Ohio University or Kent State-Mental Health Counseling

[Ohioan]

Hello everybody. I am hoping to start graduate school this coming fall and get a masters in mental health counseling. I've been accepted to both Ohio University and Kent State University. Obviously, I need to decide soon.

 

I read that Ohio University has a 90% employment rate for graduates from their mental health counseling program within six months of graduation. I could not find information on the employment rate of Kent State's mental health counseling program. I asked at the interview and the professor did not know but said that it was pretty good. A lot of Kent State students do their internships in the area and are often offered jobs once they graduate.

 

Most mental health counseling programs pretty much have the same coursework. All three of schools that I applied to pretty much require the same courses with just different names. The professor who interviewed me at KSU went more in depth with what the courses were like. KSU was the only school where I had a one-on-one interview. The University of Dayton and OU both had group interviews. OU's interview had over ten people and I really didn't get as much of a chance to stand out. So I wasn't surprised when OU wait listed me for about two weeks before accepting me. Kent accepted me right away. It's been a few weeks since my UD interview and I never heard back but I'm not sure that I would really want to go there anyway.

 

I'll admit that I frogot to ask about opportunities abroad at Kent. OU and UD both have opportunities for working abroad for at least a few weeks. OU has an opportunity in South Africa. UD has gone to Argentina before and they are most likely going to Peru next summer or the summer after. But yeah, I guess I should probably ask about Kent having abroad programs.

 

I do like Kent better than Athens and am leaning more towards Kent State. I need to look more into the living options in Kent but OU does not seem to have any available apartments where I can live just by myself. The options do involve one-bedroom apartments but I would have to share a bathroom and kitchen with someone else. I really don't want to do that. Plus OU is known for being a big party school, probably the biggest in Ohio. I also felt that the staff in the counseling program at Kent State were a lot more open and explained the program a lot for me. OU had a big group of staff at the interview and they kind of wanted everybody out of the room at the end so that they could discuss the applicants. The professor who interviewed me at Kent already knew that she wanted to recommend me for the program.

 

So what do you folks think I should consider the most when deciding between these two schools? I just want to make sure that I make the right choice.

[Dcotton4]

Did you end up choosing Kent? I’m waiting to hear back from admissions!