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MA Programs in College and School Counseling- Is this possible?


JBums1028

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This might be a bizarre question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. I'm wondering if there are any Counseling or Educational Counseling Master's Programs out there that would prepare a graduate for both a career in college counseling and school counseling?

 

I'm currently serving as an AmeriCorps member on both a college campus and at a high school. Prior to this my plan was to go into Student Affairs to become either an admissions counselor or an academic adviser. However, now that I've been working with the high school students I'm considering school counseling as a possibility. But I don't want to rule out the college counseling careers though either.

 

I've been looking at Educational Counseling programs, and the only one that I've found that could possibly lead me to both are Western Michigan's Counseling MA. It has separate tracks within it for each type of counseling, so there's a possibility I could do two tracks at the same time (I need to confirm this with someone in their program). Syracuse also has a Student Affairs Counseling program and a School Counseling Certificate that can be added on.

 

Does anyone know of other programs that are like this? Or have any other advice that could help me pursue both careers potentially?

 

 

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Your best bet would be to get an MA in counseling and then either another MA or and EdD/PhD in Higher Education Administration. Or you could just do HIgher Ed and focus on counseling? I've never heard of any programs that specialize in college counseling.

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Your best bet would be to get an MA in counseling and then either another MA or and EdD/PhD in Higher Education Administration. Or you could just do HIgher Ed and focus on counseling? I've never heard of any programs that specialize in college counseling.

 

When you say MA in Counseling, are you referring to School Counseling or General Counseling? I just wanted to clarify.

 

If my only option is two separate MA programs, then I'll probably just apply to both types of programs now and allow myself some time to think about it and decide which route I prefer in March/April...

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I found this directory really helpful when I was narrowing down programs:

 

http://apps.naspa.org/gradprograms/search.cfm

 

You can choose to search by area of focus, which includes counseling and student learning/development. It may be a good place to find more programs!

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JBurns,

 

Would this program interest you?

 

http://www.bloomu.edu/gradschool/counseling-student-affairs

 

If by the looks of the program they allow you to select two different tracks within the same program then yes, this basically was what I was referring to!

 

JBurns, have you considered Eastern Michigan University? I know that they have several tracks (counseling or educational leadership) that focus on college students.

 

I'm looking at them for their HESA program and Academic Advising certificate currently.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice! I'm currently proceeding with my plans to apply to HESA programs at the moment, still uncertain if I will apply to secondary school counseling or combined (if possible) programs. After thinking about if further, I realized if I did guidance counseling I pretty much would only want to work with juniors and seniors since what I enjoy most about my current position is working with the students on post-secondary plans. So I'm probably going to stick with HESA since it's a better fit for my interests.

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