Admission Requirements (In Addition to Those Listed for All Graduate Students)
Students must have either completed an undergraduate statistics or a quantitative research methods course, or passed the CLEP or DANTES statistics test, or taken the statistics tutorial before registering for CNSL 5302 (Research Methods and Data Analysis). CNSL 5302 is required of all students; the tutorial does not replace it but simply prepares students for CNSL 5302 .
Transfer Credit
Degree candidates for the M. A. in Counseling may satisfy a maximum of 18 graduate semester hours with approved courses transferred from another institution. However, for a student transferring from another Wayland degree program to the M.A. in counseling, a maximum of 12 hours will be allowed in transfer. To transfer credit from other institutions, a student must submit an official transcript of the courses to be considered and may be required to submit a catalog description of the course from the institution where the course was taken. The appropriate academic dean must approve transfer credit.
Advisories
Evaluations of students: Successful completion of the Masters of Arts in Counseling program is based on the demonstration of effectiveness in academic, professional, and personal areas as they relate to the counseling profession. The faculty has both a professional responsibility and a moral obligation to evaluate all students throughout the training program for professional competence in academic course work; for weaknesses in required practical skills; for behaviors which are unethical, illegal, or unprofessional; and/or for dispositions deemed inappropriate for a professional counselor. The evaluative process provides students with information related to their progress to enable them to take advantage of strengths and to remediate weaknesses in their academic, professional, and personal development. The evaluative process provides faculty with information about student progress and suitability or unsuitability as counselors which will facilitate decisions in the best interests of students and the profession they are preparing to enter.
School counseling: Wayland is authorized to certify school counselors ONLY in Texas. Students must be admitted to Wayland’s school counselor education program prior to their first term of enrollment. Site supervisors for practicums and internships in school counseling should be certified school counselors themselves.
Students in the school counseling program must hold a Masters degree in counseling, be certified to teach, and have taught fulltime for a minimum of two years before they will qualify to take the school counselor certification examination. Students who hold a Masters degree in education can take a 21-hour deficiency plan of coursework in counseling, after which they qualify to sit for the certification exam. The Texas State Board for Educator Certification requires a practicum in a school setting with mandatory evaluation visits by the university’s school counselor supervisor.
Practicum/internship requirements in all states for all counseling students: Prior to registering for a practicum, students MUST have completed a minimum of 24 credit hours in the counseling program, have credit for ethics (CNSL 5307 ), have purchased their malpractice insurance, and have a signed site agreement with the school or agency in which they will undertake the practicum. Successful completion of CNSL 5360 - Practicum in Counseling is required before a student may register for the internship (CNSL 5361 ), and successful completion of the internship is required before a student can register for the advanced internship (CNSL 5362 ). All site supervisors for the practicum and internships for community counseling should be one or more of the following: licensed professional counselors, Masters level clinical social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists, rehabilitation counselors, or psychologists with several years of clinical and counseling experience. Wayland’s counseling degree requires a minimum of 400 clock hours of supervised practice distributed over the practicum and internship courses, even though some state requirements are less than 400.
Licensure or certification by the state: Upon completion of the MA in counseling, ALL students seeking a license or school counselor certification must pass the state-required test. No university can license or certify a counselor. That is in all cases a prerogative of the individual state, which might or might not have a reciprocal agreement with any other state. Every state requires additional hours of supervised counseling in addition to an ethics test and whatever exam the state uses as its licensing tool.
All questions concerning licensure and certification requirements should be addressed to the counseling program coordinator on each campus that offers this degree and/or the official “State by State Counselor Guide” at http://www.counselor-license.com/.
