Online Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree before PhD

[D.glard]

I've been looking into Master's degrees in Counseling and have been struggling to find ones that are affordable. However, I've found one university that has a CACREP accredited online master's degree in counseling. The university is nationally ranked. It's cheaper than most universities in my area and my dad's VA benefits would cover the bulk of my tuition. I'd also be eligible for benefits (i.e scholarships, grants) . If I do this program, I could also continue working either full or part time in research so that I've had lots of experience when it's time to apply for Ph.D programs in Counseling Psychology. Does this seem like a good idea? I wouldn't consider an online program if it weren't so affordable and accredited. Would the fact that the bulk of it is online hurt my chances of finding a job or getting into a good Ph.D program afterwards? All of my other stats are good (undergraduate senior honors thesis, 3.6 GPA, good amount of paid research experience with posters and talks, etc.)

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[D.glard]

Also the program includes a thesis, internship, and practicum so that I would get legitimate clinical experience.

 

[DayKD]

I've been looking into Master's degrees in Counseling and have been struggling to find ones that are affordable. However, I've found one university that has a CACREP accredited online master's degree in counseling. The university is nationally ranked. It's cheaper than most universities in my area and my dad's VA benefits would cover the bulk of my tuition. I'd also be eligible for benefits (i.e scholarships, grants) . If I do this program, I could also continue working either full or part time in research so that I've had lots of experience when it's time to apply for Ph.D programs in Counseling Psychology. Does this seem like a good idea? I wouldn't consider an online program if it weren't so affordable and accredited. Would the fact that the bulk of it is online hurt my chances of finding a job or getting into a good Ph.D program afterwards? All of my other stats are good (undergraduate senior honors thesis, 3.6 GPA, good amount of paid research experience with posters and talks, etc.)

I also came on here to ask about online master's programs and Psy.D programs. I got a lot of negative responses toward my questions. To summarize what I was told on here and by two psychology professors at my school, online degrees are highly discouraged. It didn't seem to matter that the universities are accredited or if they involve the experiences. My advice would be to talk to people at universities you are interested in and ask if you could get in with an online master's degree. That is what I am currently trying to find out. Many PhD programs also have a master's included in the training. You may want to look into that too. I feel it would be a lot cheaper in the long run. I'm still new to the forums, so I don't know if this will work. I will attach my posting if you would like to see what others said about online degrees.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/online-graduate-degrees-good-enough.1223674/#post-18173470

 

[Istilldontknow]

Rule of thumb: never go to online schools for psychology. Huge redflag when applying for phd