Counseling Psychology
1996 Ph.D. Program Description
Counseling psychology is one of the four traditional specialties of professional psychology. Counseling psychologists maintain an emphasis on the positive aspects of human development and are focused on exploring and facilitating the strengths and assets of individuals, groups, and organizational units. In practice, counseling psychologists emphasize the development of self-direction, life-stage coping skills, and educational strategies for change.
Applicants are encouraged to investigate the field prior to making application. Useful questions to examine during this investigation include: In what ways is counseling psychology similar to and different than the other professional specialties of clinical psychology, school psychology, and industrial/organizational psychology? What functions do persons with the doctorate in counseling psychology typically perform? What are the academic and theoretical issues which are of interest to counseling psychologists? A good single resource would be the July 1988 issue of The Counseling Psychologist. Another would be Counseling Psychology, by C. Gelso and B.R. Fretz (1992; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich). Applicants also might review material published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology and The Counseling Psychologist.
Note: Degree of emphasis on research is not a meaningful distinction between counseling psychology and other specialties. Students should not make the mistake of applying to this program because they are afraid of, averse to, or simply uninterested in research.
Moreover, students whose sole objective is private practice are discouraged from applying. The program-like many clinical and counseling psychology programs-follows the scientist practitioner model. Students are prepared both as practitioners and as scientists. Therefore, the USC counseling psychology program is substantially more research oriented than some clinical psychology programs, but is less so than others.
Counseling psychology as a psychological specialty facilitates personal and interpersonal functioning across the life span with a focus on emotional, social, vocational, educational, health-related, developmental, and organizational concerns. Through the integration theory, research, and practice, and with a sensitivity to multicultural issues, this specialty encompasses a broad range of practices that help people improve their well-being, alleviate distress and maladjustment, resolve crises, and increase their ability to live more highly functioning lives. Counseling psychology is unique in its attention both to normal developmental issues and to problems associated with physical, emotional, and mental disorders.
Populations served by Counseling Psychologists include persons of all ages and cultural backgrounds. Examples of those populations would include late adolescents or adults with career/educational concerns and children or adults facing severe personal difficulties. Counseling Psychologists also consult with organizations seeking to enhance their effectiveness or the well-being of their members.
Counseling Psychologists adhere to the standards and ethics established by the American Psychological Association.
Counseling Psychologists participate in a range of activities including teaching, research, psychotherapeutic and counseling practice, career development, assessment, supervision, and consultation. They employ a variety of methods closely tied to theory and research to help individuals, groups and organizations function optimally as well as to mediate dysfunction. Interventions may be either brief or long-term; they are often problem-specific and goal-directed. These activities are guided by a philosophy that values individual differences and diversity and a focus on prevention, development, and adjustment across the life span which includes vocational concerns.
Counseling Psychologists are employed in a variety of settings depending on the services they provide and the client populations they serve. Some are employed in institutions of higher learning - including counseling centers - as teachers, supervisors, researchers, and service providers. Others are employed in independent practice providing counseling, psychotherapy, assessment, and consultation services to individuals, families, groups, and organizations. Additional settings in which counseling psychologists practice include community mental health centers, Veterans Administration Medical Centers and other facilities, family services, health maintenance organizations, rehabilitation agencies, business and industrial organizations and consulting firms.
Most counseling psychology training programs are accredited by the American Psychological Association. The list of accredited programs appears each year in the journal, the American Psychologist. Both accredited and non-accredited training programs are listed in the book, Graduate Study in Psychology. The APA accords accreditation to doctoral programs in counseling psychology that meet certain criteria with respect to faculty, curriculum, facilities, and other considerations. Counseling psychology programs usually are housed in departments of psychology or educational psychology or in colleges of education.
Counseling psychology doctoral programs usually require at least four to five years of graduate study, involving course work and integrated training experiences in a variety of topical areas and professional skills. These include (a) instruction in the core areas of psychology (biological, cognitive/affective, and social bases of behavior; individual differences; history and systems of psychology); (b) specialized instruction in theories of counseling and personality, vocational psychology, human life span development, psychological assessment and evaluation, psychopathology, measurement and statistics, research design, professional ethics, supervision, and consultation; © supervised practica focused on the development of counseling, psychotherapy, assessment, and consultation skills; (d) the equivalent of a one year full-time predoctoral internship in professional psychology; and (e) completion of an original psychologically-based dissertation.
Entrance to doctoral programs in counseling psychology is competitive and selective; there are far more applicants to the programs than can be admitted. Factors important in the selection process include a bachelor's (and possibly master's) degree earned from an accredited college or university, consistently high college grades, and course work and/or volunteer or work experience that match the orientation of the particular doctoral program to which one is applying. Scores on standardized scholastic aptitude tests such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) usually are considered as well.
For more information on the training and professional activities of Counseling Psychologists, the following the following sources can be consulted: The Counseling Psychologist (the official journal of Division 17 {Counseling Psychology} of the American Psychological Association), Journal of Counseling Psychology (published by the American Psychological Association), the American Psychological Association (located in Washington, D.C.), and various textbooks on counseling psychology.
Also, the Student Affiliate Group (SAG) of Division 17 sponsors an E-mail discussion group that is a useful way to get more information. To join, (via E-mail), send a message to listserv@gse.utah.edu. Do not include a header, rather the only message should say: SUBSCRIBE SAGNET plus your name in quotation marks, i.e., "Jean Bolen". Make sure that your e-mail message does not contain a signature. The Campus Context of USC's Counseling Psychology Program
The University of Southern California, founded in 1880, is the oldest independent research university in the West. It has approximately 30,500 students, and offers degrees in 204 fields of study through 17 professional schools, the Graduate School, and the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. By the measure of federal research and development support, USC ranks in the top 10 among private research universities and in the top 20 among all universities in the United States.
The University Park Campus is situated on 150 acres three miles south of downtown Los Angeles. It consists of more than 130 major buildings with approximately 7 million square feet. The campus is adjacent to museums and recreational facilities in Exposition Park, and is served by a network of freeways that provide access to most cultural, business, and residential areas of Southern California.
The USC School of Education is housed in Waite Phillips Hall (WPH), a modern, 12-story brick building. The counseling psychology program is located on the fifth floor, which includes faculty and staff offices, meeting space, and counselor training laboratory facilities.
The School of Education has four Divisions (the School's Divisions essentially are academic departments). The Division of Counseling Psychology is the academic unit in which the counseling psychology program is housed. In addition to the counseling psychology program, the Division maintains master's degree programs in marriage, family and child counseling and in college student personnel services. Three, or almost half, of the Division's seven tenure line faculty members have been elected to Fellow status in the American Psychological Association's (APA) Division of Counseling Psychology as recognition for their scholarly contributions to the field (Professors Goodyear, Newcomb, and Polkinghorne).
One of the several USC computer laboratories to which students have access is located in the basement of WPH. USC's libraries house 2.5 million volumes (plus 18,000 current serials and 1,400,000 microfilms). In addition to these on-campus resources, USC students may find useful the libraries at the nine different campuses of the University of California and California State University that are within 60 miles of the USC campus.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has identified 1,378 U.S. four-year colleges and universities, but classified only 103 as research universities. USC is one of only 58 research universities in the US and Canada that are voting members of the Association of American Universities (AAU), a select group of universities with invited entry only. In California, the six AAU universities are: USC, California Institute of Technology, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UCLA, and UC-San Diego.
Consistent with USC's mission as a major research university, our counseling psychology program has the goal of educating scientist-practitioners. Students are prepared to make scholarly contributions to psychology's knowledge base and to infuse their clinical work with the attitude, problem solving approach, and intellectual rigor of the scientist. They are prepared to carefully assess, effectively intervene, and to establish strong therapeutic relationships with their clients in the various professional roles counseling psychologists perform. Counseling psychology students are prepared as scholars competent in diverse research methods. They are encouraged to employ the strategy (e.g., qualitative; quantitative) appropriate to the purpose of their inquiry.
The USC counseling psychology faculty intend that program graduates be socially responsible citizens who are aware that many of the issues our clients confront have societal origins. As well, program graduates are to have knowledge of and respect for client diversity (e.g., in race and ethnicity; gender; sexual orientation). These program goals are served by both course work (e.g., EDCO-551; EDCO-647) and by the students' counseling experiences (e.g., Family Services of Los Angeles, at which all students will take at least one practicum, is an inner-city facility that serves diverse clientele).
USC's counseling psychology is provisionally accredited by the American Psychological Association. The program was first accredited in March, 1993; as is typical for initially-accredited programs, the type of accreditation was "provisional." Students are, however, in an accredited program with all attendant rights. The location of the counseling psychology program in the School of Education emphasizes its focus on skills to facilitate the positive growth and development of client populations. Graduates have taken positions in a wide variety of settings, including university academic departments, university counseling centers, mental health centers, hospitals, and rehabilitation settings. Within these settings, they function as researchers, educators, counselors, administrators, and consultants.
Faculty are diverse in their theoretical models of counseling. Integrationism is encouraged, that is, students are given the opportunity to consider and refine their own models of people and of change processes. This happens at multiple points in the program, but especially in the advanced theories course (EDCO-641).
The Division of Counseling Psychology has six full time, tenure track faculty: Ruth Gim-Chung, Rodney Goodyear, Michael Newcomb, Donald Polkinghorne, Joan Rosenberg and Scott Whiteley. Research interests and two representative publications of each of the counseling psychology faculty are summarized briefly below:
Ruth H. Gim Chung (University of California, Santa Barbara, 1994). Telephone: (213) 740-3259; E-Mail: rchung@mizar.usc.edu. Professor Chung's research and teaching interests are in the area of cultural differences and their impact on various aspects of mental health and service delivery. Her specific programs of research are in cross-cultural conceptualizations of healthy family functioning, acculturation and ethnic identity of Asian Americans, and career development of racial and ethnic minorities.
Leong, F. & Gim-Chung, R.H. (1995). Career Counseling and Intervention with Asian Americans. In Leong (ed.), Career Development and Vocational Behavior of Racial and Ethnic Minorities. Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers.
Gim, R.H., Atkinson, D., & Kim, S. (1991). Asian American acculturation, counselor ethnicity, and cultural sensitivity, and ratings of counselors. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 38, 57-62.
Rodney Goodyear (University of Illinois, 1972). Telephone: (213) 740-3267; E-mail: goodyea@mizar.usc.edu. Professor Goodyear's research interests have centered primarily on the processes (especially social, psychological, and cognitive) and outcomes of counselor supervision and on the professional training of counseling students. His secondary interests focus on issues in counseling process and outcome. He is the past Editor of the Journal of Counseling and Development, a current member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He also serves as Training Director for the Counseling Psychology program.
Goodyear, R.K. (1990). Test interpretation: A review of effects. The Counseling Psychologist, 18, 240-257.
Bernard, J.M. & Goodyear, R.K. (1992). Fundamentals of clinical supervision. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Michael Newcomb (University of California, Los Angeles, 1979). Telephone: (213) 740- 3257; E-mail: newcomb@mizar.usc.edu. Professor Newcomb has several areas of programmatic research. These include: the etiology and consequences of adolescent drug abuse; stress, social support, and health; human sexuality; cohabitation, marriage, and divorce; and attitudes and affect related to the threat of nuclear war. He has methodological expertise in the use of latent-variable structural equation models. He is principal investigator on several grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and serves on their prevention and epidemiology review panel. He also serves on the editorial boards of Experimental & Clinical Psychopharmacology; Archives of Sexual Behavior; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and the Journal of Child and Adolescent Drug Abuse, and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He is the chair of the Division of Counseling Psychology and in addition serves as Training Director for the Division's Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling program.
Newcomb, M.D. & Rickards, S. (1995). Parent drug-use problems and adult intimate relations: associations among community samples of young adult women and men. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 141-154.
Newcomb, M.D. (1994). Drug use and intimate relationships among women and men: separating specific from general effects in prospective data using structural equation models. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 463-476.
Donald Polkinghorne (Union Graduate College, 1972). Telephone: (213) 740-3263; E-mail: polkingh@mizar.usc.edu. Professor Polkinghorne is working to extend the use of narrative as a cognitive tool for organizing the clinical information that informs the counselor's judgment. Interested in philosophy of science and in qualitative research methods, he is a founding editor of Methods: A Journal for Human Science and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Counseling Psychology. Professor Polkinghorne is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.
Polkinghorne, D. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Polkinghorne, D. (1983). Methodology for the human sciences: Systems of inquiry. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Joan I. Rosenberg (University of Missouri, Columbia, 1986). (213) 740-3262; E-mail: (call for e-mail address). Professor Rosenberg's twenty years of clinical practice provides the basis for her research interests on counseling process and outcomes and more specifically on the training and supervision of mental health professionals. She has a developing research interest in the area of self-motivation as it applies to goal achievement.
Heppner, P.P., Rosenberg, J.I., & Hedgespeth, J. (1992). Three methods in measuring the therapeutic process: Clients' and Counselors' Constructions of the therapeutic process versus actual therapeutic events. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 39, 20-31.
Heppner, P.P., Menne, M.M., & Rosenberg, J.I. (1986). Some reflections on the interpersonal influence process in counseling. In F.J. Dorn (Ed.), The Social Influence Process in Counseling & Psychotherapy. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.
Scott Whiteley (University of California, Santa Barbara, 1982). (213) 740-3266; E-mail: whiteley@mizar.usc.edu. Professor Whiteley's teaching and research interests center on developmental issues of college students. He is interested both in exploring the cognitive and affective changes taking place during the college years (18-24), as well as helping those who are currently working-or want to work-with a college student's sexual behavior and has been formulating and evaluating interventions and programs that help students understand their behavior as well as to exchange risky for less risky-or no risk-sexual behavior. Additional perceptions of and attitudes toward sexual harassment, as well as the construction and validation of educational and psychological tests. He also serves as Training Director for the Division's College Student Personnel Program.
Baldwin, J. & Whiteley, S. (1990). Changing AIDS and fertility-related behavior: The effectiveness of sex education. Journal of Sex Research, 27, 245-263.
Gim, R. H., Atkinson, D. R., & Whiteley, S. (1990). Asian-American acculturation, severity of concerns, and willingness to see a counselor. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 37, 281, 285.
In addition to these core faculty, USC has been fortunate in being able to draw from an excellent pool of local counseling psychologists to teach on a regular, part-time basis. For example, staff psychologists (e.g., Patricia Alford-Keating, Bradford King; Mark Stevens) from the USC Counseling Center, and Clyde Crego, Director of the Counseling Center at CSU-Long Beach (and Fellow of the American Psychological Association); Merril Simon, USC School of Business and professional Career Counselor; Linda Smith, Counseling Center, Cal Poly University - Pomona, CA.
An orientation meeting for new students will be held the week before fall classes begin. Students admitted to the program should plan to attend, as it will provide an opportunity both to obtain an overview of program requirements and to meet faculty and other students.
Both research data and the faculty's own experience suggest that the degree to which students benefit from a training program corresponds highly to their degree of involvement in the program's activities and with the program's faculty. Therefore, USC counseling psychology students are expected to participate actively in program activities outside the classroom (e.g., in departmental research groups; in the program's student group [CGS]; attendance at open faculty meetings; attendance at on-campus symposia; etc.).
Although it would be the faculty's preference, students need not always take a full-time course load. They should know, however, that whereas program requirements are substantial, the time USC allows for completing a Ph.D. is limited (eight years for someone entering with a bachelor's degree; six years for someone entering with an applicable master's degree). To put this in context: a student who enters the program with a master's degree and attends USC as a full-time student should expect three years of course work plus a year of internship.
Each graduate course in USC's Division of Counseling Psychology meets once each week during the semester. Many are scheduled at either 4:15 pm or 7:05 pm. Doctoral level courses are, however, offered at other times of the day and the recent trend has been to offer an increasing number of them in the morning or at midday. Students are expected to arrange their schedules to attend all required classes, regardless of scheduled times and to do so in the appropriate sequences.
Reduced to its essential elements, a counseling psychology program consists of: (1) course work; (2) counseling and research practica; (3) the one-year (or equivalent) internship; and, (4) the dissertation. Course work, practica, and internship requirements each will be described in the sections that follow.
Required course work in the USC counseling psychology program can be clustered into five general areas:
The specific requirements for each of these five clusters are summarized in the subsections that follow. In considering that course work, students should know that: (1) they can substitute up to 20 graduate-level units of this course work with equivalent course work from another institution (waivers require the approval of the program faculty); (2) it is possible for a student to choose some courses that will count in two or more of the five categories of course work (e.g., taking a physiological psychology course in the Psychology Department would count both toward the Psychological Foundations and the Outside field areas). The number of units of each course is indicated in parentheses.
EDCO-501 Proseminar in Counseling Psychology (2)*
EDCO-503 Seminar: Ethical and Legal Issues in Counseling (2)
EDCO-541 Theories in Counseling Psychology I (3)
EDCO-542 Group Counseling: Theory and Process (3)
EDCO-544 Measurement Procedures in the Helping Process (3)**
EDCO-548 Career Development: Theory and Process (3)
**An EDPT statistics class is required before students can register for this class.
****Students must enroll each semester, excepting summer sessions, after completing qualifying examinations and until all degree requirements are met (although EDCO-763 may substitute for EDCO-794 under some conditions).
Counseling psychology students are being prepared as psychologists. It is essential, then, that they take at least one course in each of the following areas. Because these are intended as foundation courses it is inappropriate to take an advanced course (e.g., "seminar in sociobiology") if the more basic course work has not been done.Summarized are the courses that program faculty have approved to meet each of these four core requirements. Students wanting other courses to be considered for approval as meeting these requirements must submit a request in writing to the Program Faculty, along with a syllabus of the alternative course.
EDCO-599 Physiological Psychology (2-4)
PSYC-516 Survey of Physiological Psychology (4)
PSYC-544 Psychophysiology (4)
PSYC-585 Biological Basis of Learning and Behavior (4)
GERO-510 Physiology of Development and Aging (4)
EDCO-599 Psychopathology for MFCC (3)
EDHP-687 Theories of Student Development (3)
EDPT-502 Learning and Individual Differences (3)
EDPT-520 Human Lifespan Development (3)
EDPT-613 Individual Differences and Motivation (3)
EDPT-624 Adolescent Development (3)
GERO-520 Lifespan Development Psychology (4)
PSYC-514 Psychopathology (4)
PSYC-525 Advanced Developmental Psychology (4)
PSYC-530 Child Development (4)
PSYC-531 Psychology of Adult Differentiation and Aging (4)
*Students may take this course with the permission of their advisor if they have undergraduate preparation in this domain.
Counseling psychology students are to take at least the following five research-oriented courses. Students are encouraged to take these courses early in their programs so that they will have the tools necessary for participation in research projects that may emerge as opportunities during their programs.
*Students must take EDCO 502 during the second semester of their first year.
The specialty field is an area of concentration closely related to the major field, but in which the student develops specific expertise. The specialty requires nine (9) units of graduate-level course work; is chosen in concert with the student's advisor and should be consistent with the advisor's own area of scholarship. The intent is not only to foster particular expertise, but to encourage the sort of mentoring that can occur with shared faculty-student research and scholarship.
This requirement is met by courses taken outside the School of Education-generally courses that also fulfill requirements for the specialty or for psychological foundations. Students are to take three (four-unit) courses. These courses need not be related or from the same department. Students should use this as an opportunity to develop a relationship with other University faculty who can then be asked to serve as an outside member of the doctoral committee.
Students should know that although they may transfer in up to 20 units of course work, such courses all must have been taken prior to enrolling at USC. The single exception: Because of a UCLA/USC cross-registration agreement, USC students may take one or more of their courses at UCLA, provided appropriate permissions are obtained from their advisor and the Division chair. On occasion, this can be useful to students who are experiencing difficulty finding a needed course at USC (one drawback of doing this is that the student loses the important opportunity to become acquainted with a USC faculty member who subsequently might be asked to serve as an member of his or her doctoral guidance committee-finding the necessary committee member who is from outside the School of Education sometimes is difficult).
Students' counseling skills are developed and honed in situations where they are supervised for work with real clients. In the same way, their skill in designing and conducting research is best acquired through supervised experience. For that reason, the USC counseling psychology program requires students to maintain ongoing participation in research. Opportunities for this are in several forms: (1) required course work; (2) the doctoral dissertation (and, for some, the masters thesis). The third component of research training, however, is comprised of what might be regarded as "research practica," which are structurally independent of course work or dissertation.
Research practica begin during the student's first semester in the program and continue through the first six consecutive semesters. They entail 45 hours per semester of supervised research activity and are comprised of tasks to be negotiated at the beginning of each semester with the student's advisor. Although the specific research tasks will vary within and across semesters, it is to be hoped that all students eventually will have exposure to at least the following: coding of data; observation and rating of counselor and/or client behaviors; data analyses; participation in an ongoing research group; the writing up of results; and the preparation and submission of a research paper for convention presentation and/or journal publication.
Students take a prepracticum, skills course (EDCO-500) and three counseling and supervision practicum courses (EDCO-640, EDCO-660, and EDCO-760). In addition, students are to accrue at least 600 hours of field work experience during the program in settings that have been approved by the Practicum Coordinator (Professor Rosenberg). For EDCO-660, students take their practicum at Family Services of Los Angeles. This urban agency provides a range of mental health services to a diverse clientele.
Subject to program approval, it is possible that: (1) practicum courses taken at other universities may be substituted for EDCO-640; and, (2) that some field placement hours obtained in practica at other universities may be applied toward the 600 hour requirement.
USC does not offer malpractice insurance coverage for students on internships or in off-campus field placements. Because of this, students are advised to obtain their own coverage, which they can do very inexpensively through programs sponsored by either the American Psychological Association (APA) or the American Counseling Association (ACA). For example, ACA's cost for $250,000 of coverage for students is only $12 per year.
The one-year (in some instances, taken half-time during two years) internship, is an essential component in the training of professional psychologists. Taken after all course work is completed and qualifying examinations have been passed, the internship's purpose is to help consolidate skills and further the crystallize a student's sense of professional identity; it is a period of transition from the status of student to that of professional.
All students are required to take an internship endorsed by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral & Internship Centers (APPIC); if possible, it should be one accredited by the American Psychological Association. Though a number of such internships are available in Southern California, competition for them is heavy. Therefore, students should be prepared to relocate geographically for their internships.
In exceptional cases, students may petition the counseling psychology faculty for permission to take internships that are not sponsored by APPIC. Approval of such petitions will be based only on compelling educational reasons (e.g., that the particular internship desired uniquely addresses the career goals of the students). Finances or personal circumstances will not be considered as arguments for waiving the requirement to obtain an APPIC internship.
In the past, internships taken by USC students have included those at the counseling centers at: University of California-Berkeley; University of California-Santa Barbara; University of California-Irvine; University of California-Santa Cruz; Claremont Colleges; Duke University; University of Minnesota; Brigham Young University; Illinois State University; University of Southern Illinois; University of Pennsylvania; University of Virginia; University of Florida; and University of Southern California. Several recent internship settings other than university counseling centers have included: LA's VA Outpatient Clinic; University of Texas Medical Center; Camarillo State Hospital; Children's Hospital of Orange County; Michigan State University Medical School; San Bernardino County Mental Health; and Worchester State Hospital.
The University requires that all programs again screen doctoral students after they have been on campus. In the School of Education, this is called the Preliminary Review and takes place after students have taken at least nine, but no more than 24 units of course work. Because counseling psychology students are being screened for a profession that requires the ability to engage in therapeutic relationships, they are screened during the Preliminary Review both for academic suitability and for those interpersonal qualities deemed necessary to function effectively as a counselor. Therefore, it would be possible for a student to be evaluated by faculty during the preliminary review and not be allowed to continue in the program either because of academic progress or because the faculty judge the student not to be interpersonally suited for the profession.
Qualifying examinations are given after virtually all course work is completed. They are intended as comprehensive examinations over three areas: major field, specialization and research. Currently, the program administers written examinations, each taken during a four hour block on a separate day.
Students will not be allowed to sit for the qualifying examination until they have obtained a score of at least 550 on the Graduate Record Examination Subject Test in psychology. Students are encouraged to meet this requirement as early in their program as possible (faculty will accept above-criterion scores obtained on this test, whenever the test is or was taken).
The 1993 cohort of twelve had an average age of 28; they were 75% female and 25% male; their average combined GRE score was 1120. When identified in terms of ethnicity, they were 58% Caucasian, 16% African-American, 16% Asian, and 8% Hispanic.
The 1994 cohort has an average age of 30; they are 54% male and 46% female; their average combined GRE score is 1180. They are 62% Caucasian, 15% Asian, 15% Hispanic, and 8% African-American; included among the Caucasians are two Iranians.
The 1995 cohort has an average age of 32; they are 67% female and 33%male; their average combined GRE score is 1228. They are 83% Caucasian, 8% African-American; 8% Asian.
With respect to attrition: no member of the 1992 cohort has left the program. Two members of the 1993 cohort have left the program; one member from the 1994 cohort has left. Experience leads us to anticipate that about 10% eventually drop out of the program for various reasons.
Students in the counseling psychology program have their own organization, CGS (acronym for Counseling Graduate Students). CGS has been very active in representing the students' interests. They have representation, for example, in faculty meetings and search committees. Their representatives will participate in the selection of incoming students.
Because applicants to a program often will wish to have the observations and opinions of students in that program, we have developed a list of students whom applicants may call for such information. Interested applicants should call the Division of Counseling Psychology for that list.
The application deadline for Fall 1996 admission to the counseling psychology program is December 31, 1995.Screening of applicants will begin at that time. The goal of the USC counseling psychology program faculty is to have 12 students in the 1996 entering class. Applicants will be notified of admission decisions in early March.
By voluntary agreement, the Council of Graduate Programs of Psychology has set April 15 as the deadline for students to accept or decline offers of admission and financial aid. Applicants who receive an offer of admission to USC's counseling psychology program will be expected to respond in writing by this date.
The Application for Graduate Admission can be obtained from:
The counseling psychology program requires that photocopies of that application and other supplemental materials be sent directly to the program prior to the December 31 deadline. A complete application packet will include copies of the completed Application for Graduate Admission, transcripts (undergraduate and graduate), scores on the General Test of the Graduate Record Examination, and personal statement. If the GRE has not been taken, list the date it is planned to in the appropriate section of the Application for Graduate Admission; if the score report is unavailable to photocopy, list the date taken and the scores.
NOTE: Applicants without results of the General Test of the Graduate Record Examination will not be screened. Although photocopies of the GRE are accepted for screening purposes, a student cannot be admitted without official results reported by ETS. These scores cannot be more than five years old.
Because of the December 31 deadline, it is imperative that applicants sit for the GRE examination no later than the October administration.
Also required prior to the December 31 deadline are at least three references. Two of these should be academic references, from current or former professors who can discuss the applicant's promise as a scholar. If the applicant has a master's degree in a counseling-related discipline, he or she should have at least one reference from someone who served as a practicum supervisor. It never is appropriate to obtain references from current or former psychotherapists or from family members. Each reference should be accompanied by the supplemental form attached to the end of this document. Please duplicate as many copies of this form as you need.
Send copies of all application materials to:
Applicants should use the personal statement to present anything they believe will help the faculty better evaluate their suitability for the USC counseling psychology program. But regardless of what else is in this statement, it is important that applicants address the following: (a) their professional goals; (b) ways they believe those goals are consistent with the goals and orientation of the USC program; © some indication of their degree of commitment to research and scholarship; and, (d) their possible research interests (though faculty realize that such interests likely will change and develop during the program). If there is a particular faculty member with whom the applicant especially would like to work, this too should be noted.
It is important to stress that every student must be qualified for admission, but that the fact of qualification does not guarantee admission. Consequently, the higher an applicant's qualifications, the better are his or her prospects of being accepted into the program. The USC counseling psychology program accepts only a small portion of those who apply and therefore regrets that it must turn away many well-qualified people each year.
In screening students, faculty employ a constellation of criteria. Certainly we wish to predict success in the program. But we also wish to choose those whose personal attributes seem appropriate for this profession and those who seem to offer the best "fit" with the program's espoused goals and faculty interests. We also wish to achieve gender and ethnic diversity among students.
The screening process itself will involve two steps. The first of these will be to screen to a reduced applicant pool based on criteria of grades, GRE scores, statement of purpose, and references. The second step will involve an interview with those in the reduced applicant pool. When possible, these will be in-person interviews, though in some instances alternatives (e.g., phone interviews) will be found.
Students can apply to the program either directly from their baccalaureate or after having completed a masters degree in counseling or a related field. In screening applications, the faculty does not favor either category of student.
The Los Angeles area is large and students live in a wide variety of locations and circumstances. A variety of University housing options exist for graduate students, ranging from studio apartments to shared, multiple bedroom units. Accommodations are furnished, and prices range from $300 to $560 monthly. A very limited amount of University family housing is available, ranging in cost from $462 to $644 monthly. More information can be obtained from the Housing Services Office, (213) 740-2546.
The student who enters any counseling psychology program has to consider the financial consequences of doing so. Because USC is an independent university which must charge higher tuition than state supported universities, the counseling psychology program is especially interested in helping its potential students overcome financial obstacles to their coming to USC.
In this section, we will provide information about some of the sources of support that are more commonly used by USC counseling psychology students.
Graduate assistantships provide both a monthly stipend and tuition remission. For the typical graduate assistant (10 hours/week commitment), compensation for the 1991-1992 academic year ranges from $483.78 to $538.00 per month; they are entitled to 8 units of tuition per semester and for up to 8 units during the summer session. Although not all full-time, first semester counseling psychology students are able to obtain graduate assistantships, experience suggests that many who seek assistantships are able eventually to obtain them. Counseling psychology program faculty encourage all students who can to obtain graduate assistantships. Not only does this provide important financial support, but having students engaged in on-campus positions helps to develop and maintain the counseling psychology community we value. Likely sources include:
Although it is not required, counseling psychology students are encouraged to consider specializing (requiring at least 9 hours of course work) in college student personnel services. Such a specialization certainly is consistent with counseling psychology's identity. Historically, much of early counseling psychology was centered in the area of college student development. Importantly, too, its emphasis on fostering growth and development is a central purpose of counseling psychology.
Counseling psychology students pursuing this specialization will have the opportunity for assistantships in various units in USC's Division of Student Affairs. Every effort will be made to ensure that such assistantships are "locked in" by the time students arrive on campus to begin course work. Students interested in this option should, independent of their application to the program, contact Professor Whiteley, Coordinator of the College Student Personnel Program to express their interest. They should, of course, indicate that they are applying for admission to the counseling psychology program.
Many of the advisors in the USC College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences (LAS) advisement center are counseling psychology students. Interested students can apply for these graduate assistantships by contacting Linda Wooton, telephone (213) 740-0270. Note, however, that this should not be done until after being notified of admission to the program.
Division of Counseling PsychologyThe Division has a limited number of assistantships available; also, it employs a few graduate students on an hourly-pay basis. Because most of these involve co-teaching graduate courses in counseling, they generally are allocated to more advanced doctoral students. Generally, several students are employed in the counseling program and several are employed directly by Professors Gim-Chung, Polkinghorne, and Rosenberg who teach undergraduate courses.
Counseling psychology students also often are able to secure assistantships with the educational psychology faculty. Those with substantial statistical and computer backgrounds can apply to Professor Dennis Hocevar to assist in these areas. Also, Professor Myron Dembo employs a number of T.A.s for an undergraduate course in study skills.
Approximately 50 of these fellowships are awarded yearly at USC. Because they carry not only distinction, but also handsome financial support (full tuition payment and stipend of $14,000), they are highly competitive and are usually awarded on the bases of academic achievement, academic promise and competence. One counseling psychology student currently has this award.
These, administered by the California Student Aid Commission, are available to graduate students who are residents of California and who demonstrate high financial need. Score of Graduate Record Examinations and a separate application form (usually available in December) are required. Students can apply in one of 12 broad categories (though counseling psychology students would qualify either in the psychology or in the education category, they are advised that the latter is less competitive). Initition application is through completion of questions relating to state information on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) obtained from the USC Financial Aid Office, (213) 740-1111.
Information about scholarship support from the School of Education can be obtained from the Office of Student Services, Waite Phillips Hall Room 801, (213) 740-2606. The School has some scholarship money to disburse.
Cal Grants, administered by the California Student Aid Commission, may be available to first-year graduate students, based on merit and financial need. Recipients must be California residents.
It would be important, though, to obtain information about need-based federal aid programs from the USC Financial Aid Office. To qualify for need-based financial aid, you must be either a citizen or permanent resident of the United States.
This option offers individuals the opportunity to stabilize tuition costs by avoiding future tuition increases. Under this plan, the university will accept the prepayment of the student's total USC tuition plus mandatory fees at the current tuition rate for up to the next four years. For further information, contact Bursar Operations, Financial Service Building, Room 216, (213) 740-8366.
The University of Southern California, in cooperation with the Bank of America, offers a program by which students may finance tuition costs and other charges that can be placed on the student's fee bill in 11 monthly installments. The amount financed is in the form of a direct loan from the Bank of America. The proceeds of the loan are credited directly to the student's account in two disbursements: one half in the fall semester and the balance in the spring. The monies from this loan must be used to offset charges that appear on the bill.
Consult USC's Graduate Application for Admission for more information about these and other sources of financial aid.
Applicants who wish to obtain a student perspective on this program can call the Division at (213) 740 -3259 for phone numbers of current students who would be willing to talk with them, or contact the President of the Counseling Graduate Students at the following e-mail address: ahnguyen@chaph.usc.edu.
From May through December the Training Director of the Counseling Psychology Program regularly holds information meetings with groups of prospective students. Please call the Division office at (213) 740-3259 for the schedule of information meeting dates.