Graduate Programs of Study

M.A. or M.Ed., Human Services and Counseling

• GPA and Conditional Acceptance
• Letters of Recommendation
• Personal Statement

GPA and Conditional Acceptance

The minimum GPA needed for admission into the HSC program and the School of Education is 2.75. Having a GPA lower than 2.75 will not necessarily preclude admission, but the rest of the application will need to show considerable strength to offset an apparently weaker academic background. Therefore, if your GPA is lower than 2.75, it still may be worthwhile for you to apply, but there are no guarantees. If your GPA is less than 2.5, it is very unlikely that you will be accepted unless your application is exceptional and/or you have found other ways to indicate to the HSC faculty that you will succeed in graduate school.

If a student with a GPA lower than 2.75 is accepted, that admission will be on a conditional basis. If you are accepted conditionally, you must take HSC 451 and HSC 452 and successfully pass these courses with a B or better before you can apply for unconditional acceptance. (Please note that financial aid normally is not available for students who are conditionally accepted into a program).

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Letters of Recommendation

Three letters of recommendation are required, including at least one letter from a professor and at least one from a work supervisor. The third letter must be from a person who is able to assess your interpersonal skills, academic ability, or both. Such a person may have been a past supervisor or a person with whom you had contact in an academic environment. If you have been out of school for a number of years, instead of a reference from a professor, you may substitute a professional reference with someone who can attest to your academic abilities and interpersonal skills.

It is important for you to select individuals who are able to accurately assess your motivation and potential for work in the human services field. Letters of recommendation must document academic and scholarly performance, strong social and interpersonal skills, emotional maturity, and suitability of the applicant to work in human services and counseling positions. Letters of recommendation should be written on the individual's professional letterhead and by persons who can comment from personal knowledge of your academic, personal, and/or professional qualifications for graduate study. In all letters the recommender should focus on your academic and scholarly performance, your social and interpersonal skills, your emotional maturity, and your suitability for the human services profession.

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Personal Statement

In a well written 3 or 4 page statement, double spaced, tell us about your career goals, your motivation for becoming a counselor, and what you hope to accomplish in the Human Services and Counseling graduate program. Describe personal and professional experiences and characteristics that you believe support your application. In your statement, please respond to the following questions:

• What is your motivation for becoming a counselor?
• What are your short- and long-term professional goals?
• What are your expectations of the HSC program and how do you envision the HSC program fulfilling those expectations?
• The roles of the counselor are multiple and include listener, advocate, leader, consultant, multiculturalist, educator, and group leader. From your perspective, please rank order the roles of a counselor in terms of importance and provide a rationale discussing your placement of the top three roles.
• What roles have been most comfortable for you in a group setting? Describe what made these roles comfortable for you.
• We are often faced with situations which do not turn out as we had planned. How do you handle situations where you don't see things going in the way you would like?

• Degree Requirements:
  • Community Counseling Concentration
    
  • Student Affairs Concentration
    
  • School Counseling Concentration
  
  
• Faculty
• Apply Now
• Application Deadlines

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