School Rankings

[Night1234]

Hello All

Happy new year!

I am looking to go back to school to get my masters mental health counseling, counseling, or counseling psych (depending on the program that is offered by the school) - going for LMHC, LPC / LPCC depending on the state

I have done a lot of research on the schools (reading reviews, looking at US news rankings, etc); however, wanted to ask the community if you know how to determine a school's strength for counseling programs. Is there a magic list somewhere?

Also how important is that the school is CACREP accredited?

Any information will help

Thanks in advance!

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[Goobernut]

Personally, I believe that it is very important overall that the school be CACREP accredited. There are many debates on this exact subject all over these boards!! In my opinion, I believe it is partially important because it affects your ability to bill different insurance companies later. Tricare has implemented the standard of being CACREP accredited before they will take you on as a provider. It is very slowly becoming the standard across states, and many more insurance companies are moving to this.

Many states don't require the CACREP accreditation for licensure, but I believe that is definitely going to change. Also, if LPCs and LMHCs ever end up being allowed to bill Medicare, I am sure they will implement some kind of educational standard as well.

The best way to determine a schools strength is to ask the community around it. Call local CMHCs and ask where they get their students from. Call the schools and ask for practicum/internship sites and see if those sites will address why they take students from that school. As I'm heading into my last practicum, I've had the opportunity to work with programs that have students from multiple schools in my area, and I've discovered strengths and weaknesses about them all. I think you need to talk to people where you will be working, your local state. My state may have a totally different outlook than yours )

Looking at the schools curriculum is also a good way to weed out really bad programs from the beginning. At the master's level (not the PhD, its a different animal) schools with their own counseling clinic for you to practice in is a handy thing too. Getting licensed at the masters level is much more a community thing, in my opinion. You do it all in once place usually, so making sure the community around the school has lots of opportunities to support you is important.

 

[Little_Mama]

Thanks for that great info, Goobernut... I've been looking into MA programs for school counseling. In Virginia it seems that a students needs to graduate from an accredited school. But the state (according to Richmond) doesn't specify what kind of accreditation. Some colleges around here are NCATE accredited and some are CACREP and some both. It's really tricky and confusing...

 

[lavedabb]

Personally, I believe that it is very important overall that the school be CACREP accredited. There are many debates on this exact subject all over these boards!! In my opinion, I believe it is partially important because it affects your ability to bill different insurance companies later. Tricare has implemented the standard of being CACREP accredited before they will take you on as a provider. It is very slowly becoming the standard across states, and many more insurance companies are moving to this.

Many states don't require the CACREP accreditation for licensure, but I believe that is definitely going to change. Also, if LPCs and LMHCs ever end up being allowed to bill Medicare, I am sure they will implement some kind of educational standard as well.

The best way to determine a schools strength is to ask the community around it. Call local CMHCs and ask where they get their students from. Call the schools and ask for practicum/internship sites and see if those sites will address why they take students from that school. As I'm heading into my last practicum, I've had the opportunity to work with programs that have students from multiple schools in my area, and I've discovered strengths and weaknesses about them all. I think you need to talk to people where you will be working, your local state. My state may have a totally different outlook than yours )

Looking at the schools curriculum is also a good way to weed out really bad programs from the beginning. At the master's level (not the PhD, its a different animal) schools with their own counseling clinic for you to practice in is a handy thing too. Getting licensed at the masters level is much more a community thing, in my opinion. You do it all in once place usually, so making sure the community around the school has lots of opportunities to support you is important.

Hi Goobernut, thank you so much for the sharing. Those info are really helpful! I have just received admission form Santa Clara University(CA) master of counseling psychology. I am in a struggle whether to take this offer or not. I couldn't find many information about this program. But based on your experience, it shows me at least this program does offer many chances for practicum/internship. It seems that many agencies (20-30ish) come to the campus once a year to interview students for intern. I wonder if this is fine in counseling program. But this program is not CARCEP. It is LPCC and MFT tracked. Do you have any more suggestion on decision making? greatly appreciate!

 

[Saffologist]

As a working mental health counselor that is following current trends in the field, I can tell you that CACREP accreditation will become VERY important in the near future. Especially when it comes to state licensure.