlier cohorts to 65.7% in the later ones. Intake has grown across the window, from about 7 a cohort to 26. Three of the programs ranked here are in Texas, and this is one of them. Worth asking early about the assistantships and tuition remission it advertises, rather than waiting for an offer. Much of the published table is still pending, 6 cohorts complete out of 10. Six or more completed cohorts is enough history to trust the pattern rather than the latest year.
Why it sits here Scored 86.1 of 100, with 47.5 of 60 from a record covering 6 completed cohorts and 234 students.
Cohort by cohort
Cohort Admitted Graduated Placed Licensed 2025-2026 3 in process in process in process 2024-2025 3 in process in process in process 2023-2024 73 in process in process in process 2022-2023 6 in process in process in process 2021-2022 5 80% 100% – 2020-2021 72 57.1% 100% – Texas Tech University program page Its published outcome table
Score breakdown
- Outcomes 47.5/6079.1 across 6 completed cohorts
- Transparency 25/25publishes 6 completed cohorts at the address COAMFTE lists
- Standing 13.7/15accredited without conditions, current term runs to 2031-11
234 students admitted since 2015
- #2 Accredited with stipulations
Texas Wesleyan University (PhD)
Fort Worth, TX
84.1
program score
Campus-basedDoctoral4 YearsAccredited since 11/01/20196 scored cohortsWhat Texas Wesleyan University publishes about its graduates, against the median for comparable programs - Finish on time70.4%typical is 66.7%
- Working in the field100%typical is 100%
From 6 completed cohorts the program published itself. The mark on each bar is the median for comparable programs.
Where it leads in Texas
This is a quieter market than most: Texas sits in the bottom quarter of states for jobs per head, paying a median of $46,300. The range behind that runs from about $36,700 to $93,500, and where you land in it is mostly a question of setting rather than of seniority.
What to know about it
The record here rests on cohorts of about 9 students. Individual years swing hard, though, from 50% in 2015-2016 to 100% in 2016-2017, so the average is doing some hiding. Finishing is the hard part here rather than getting hired: 70.4% graduate on time, and 100% of those who do find relevant work. Performance has barely moved in 6 years, 68.2% across the earlier cohorts and 70.5% across the later ones. No licensure rate is published, which is true of every program on this page, so the score rests on graduation and placement alone. Several cohorts are still running, 4 of them, the most recent entering in 2024-2025. Much of the published table is still pending, 6 cohorts complete out of 10. Stipulations are on file, meaning a fixed window to correct something. License eligibility is unaffected, and it is a fair question at interview.
Why it sits here Scored 84.1 of 100, with 50 of 60 from a record covering 6 completed cohorts and 87 students.
Cohort by cohort
Cohort Admitted Graduated Placed Licensed 2024-2025 7 in process in process in process 2023-2024 6 in process in process in process 2022-2023 13 in process in process in process 2021-2022 7 in process in process in process 2020-2021 10 50% 100% – 2019-2020 10 90% 100% – Texas Wesleyan University program page Its published outcome table
Score breakdown
- Outcomes 50/6083.4 across 6 completed cohorts
- Transparency 25/25publishes 6 completed cohorts at the address COAMFTE lists
- Standing 9.1/15accredited with stipulations, current term runs to 2032-11
87 students admitted since 2015
- #3
Texas Woman's University (PhD)
Denton, TX
21.2
program score
Campus-basedDoctoralWhere it leads in Texas
Texas carries less of this work per head than most states, at a median of $46,300, so it is worth asking the program where its graduates end up. Ten per cent earn under $36,700 and ten per cent over $93,500, a spread driven more by whether you are salaried or in practice than by years served.
What to know about it
Texas Woman's University runs this doctorate from Denton, TX. No licensure rate is published, which is true of every program on this page, so the score rests on graduation and placement alone. Worth asking early about the assistantships and tuition remission it advertises, rather than waiting for an offer. A part-time route exists, so the advertised length is not the only timetable. Publishing this data is a condition of the accreditation the program holds, so its absence is worth a question rather than a shrug. Three completed cohorts is a thin record, so ask what the years still in progress look like.
Why it sits here A score of 21.2 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.
Texas Woman's University 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 13.7/15accredited without conditions, current term runs to 2031-11
-
How is this ranking of Texas MFT programs ordered?
This ranking of Texas MFT programs is ordered in two groups: two programs with published results, scored on all three components, and one without, whose scores cannot pass 40 because the 60 points for results go unearned. Every program is marked out of 100 on the same three things: what its graduates achieved (60 points), whether it published that at the address the accreditor lists (25), and the standing of its accreditation (15).
A program that publishes nothing does not have the outcomes weight handed back to it. If it did, disclosure would become a liability: publish a mediocre record and score below the program that published nothing at all.
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 Texas?
A doctorate does not change what you earn in Texas 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.
Where the doctorate pays is in the jobs that will not consider a master's at all, which is a small and specific set: faculty, research, program direction, approved supervision.
The state's own figures, the median, the percentile range and the employment count, are set out alongside the master's programs in Texas, and the salary page compares every state and setting.
How do you get licensed as an MFT in Texas?
Getting licensed as an MFT in Texas runs degree, then supervised hours, then examination, and the three programs above are where the first step happens without leaving the state. Beyond the degree, Texas's specific requirements for supervised hours and coursework belong to its state licensing board, and repeating them here would mean publishing numbers that go out of date quietly and are acted on expensively.
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. Worth weighing alongside it: Texas carries fewer of these jobs per head than the country as a whole, at 0.23 times the national rate, so ask the programs above where their graduates actually end up.
Before choosing between accredited programs, put two questions to the Texas state board rather than to an admissions office: the supervised-hour requirement, and whether hours earned elsewhere transfer. An admissions office will answer; the board decides.
The career page walks the same route in order, and the methodology sets out how the programs above were scored.
MFT programs in Texas by city
3 cities in Texas have a page of their own, each covering the programs based there and what the job pays in that metropolitan area rather than statewide. Programs in the rest of the state are on this page and nowhere else.
Where else can you study if Texas does not have what you want?
If Texas does not have what you want, the wider field is open to you, but you can build a real shortlist inside the state alone, which most states cannot manage at this level.
The nearest alternatives with accredited doctoral MFT programs are Florida (three), Georgia (one), Louisiana (one). 34 states have no accredited programs at this level at all, which is the gap the accredited distance programs exist to fill.
The distance doctoral ranking lists the programs open to you wherever in Texas you live.
To see Texas's programs against the other 18 scored nationally, the national ranking puts them in one order.
Cities near Texas with their own page
These sit elsewhere in the south, 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 Texas
How many accredited doctoral MFT programs are in Texas?
Can you get licensed as an MFT in Texas with an online degree?
What does a doctoral MFT degree get you in Texas?
Should you study in Texas or move for a program?
Where do these figures come from?
These figures come from the bodies that publish them. COAMFTE says what is accredited in Texas, each program reports its own graduate outcomes, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the pay.
- COAMFTE Directory of Accredited Programs Accredited programs in Texas, 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 Texas postholders.
- Ranking methodology The three factors, their weights, and the eligibility floor.
Show all 3 program pages cited
Texas Wesleyan University (PhD) Texas Tech University (PhD) Texas Woman's University (PhD)