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Omg this is great! I'm deciding between school counseling programs Coming from: St. Louis, MO Deciding between: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - Full funding plus stipend for academic year with minor work requirements - Really cool accelerated program, done with degree in 14 months - Cohort based education: 15-20 all working towards being school counselors - CACREP accredited with the ability to maybe be an LPC - All faculty have been school counselors University of Missouri-Columbia - Full funding plus stipend but comes with a real 20 hour per week job - two year program but would guarantee K-12 licensure - Psych program so not CACREP accredited, LPC could be more complicated - only 1 professor has been a school counselor, all others are trained as Psychologists. I don't really know how to compare the faculty as a result - really small group of school counseling students (5-8) in a larger world of counseling psych students (MEd and PhD) - #3 ranked program on US News (probably doesn't matter but who doesn't like some bragging rights?) Harvard Grad School of Education - Only half tuition for funding and have to do a second year where financial aid is uncertain - program seems so cutting edge on access issues I'm really into - It's Harvard - Other Considerations -Significant other is staying in STL and so we would be long distance. Can't decide which is more palatable: 2 hours apart for 2 years at Mizzou or 12 hours apart for 1 year at UNC. This is probably the biggest issue for me right now. How I'm leaning: I'm really torn on the time vs distance thing between UNC and Mizzou. Harvard pops up in my head sometimes because of the name but it really doesn't make sense financially. I plan to come back to STL and work as a school counselor. Licensure shouldn't really be an issue but that's always a risk doing an out of state program I suppose. The faculty experience of counseling vs psychology is also a big thing that I don't know how to tease out. So much seems just political but I don't want headaches for licensure down the road if I decide to move or if I want to pursue a PhD.

In my portal it just says it's an extra merit and need based grant that doesn't need to be repaid.

Got my aid too. I was really hoping for Urban Scholars or a Leadership in Ed Award. I'm doing PSP/CAS so I'm really worried about finances. With the $16K grant and $10K Impact Award I'm around half tuition. I have two fully funded offers from other highly ranked Masters in school counseling programs, so I will probably do one of those. It will really hurt to say goodbye to the Harvard dream though.