PsychedOnCaffeine

My gal asked me about what I really wanted to do with my future, whether I thought I'd be more macro or clinical. Told me a little about the school. Asked what type of field placement I'd be interested in and what skills I thought I could bring that would be an asset to the community. Then pretty much answered any questions I had. Maybe 45 minutes.

Mine was with Casey McGovern and it was just a really nice and casual conversation! She really only asked me about the two summer courses I took and my internships. I was expecting more questions but I have a big mouth so it still took up a decent amount of time. She talked a lot about the program and made me even more excited/hopeful to go there  We also talked about what kind of field placements I would be open to doing since I plan on applying for the GRI but that only covers one year. Of course you also have the chance to ask questions at the end. I'm pretty sure it took about 30 minutes. I think most people have also described their Penn interviews as being super laid-back and chill - I really liked how this application process went, especially considering how they notified me less than a week after the interview! Compared to Columbia who took almost 3 months just to waitlist me, that's pretty good LOL 
Good luck with your interview!!!

My advice would be to look at the curriculum of programs you are interested in to better understand the differences in degrees. The MSW is very social and economic justice oriented. I encourage you to read the NASW Code of Ethics and browse around the website.
In general an MHC or MFT is going to narrow your career focus and options. You will be trained to provide therapy. An MSW will train you in therapy, community organizing, advanced case management, policy, leadership, etc. The MSW is more broad because social workers work in many different types of organizations and in many different roles. That is why the degree is considered more flexible. You can be a therapist, you can be a case manager, you can work in policy, you can work in program development, you can work in advocacy... the possibilities are vast. You can work in nonprofits, government agencies, hospitals, private companies, managed care organizations, private practice, etc. 
If you start out as a therapist and decide that's not for you or 5, 10, 15+ years from now want to do something else, you can transition more easily with an MSW in my opinion.
I started out as an outpatient therapist in community mental health then transitioned to medical social work, which is more on the case management side. In my experience MSWs are the ones typically promoted into leadership and management roles. 
There are fewer LMFTs and LPCs so it can be more difficult  to find supervision. You will want to research the area you plan to live and practice in to assess how difficult this may be. 
I'm not sure if this has changed, but years ago LCSWs were the only ones that could bill Medicare and therefore are preferred by a lot of agencies. This may have changed so that's something to look into and consider.
I would also encourage you to look into licensing requirements for the state you want to live in to gain insight into what will be expected of you for an independent license. If you plan to move around, LCSW requirements vary widely from state-to-state, whereas LPC is more transferable (pretty sure I'm remembering correctly, but double check this). I'm unsure how the LMFT transfers. 
Hopefully this has provided some helpful information.
 

I think the differences you list are spot on! If I were to add just 2 things
1) counseling programs also have more multiculturalism/“social justice” courses embedded in their curriculum. depending on the program, you may only have one or two at most for clinical programs whereas counseling programs have multicultural focus engrained in the curriculum 
2) like personallycentered said, the populations you practice with are typically different. In counseling programs you are likely doing practicum at college/university counseling centers, though there are opportunities to work with other populations and external agencies as well depending on the program
my advice is to not pick one or the other in terms of program type, but rather pick your programs based upon research interest match and the types of populations you want to provide counseling to and see if those programs have externship practica with those populations. 
Also, while personally entered is correct that most counseling psych programs are in education departments, some are in psych departments as well! Typically the ones in psych departments allot more collaborative research opportunities so just something to remain aware of 

for simplicity, clinical is concerned w/ "clinical" populations, counseling is more concerned with "normative" or "typically developing" populations. Also, most clinical programs are housed in psychology departments, whereas counseling programs are housed in education departments. It's everything you've already googled, tons of overlap b/w the two, some differences as far as approach, used to be more distinct in the past. Still two different entitites though, major differences just being what they're generally ineterested in researching, who they're interested in researching, and somewhat "how" that research is conducted (qualitative is more counseling, but both do mixed-methods and counseling is for sure very heavily embedded in high level stat stuff like HLM SEM and whatever). My MS advisor also said there are a lot more "bad" clinical programs than there are "bad" counseling programs (which I think he relays to like for profit PsyD kinds of clinical programs).
To make app stand out, for sure try to have really good LORs, that will just help the committees take more interest in learning about you. I'd also say to stand out u should make sure your your supervisors' and advisors' names are clearly included on your CV/resume. If a committee member recognizes one of the names then that will certainly help you stand out from the crowd (this worked for me).
 

I applied with interested in resilience and parenting and these are a few places that had labs that may match your interests (mostly counseling psych) - Southern Mississippi, Nebraksa, Marquette, and University of Massachusetts.
 
Good luck ! 

I showed your post to my friend who is a student at University of Georgia and she said "Yes that’s exactly what my lab does lol".
My friend also said:
-"They can also read the book ordinary magic and they'll find a bunch of mentors on that."
-"There’s plenty of people who study that at Minnesota"
 

got an email from my top school
was about travel reimbursements
stomach did a flip anyway!

Thank you this is helpful!! I've found some recent (and some older) publications that pretty clearly link my POI's interests and my future interests (which makes sense, considering my current experiences have helped lead me to my future interests) so I think I may use that as a jumping off point, as in "I'm excited about your current research and would be interested to expand it into xyz interest, especially given current research has shown a strong link between the two." I do think the general theories this POI does research with fit pretty nicely with most, if not all, of my interests so that's encouraging! 
 

Be really careful though; while it's good to be clear about your interests to ensure you don't end up somewhere you'll be unhappy, if you sound too picky about which projects you're willing to work on, PIs might grow leery. Maybe use language like, "I'm excited about this and this and this; I'm *especially* interested though in this part of your work and am excited about the possibility of working with you on it", or something, etc.

^Totally feel you on that.
I don't know if this would be helpful, but I think generally PIs are willing to move, within reasonable limits, away from their main research focus if it helps their graduate students. They're also looking for new ideas and possible future directions from their grad student so that they can produce new and exciting research. I think it would benefit you to be honest about your research interests, see if they have something similar in mind (they might) and whether they have the resources to start it with you. Something along the lines of "I'm really excited about your current research, as I have a lot of experience in the same arena such as xyz, and I was wondering if you had any thoughts about going along this path....*elaborate more on your interests* This might be something I would want to explore during my graduate training, and I wanted to get your two cents on it." Granted, if it's waaaay off from their current research, then I don't know and this might be indicative of a poor fit. 

Has anyone heard from Washington University in St. Louis? I just got an email that my fellowship application there was complete and nearly had a heart attack.

If it gives anyone some relief/hope, Rutgers (PhD) said they will send out invites by the end of the month. So no need to fret just yet. 

As we approach the holidays, PLEASE remember to engage in self-care and try to take the time to relax!!! ⛄? I know it's a super stressful, anxiety-inducing time for everyone (I'll probably still end up checking my email every day lol) but this is the time to travel, spend time with friends/family, and just do nothing if that's what you need. Having a break from school/work is awesome too. And remember this may be your last opportunity to de-stress and indulge in Netflix binges/good food/having a social life before interview season starts—then things will really be hectic! Good luck to everyone and happy new year!