Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (Non-Thesis)

Counseling is about becoming a competent, ethical, reflective and culturally aware professional counselor. In this CACREP-accredited graduate program at USD, you'll learn how to make a difference in others' lives. Whether you choose to work in the Pre-K12 school environment to support social and emotional learning or work in your own private practice, hospital or correctional facility. You will strengthen your sense of professional identity through training founded in social responsibility, self-awareness, diversity and inclusive excellence that prepares you to be an advocate for others.
You'll learn how to advocate and provide therapy for a wide range of mental health needs, as well as crisis intervention skills. Along the way, you will form close mentorship with faculty that allows you to self-direct your program and develop mental health counseling expertise. The counseling programs prepare students for licensure and certification as professional counselors, educators and supervisors.

Official transcript(s) verifying receipt of an undergraduate degree and previous graduate credit (in English or with translation). Transcripts must be complete (e.g., if currently enrolled, work-in-progress coursework must be included, foreign transcripts must include a grading scale, and for countries that issue, copy of degree certificate/diploma i.e., India, Nepal, etc.). The USD Graduate School and/or academic units retain the right to require credential evaluations from organizations, such as Educational Credential Evaluators/World Education Services (ECE/WES), for a student if such an evaluation is deemed necessary.

Applicants with a baccalaureate degree may be qualified for admission into the master's program. Baccalaureate degree must be from an institution with institutional accreditation for that degree. A minimum undergraduate cumulative GPA of 3.0 on conferred degree is required for full admission to the master's program. An earned master's degree in counseling or a counseling-related field is required for admission to the doctoral and specialist programs. Doctoral and specialist students must complete studies in all CACREP entry-level standards. A minimum graduate grade point average of a 3.0 is required for a specialist's program and a minimum graduate grade point average of a 3.5 is required for a doctoral program. Each graduate program may admit students on provisional status per university policy.

Applicants with degrees from countries other than the United States who have obtained a high school diploma, undergraduate, or graduate degree from an institutionally accredited American college or university or from an accredited institution in the approved list of English-speaking countries are not required to submit an approved English proficiency exam score. For all other applicants with degrees from other countries, a minimum score of 79 on the Internet-Based TOEFL (iBT), 550 on the Paper-Based TOEFL (PBT), 8.5 on the TOEFL Essentials, 6.0 on the IELTS Academic, 53 on the PTE, or 110 on Duolingo is required for graduate admission.