Hi Elutes,
There are quite a few genetic counseling programs out there. I worked as a gopher for the program at Northwestern a number of years back.
In reference to the Pitt program, I don't know anything specific about it, but the guidelines that good grad schools give for applicants tend to be lower than the qualifications of the students they expect to admit. This is to broaden the applicant pool and to ensure that someone with excellent qualifications but, say, a poor GRE score, isn't deterred from applying or automatically excluded. That said, 70th %ile + on the GRE means that, by definition, you have to be in the top 30% of prospective grad-school applicants, and there are a good many people wouldn't see calculus, biochem, etc. as "fluffy" requirements! As a chemist, you may have background that someone coming to the field from, say, socialwork or anthropology might not have, and they may have insights into behavior that you may not. I wouldn't worry too much that the program is fluffy based on those admissions criteria alone, unless you get that impression from other sources as well.
Johns Hopkins also has a (very selective) master's program in genetic counseling:
http://www.jhsph.edu/dept/HPM_OLD/Degree_Programs/Masters_Degrees/MScGenet/index.html
They give the following guidance about career opportunities/emphasis:
"Since the program graduated its first students in 1998, all of our graduates have been employed in the genetic counseling field or are pursuing further graduate degrees. Several graduates are practicing in cancer genetics. Others work in prenatal genetic counseling, in research into Alzheimer's genetic marker testing, in adult genetics clinics, in family studies research, and in a genetics hearing loss clinic. Several also currently serve as clinical supervisors for various genetic counseling training programs. Consistent with the goals of the program, graduates have secured positions that combine their clinical and research skills."
Depending on your interests, it sounds like you can either be a counsellor and advise families and individuals about their options/test results/etc., or you can do research or education.
I would guess that most accredited genetics counseling programs would open similar doors for you. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean, it's hard for me to see how you'd end up as just a "technician". That seems like more of a risk in a bench-based genetics or biotech program, where you can be someone's grad student/post-doc for years...
There are also genetic epidemiology programs within school of public health or as stand-alone programs (e.g. at Washington University in St. Louis) that are very research-oriented and tend to deal less with the psychosocial aspects of genetics than a counselling program would.
Hope this helps.