o Application for Admission to Graduate School Online Only [ ]

Department of Counseling and Family Therapy

University of Missouri – Saint Louis College of Education One University Boulevard St. Louis, Missouri 63121-4400

314.516.5782

Admissions Procedures for the M.Ed. Programs in Counseling

Complete and send the following application materials to: Deadlines

Graduate Admissions

University of Missouri – Saint Louis

One University Boulevard

Saint Louis, Missouri 63121-4400

o Official Transcripts [Request from all colleges and universities you have attended]

o Supplemental Department Application Form [Included in this packet]

o Statement of Agreement to Abide by Ethical Standards [Included in the Supplemental Application]

o Three reference letters, with REQUIRED Recommendation Form [Included in this packet]

· Appropriate references would be former college instructors, academic advisors or work supervisors who are knowledgeable about your abilities, work performance and personal qualities. At least one must be from an individual who knows you well academically. Please give the enclosed

recommendation form to your references and ask them to mail the completed form with a formal recommendation letter directly to the Graduate Admissions Office.

The deadline for all the application materials to be received by the Graduate Admissions Office is June 1 for the Fall Semester enrollment and October 1 for Spring Semester enrollment. The review process will be initiated only for those applications that are complete by the above deadlines. It is each applicant’s responsibility to ensure that his or her application is complete.

The Department Admissions Committee will review your complete application after the deadline date. The Committee will then notify you, the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Education, and the Dean of the Graduate School about your admissions status. The admissions process is quite competitive and not all qualified applicants can be admitted.

You will be notified, by mail, about your admission status approximately one month after the application deadline.

Admission to the Master’s degree programs in counseling is on a provisional basis. Counseling faculty members recognize that potential counseling effectiveness cannot be assessed in the same manner as academic performance in typical college classes. Thus, students are accepted to the counseling program on a provisional basis until the successfully completed CE 6000, Personal and Professional Development in Counseling, and have completed a review process by the Counseling Faculty Review Board. Students striving to become effective counselors need to be aware of how their values affect their behavior. Potential counselors must be able to communicate effectively, be open-minded, tolerate ambiguity, exhibit a high degree of patience, demonstrate emotional stability and self-acceptance and have other skills and capabilities associated with counselor effectiveness.

Provisionally admitted students will be classified as regular status [undergraduate GPA at or above 3.0] or restricted status [undergraduate GPA 2.75 to 3.0]. Students admitted to the counseling program on restricted status must attain a 3.0 GPA for the first twelve [12] hours of graduate coursework at UM-Saint Louis with no grades less than a B. Restricted students must include the following course in the first twelve hours: CE 6000, CE 6010 and CE 6370 [if Clinical Mental Health Counseling Counseling] or CE 6270 [if School Counseling] A student earning any grades less than a B in any of these courses, but still maintaining a 3.0 GPA will be allowed to repeat the course one time and must earn a grade of B or better.

A prerequisite for admission to the M.Ed. program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling is an undergraduate or graduate course in statistics. If a student is admitted to the program and the student has not had such a course, the student must take ER 6709 [Educational and Psychological Measurement] in addition to the required coursework for the degree. ER 6709 may not be counted toward the degree requirements.

Students enrolling in the school counseling track and in child-adolescent Clinical Mental Health Counseling are required to have a criminal background check two times during the program - once during enrollment in CE 6600 and just prior to beginning their internship field experience.

The first course taken in the program must be CE 6000 Personal and Professional Development in Counseling. Additional course work taken concurrently with CE 6000 is done at the student’s own risk since admission to the counseling program is provisional until CE 6000 is completed.

Upon the completion of CE 6000 the Counseling Faculty Review Board will review all students. Permission to continue with course work will be determined by the Review Board and may include one or more of the following:

· An evaluation of the student having the professional skills and capabilities of effective counselors;

· An evaluation of the student’s academic skill and integrity;

· An evaluation of the student’s interpersonal communication skills;

· The Review Board may require a personal interview and/or video or audiotape examples of the student’s work.

The Counseling Faculty Review Board will recommend one of the three options:

· Admission to the Counseling Program and Admission to the Graduate School

· The student is taken off provisional status and is formally admitted to the program.

· Continued Provisional Admission to the Counseling Program

· Actions to remediate deficiencies are required before the student can continue with coursework. This may include work with the writing lab, additional coursework, or individual or group counseling. Other

requirements are at the professional judgment and discretion of the Review Board.

· Admission Denied

· Students denied admission to the counseling program may seek admission to other Master’s degree programs in the College of Education by applying to another program through the Office of Graduate Admissions.

All students enrolled in CE 6000 may pre-register for the following semester. However, if admission to the counseling program is denied, the student’s pre-registration will be administratively cancelled and the student will receive a full refund.

The counseling faculty reserves the right to review students at any stage of the student’s coursework. Any grade less than a B in any core counseling course – CE 6000, 6010, 6020, 6030, 6040, 6050, 6200, 6270, 6280, 6300, 6370, 6380, 6400 and 6600 – will automatically trigger a review process which may result in the removal of the student from the degree program.

Revised July 2013

Department Application for Admission for Graduate Study

University of Missouri – Saint Louis College of Education

Department of Counseling and Family Therapy

The deadline for all application materials is June 1 for Fall semester and October 1 for Spring semester. Please read the accompanying instructions before completing this form. Note that review of this application will be initiated only upon receipt of this completed form, the Graduate School Admission application, the Statement of Agreement to Abide by Ethical

Standards, three recommendation forms, and official transcripts from all colleges or universities you have attended.

Return all application materials to:

Graduate Admissions

University of Missouri-St. Louis

One University Boulevard

St. Louis, MO 63121-4400

Date of Application: _____ / _____ / _____

Demographic Information

¨

¨

Applicant Name _________________________ _________________________ _________________________

Last First Middle

Present Mailing Address: Permanent Address [if different]:

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Primary Telephone [_____] _____ - _______ E-mail address: ________________________________

Date of Birth: _____ / _____ / _____ ¨ Male ¨ Female Ethnicity [Optional]

We encourage qualified students who are minority group members to apply to our graduate programs. If you consider yourself a member of a minority group and would like the admissions committee to know this, please indicate which minority group you identify as your primary identity.

¨African-American ¨Hispanic ¨Asian/Pacific Islander ¨American Indian/Alaskan Native ¨Caucasian

¨ Other [please specify] _____________________

Have you completed a Statistics Course? ¨ Yes ¨ No If yes, where? _____________________

Degree Program

Indicate the degree program for which you are applying.

¨ Elementary School Counseling M.Ed. ¨ Secondary School Counseling M.Ed. ¨ Clinical Mental Health Counseling M.Ed.

· Do you have a current Teaching Certificate [School Counseling only]: ¨Yes ¨No Re-Application [Is this a re-application to the counseling program?] ¨ Yes ¨No

· If yes, please attach a page discussing how you have strengthened your application.

Educational History [List all colleges or universities attended - Indicate expected date of degree if NOT yet received.]

School and Location Degree Awarded Date of Degree Dates Attended Major Subject

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Official transcripts from all schools listed should be sent to the Graduate Admissions office.

Grade Point Averages [compute these averages using a 4-point scale]:

_____ Total undergraduate work to date _____ Last 2 years of undergraduate work _____ Graduate work [if any] _____ Number of graduate hours completed List any honorary and professional organizations of which you are a member:

·

List any scholastic awards, honors, fellowships, scholarships, etc., you have received:

·

List any publications, theses or other relevant scholarly writings of an original nature that you have done. [You are invited to include non-returnable reprints and/or manuscripts].

·

Professional Experience [List most recent first]

Employer Dates of Employment Title Name and Address of Supervisor[s]

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References

Please list at least three individuals who will be sending written recommendations to support your application to the counseling program. References should be former college instructors, academic advisors or work supervisors who are knowledgeable about your abilities and work performance. If possible, two must be from individuals who know you well academically. These references will be used for admissions purposes only. Please send the recommendation forms to the individuals listed and ask them to mail the completed form, along with a formal letter of recommendation, directly to the Graduate Admissions Office.

Name Complete Address Title/Position

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Personal Statements

Please type your responses to the following six questions on separate pages. Your responses should be in paragraph form and are limited to one, double-spaced page per question. Please note that the Counseling Admissions Committee carefully reviews these statements.

1. What experiences and interests have brought you to pursue a career in counseling?

2. What are your professional career goals?

3. What needs would a career in counseling satisfy for you?

4. What interpersonal strengths and weaknesses do you bring to the counseling profession?

5. How do you believe others perceive you?

6. Describe any experiences with diversity and what you learned about yourself.

Agreement to Abide by Ethical Standards

I, ____________________________________ , a prospective student applying to the Counseling and Family Therapy Master’s program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, agree that, if admitted to the program, I will abide by the ethics code of the American Counseling Association [ACA]. I understand that a breach of an ethical standard of the ACA ethical code will result in a review by the Counseling Faculty Review Board and may result in expulsion from the counseling degree program in accordance with University policy on such matters.

__________________________________________ _____________________

Signature of Applicant Date

Department of Counseling and Family Therapy University of Missouri – Saint Louis

Recommendation Form

Applicant: Complete the information requested below and give to the person serving as your reference. Also, please note that, on the whole, recommenders may provide information that is more useful to this Department and to you if their recommendations are confidential. If you think this is the case, you may wish to sign the waiver below. The decision is entirely up to you.

Applicant Name : Recommender’s Name :

Program Applied to : ¨ Elementary School Counseling M.Ed. ¨ Secondary School Counseling M.Ed.

¨ Clinical Mental Health Counseling M.Ed.

I waive my rights to view this form and any supplementary letter.

Applicant Signature : Student # :

Recommender: The person named above is applying for admission to the graduate program indicated at the University of Missouri – Saint Louis. The Department of Counseling and Family Therapy would appreciate very much having your appraisal of the applicant’s qualifications for graduate work in counseling. Please respond by filling out this form, along with writing a separate letter [preferably on letterhead] including your assessment of this applicant’s readiness for graduate level work. Please include your contact information in the letter. Thank you for your assistance.

· How long have you known the applicant?

· How well do you know the applicant?

· In what capacity have you known the applicant?

Please rate the applicant on the traits shown below with respect to others of the same academic level.

Percentile Not Able

Weak Strong to Judge

l Intellectual Ability 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

l Potential as a

professional counselor 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

l Writing Skills 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

l Potential for Research 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

l Motivation and Diligence 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

l Ability to work with

Colleagues 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

l Ability to work with

Children & Adolescents 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

[if School Counseling]

If you alone were making the decision, would you accept the applicant as a graduate student? [Please check your response below.]

¨ Seek out – will be a truly outstanding student and professional ¨ Definitely accept – will complete the degree at a superior level

¨ Accept, but with reservations concerning ability or motivation ¨ Accept, but with reservations concerning academic potential

¨ Do not accept. [Please explain.]

Please return this form with accompanying recommendation letter prior to June 1^st for Fall Admission or October 1^st for Spring Admission to:

Graduate Admissions University of Missouri Saint Louis

One University Boulevard Saint Louis, MO 63121-4400