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Rolling Admissions.
Application due by 8/1 for Fall semester and 12/1 for Spring semester of current year.

Please click here for the School Counseling Program handbook (pdf)

Overview
School Guidance Counseling constitutes an excellent career for those wishing to work closely with children, parents, and fellow school personnel. It is an unusually fulfilling profession in that it offers the opportunity to positively assist students at the elementary, middle, or secondary school levels with vital personal, interpersonal, academic, and career development issues of importance, both in their current and later lives.

Northeastern University is uniquely disposed and situated to provide an intensive two-year Master of Science program in School Counseling by virtue of its commitment to academic excellence and experiential learning. Also, its urban location and immediate access to local suburban communities offer the widest range of opportunities for engaging in a year-long, supervised practicum in virtually any type of school setting. One may specialize in working with students at the kindergarten to middle school levels, or those at the middle and senior high school levels. Those interested in studying School Counseling at Northeastern University may apply as full or part-time students at any time of the year. Upon graduation, graduates will be eligible for Massachusetts state provisional certification through its 36 credit hour curriculum (see curriculum below) or may take 12 additional credits (four graduate courses) to meet the most stringent of national standards.  2006-07 pass rate for Northeastern students taking the MA Communication and Literacy Test is 100%. 

As a school counselor, you will:

• help students assess their abilities, likes, dislikes, and personal qualities
• teach decision making
• promote the process of career exploration and goal setting
• educate students in social skills
• plan educational programs
• motivate students toward problem resolution
• participate in crisis interventions
• work with fellow school colleagues
• consult with parents

As a graduate of Northeastern’s program, your competencies will include:

• individual and group counseling theory and practice
• psychological assessment
• career and vocational guidance
• promoting student interests, abilities and responsibilities
• working with diverse groups of people
• working with special needs populations
• parent and staff consultation
• knowledge of professional affairs
• promoting human development 

Curriculum
The School Counseling Program is made up of the following list of courses, which may be pursued on a full or part-time basis.  The typical length of the program is two years, full-time, and includes the following courses:  

First Year Fall Semester
RCAPG 200 Introduction to Counseling Theory and Practice in an Ecological Context
RCAPG 201 Introduction to Assessment
RCAPG 287 Group Counseling
RCAPG 218 Infant, Child, and Adolescent Development 

First Year Spring Semester
RCAPG 235 Vocational, Educational, and Career Development
RCAPG 275 Counseling Strategies for Children and Adolescents
RCAPG 340 Issues in School Counseling
RCAPG 345 Learning Problems: Educational, Biological, and Ecological Perspectives

Second Year Fall Semester
RCAPG 203 Understanding Culture and Diversity
RCAPG 410 Practicum in School Counseling I (Includes 75 hours pre-practicum)

Second Year Spring Semester
RCAPG 202 Research, Evaluation, and Data Analysis
RCAPG 411 Practicum in School Counseling II

Experiential Learning

Your practicum placement in a school setting is a critical part of your master's training. The year-long practicum of 525 hours, for approximately 20 hours per week in a school setting, focuses either on grades K-9 or 5-12 under the supervision of a certified school counselor and a University faculty member. The first seventy-five hours (five weeks of the second year fall semester) is a "pre-practicum" during which you will observe a school counselor at work. With additional experience in your practicum setting, you will take on increasing responsibilities and, subsequently, see clients on your own under supervision. The pace of your development in the field depends upon your own rate of learning, comfort level, and the assessment of your practicum supervisors.

Practicum is done in the Boston area, beginning in September of your second year of study and continuing to June of that year. Most of our students choose to do their fieldwork in a regular public or private school. Practicum work, however, is possible in special schools such as those catering to the needs of handicapped or special needs students, or students of a particular ethnic group. This may give you the opportunity to utilize unique personal skills like a foreign language, or artistic capabilities. You may request placement in virtually any type of school, as long as the school has a qualified supervisor.

William Quill