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[Counseling Home] [ Counseling Highlights] [Counseling Faculty] [ Counseling Curriculum ] [ Counseling Experience ] [ Program Stats ] [ FAQs ]
The Counseling Psychology program offers a number of features attractive to many students. Click on these features to learn more.
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Accreditation. In 1961, our program became the 11th (of the current 75) doctoral programs to be accredited by the American Psychological Association; we have been continuously accredited* since 1961. Our most recent site visit resulted in reaccreditation until 2014. We have a long history of turning out top graduates and of recognition in the field.
*Committee on Accreditation
c/o Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
Education Directorate
American Psychological Association
750 First Street NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
(202) 336-5979
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National Reputation.
Historically, the Counseling Psychology Program at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale has distinguished itself as a nationally ranked program based on faculty publication in APA journals. In their often-cited study, Cox and Catt (1977) ranked Southern Illinois University-Carbondale fifth based on research publications. Since that time, the program has routinely achieved similarly high rankings in various studies that have ranked universities based on faculty scholarship and other indices of faculty quality in counseling psychology (e.g., Buboltz, Ebberwein, Watkins, & Savickas, 1995; Delgado & Howard, 1994; Hanish, Horan, Keen, St. Peter, Ceperich, & Beasley, 1995; Perez, Constantine, & Gerard, 2000). |
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Balance. Balance is an important theme of our program: balance with respect to counseling and research training, and balance with respect to perspective. Our objective is to provide the graduate with a solid foundation as a counseling psychology generalist, so that she/he can pursue a variety of career paths, change careers successfully, and adapt to inevitable changes in the profession and its context. |
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Financial Assistance. Financial support for the first year is guaranteed to all students offered admission. Although we cannot guarantee support beyond the first year, in practice, we only admit as many students as we can reasonably anticipate supporting through four years on campus. We have maintained this policy for over 25 years. Thus students in good standing through the fourth year can anticipate receiving a stipend and a tuition waiver, and all complete a training assignment as a teaching or research assistant or in an externship. No special application is required for financial assistance. Stipend levels also change each fiscal year, generally increasing by about 3-5% for cost of living increases.
Specifically, the support students receive includes a tuition waiver for up to 15 credits per semester (currently valued at $4,125/semester for Illinois residents and $10,312/semester for non-Illinois residents) and a monthly stipend. Stipends vary depending on the highest degree the student has completed. During the 2006-2007 academic year, the stipend for students with a bachelor’s degree was $1,178/month; the stipend for students with a master’s degree was $1,322/month. Stipends for the 2007-2008 year have not yet been published, but they are expected to increase slightly. Students are responsible for student fees which for 2007-2008 are $1272 per semester. These student fees include services such as health services/ health insurance and use of the Student Recreation Center and campus and community-wide transportation services. |
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Graduated counseling training. Students begin their involvement in counseling training almost immediately, enrolling in a counseling skills course their first semester and a counseling practicum their second semester at the Department's Career Development and Resource Clinic. Students receive individual and/or group supervision throughout their practicum training. As training progresses, students move toward the functioning of an independent professional, with increasing client load, case complexity, and level of responsibility. |
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wide range of counseling experiences. The program provides many and varied counseling training opportunities. These occur through regular counseling practica, specialty practica, and counseling training assignments. Training sites range from the department's Career Development and Resource Clinic, the campus Counseling Center, various regional mental health centers, and various adolescent and adult correctional settings.. |
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Research training. The program offers a broad range of research training opportunities. The program operates on an elective-mentor system: that is, students may choose to work primarily with one faculty member throughout their graduate career, but they are also free to complete the MA thesis with one faculty member and the dissertation with another, while participating in research activities with other faculty. The counseling faculty themselves represent a very broad range of interests. Moreover, students in the counseling program can choose to work with any departmental faculty regardless of program. We see this as allowing the benefits of mentorship without the limitations. Students are encouraged and receive travel funds to present research at conferences and to become involved in the publication process. |
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Teaching. Competence in teaching is obviously valuable for those seeking an academic career. (Moreover, it is increasingly expected of candidates rather than being viewed as a bonus to strong research competencies.) Less obvious is the key importance of presentation skills in virtually every professional niche. Our program offers a range of opportunities related to teaching, training, presenting, and related technology. Most students will have at least one training assignment as a teaching assistant. Depending on the course, this may involve serving as a resource to the confused student, developing course materials, managing course-related web materials, developing tests, running exercises, grading written work, guest lecturing, or running discussion sections. Further opportunities range from class presentations, through formal thesis and dissertation research presentations, to conference presentations. |
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Atmosphere. Faculty and students are proud of our program's collegial and supportive atmosphere. Perhaps best described as demanding and responsive, we seek to maintain high academic and professional standards, while being responsive to the goals, strengths, and needs of individual students. In general, students experience the program as being highly facilitative of their professional development. |
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Alumni. Over 40% of our recent graduates work in service settings, 25% are in academic settings, 25% are in administrative positions in human service agencies, and 7% are in research or consulting jobs. Nearly 90% are licensed as psychologists, and 18% maintain a private practice either part-time or full-time.
Our graduates also are involved in many scholarly activities: 78% have presented papers at professional meetings, 75% have authored or co-authored professional publications, 40% have current on-going research programs, and 25% do editorial work for professional journals.
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