Advising

Students have six years to complete their counseling degree. Typically, students in the Counseling Program attend full-time and finish in two years and two semesters. Below are the sequences of courses for the Clinical Mental Health and School Counseling tracks for full and part-time and may use these course sequences as a guide to create their degree plan and register for classes.  

Students have the opportunity to choose from many electives within the Counseling Program, but also within the Psychology, Gerontology, and Marriage and Family programs. Students should consult with their advisors to choose electives that will meet their clinical interest. See below for a list of all possible electives.

The Advising Process

When students are admitted into the program, the Program Director serves as their initial advisor to create an informal degree plan. At the beginning of the fall semester during the orientation, students are assigned a faculty advisor who is a core faculty of the counseling program. Students will meet with their advisors during the fall semester of their first and second year in the program at a minimum. Students should meet with their advisors to check in and report if any changes occurred on their Program Degree Plan.

The degree plans are mostly complete, they have all the required courses laid out in the semesters they should be taken. Using the list below, fill in what electives you wish to take on the degree plan and send to your advisor. Students should meet with their advisor using Zoom, by phone, or communicate with them through email if they have any questions or concerns about their degree plan. Students who do not complete this formal advisory process will not be permitted to register for courses in the spring.  

The first year of courses are considered the foundational content and skills courses of the program. The second year of courses are more advanced clinical content and skills courses that build upon the first-year courses, see the plans below. Taking these courses out of order can impede the learning process and/or delay graduation, so consult with your advisor if any changes to your degree plan are needed. 

Program Degree Plan

Below are the degree plans for each concentration.

Electives

Declaring or Changing a Concentration

Students wishing to declare a concentration upon entering the Counseling Program or who wish to change their concentration while in the Counseling Program must complete this online form for the Graduate School. 

 

Transferring Credit

Students may transfer up to 12 credit hours (four courses) into the Counseling Program upon acceptance. This policy is in alignment with the Graduate School. Transfer credits are not reviewed for approval until applicants are accepted into the program, however, the requirements for transfer credit are provided below.

Core Coursework Transfer Credit

Core courses are defined as any course a student must take as part of their degree plan. In order for a course to transfer in as a core, the class must come from a CACREP-accredited program, must match the content of the original ULM course, and not be older than six years by the time of graduation from the Counseling Program at ULM. Counseling faculty and the Dean of the Graduate School reserve the right to make final decisions regarding the appropriateness of core course transfers.

Elective Coursework Transfer Credit

In order for a course to transfer in as an elective, the class must be “counseling related” and not be older than six years by the time of graduation from the Counseling Program at ULM. Core courses from non-CACREP accredited programs cannot be used as electives. Counseling faculty reserve the right to make final decisions regarding the appropriateness of elective transfers.

Submitting Documentation for Transfer Credit

Students accepted to the program and want to transfer courses into the program must have the official transcripts of the courses sent to the graduate school at espinoza@ulm.edu. Students must also send the syllabi of the classes to the Program Director of Counseling at tfoster@ulm.edu for review.