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You can get into a school counseling / mental health counseling program with any liberal arts undergraduate and (usually) a 3.0. Most programs will require that you have at least 9 credits of psychology in undergrad, however, you can make these up before matriculating in a program. I would also advise doing two internships and getting double certified / licensed in Counseling and Mental Health, if your program will allow, for greater career flexibility.
To be a school Psychologist requires anywhere from a Masters, a P.D., or a PhD, depending on the amount of research you want to do in addition to your certification.
To be a high school teacher, you will want to major in undergraduate in the subject you wish to teach, then pursue your Masters in education.
To teach in a private school, you do not need certification, only experience and a degree in your subject.
If you go into elementary education, I would STRONGLY advise getting certified in Special Ed.
As to counseling vs. social work, there are pros and cons to both:
Counseling - Pros: Work in schools, hospitals, and agencies, private practice, good base for an eventual PhD. Careers in schools and universities usually pays MUCH more, with better hours, benefits, and vacations than careers in hospitals and agencies. Cons: agency and hospital work is extremely competative with social work, counseling degree is not as recognized in some social work agencies as an MSW.
Social Work - Pros: Well established credential for work in hospitals and agencies, very strong networks with other professionals. Generally has more internship hours and training than counseling. Cons: Not as applicable to working in schools (although there are occasionally school social workers), generally low pay in the field, not the best path if you want to eventually get a Doctorate.
Would I need to take Special ED classes to be certified? I would rather do School Counseling, but I read somewhere on yahoo answers that many schools are laying off teachers and counselors. Honestly, I want to make a good amount of money and be happy with my career. Do you know any good grad programs that would have both areas?
You might consider another state besides NY if you are not bound there for some reason. I would suggest VA or MD - I think the job market is better for teachers, the districts are larger than in NY, and the requirements are more lenient. You could look for graduate programs in these states and see what turns up.
I would like to go or move somewhere for a while, but I don't know anything about VA or MD. They both sound very different from NY.
Would I need to take Special ED classes to be certified? I would rather do School Counseling, but I read somewhere on yahoo answers that many schools are laying off teachers and counselors. Honestly, I want to make a good amount of money and be happy with my career. Do you know any good grad programs that would have both areas?
I think that poster means special ed teachers are the most employable and make a good salary. But you don't need to take special ed courses if you don't want to.
Just look for teacher ed programs where you can perhaps double major in whatever teaching specialization you want plus school counseling. Sometimes school counseling is offered as a certificate course at well. Are you in NYC? Brookyln College is a well known school for teaching, as is of course Columbia's Teacher's College. But there are many more, just hit the internet and I'm sure you'll find everything you are looking for.
I'm kind of confused about what you want to do. Do you want to be a school psychologist or a school counselor? I am not sure you even need a master's degree (specifically not in psychology) if you want to just become a school counselor and fairly certain you would need a PhD if you want to become a school psychologist. I would look into it a little more, however you will definitely need more than Psych 101, if you want to apply to graduate school in psychology.
You need a master's degree to do school counseling, school psych, and teaching.
There are some prerequisite to a grad degree in school psych and the master's degree is sufficient for working in the schools. But it is more of a specialist degree that requires three years of study.
Social Worker Degree Online from an accredited school will provide the graduate all the same level of training a student would receive in a more traditional classroom environment
Last edited by toobusytoday; 02-23-2012 at 04:54 PM..
Would I need to take Special ED classes to be certified? I would rather do School Counseling, but I read somewhere on yahoo answers that many schools are laying off teachers and counselors. Honestly, I want to make a good amount of money and be happy with my career. Do you know any good grad programs that would have both areas?
If you have your BS in ECE then you should already be/have taken teacher education courses. Most ECE programs will allow you to teach up to grade 3.
School counseling can be done with a counseling degree or as a school/clinical social worker. Districts just might have different rules to what qualifications they are looking for.
If you want to do spec. ed, you'll need 2+ more years to take the required course work to be able to teach spec. ed. Although some schools will hire you to do spec. ed while you are taking the course work. Half you job is paperwork/writing reports while the other half is working with kids.
School psych's require a education specialist degree. It's a masters + 2 years. You do a lot of testing, data collecting, observing and working with teachers.
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Social Worker Degree Online
