<p>Hi, I live outside of Baton Rouge, LA and am applying to graduate schools for school counseling. Already applied to LSU, but can't figure out other schools I would like to apply to. After looking at the CACREP website of accredited schools and visiting University websites, they all seem to say the same thing. I have been out of undergrad since 97, mostly teaching since then and my undergrad degree is in business. Any help in recommending schools within my region of the country would be greatly appreciated. I think my letters of rec. are pretty good and my numbers look like this:</p>
<p>If you're talking about a masters in counseling psych or higher ed adminsitration you really shouldn't worry. If you're applying for programs in more competitive fields like clinical psych or something, you might be screwed. </p>
<p>If you are looking for something more applied, I suppose a key point to differentiate programs would be what local connections they have. What school districts do they work with? What mentoring agencies do they work with? What student populations do they work with?</p>
<p>Are we talking the MA program at LSU or the Ph.D.? The MA you'd stand a chance; the Ph.D. would, I suspect, be shooting for the moon!</p>
<p>What exactly do you want in a program? Sounds like you want school psych programs? MA level? What experience do you have? Do you have specific research and/or applied/clinical interests?</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for you advice. It's definitely not clinical psych. It's a program to be a guidance counselor. Sorry for the confusion, but most places say school counselor now instead of guidance counselor. The long name of LSU's is Masters of Education with a concentration in school counseling. I have seven years of teaching experience, although that's not required to get in. The main question I have is what other schools should I apply to either in Louisiana or the southern US because I haven't found anything that distinguishes one school from another one.</p>
<p>Honestly, for school counseling, you don't have to go to a top program if you're not interested in like getting a Ph.D or doing research in the future. If all you want to do is be a school/guidance counselor, select an accredited program at a relatively well-known school (public or private) that you can afford. Schools are generally not picky about where their counselors went to school, as long as they went to accredited programs (unless you're aiming to counsel at a well-known private school or something).</p>
<p>The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt, and the University of Florida have good school counseling programs. (UNC-Chapel Hill's program is 14 months.) UGA, UNC, and Vanderbilt's programs are the best; Vanderbilt's school of education is very well-known.</p>
<p>You can also look at Auburn, the University of Alabama, University of North Florida, Columbus State (GA), Augusta State (GA), Valdosta State (GA), Loyola in New Orleans, Clemson, and depending on how far you're willing to go, UNC Greensboro and Charlotte and Wake Forest. There are some more public universities in Florida that have decent counseling programs as well.</p>