M.Ed. in Counseling Admissions FAQ

Yes. In fact, we encourage students to take advantage of this option when available. Please have e-transcripts sent to graded@wm.edu.

Mailed transcripts and/or test scores should be sent via the U.S. Postal Service and directed to our P.O. Box address. Please note that you must include "School of Education" in the address or we will not receive your materials. Materials sent via Postal Service should be addressed as follows:


School of Education
Office of Academic Programs
William & Mary
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187


To send your materials via FedEx or UPS, you will need to use the following physical address:

School of Education
Office of Academic Programs
William & Mary
301 Monticello Ave.
Williamsburg, VA 23185

Yes. Scanned documents can be sent to graded@wm.edu.

Yes. Some colleges may not include grades from transfer courses on their transcripts or in their GPA calculations and grant transfer credits only if a certain grade is achieved. Also, courses taken after graduation, regardless of field, are also taken into account when your application is reviewed. Therefore, we need official transcripts from every institution you have attended, even if those courses are reflected on another university's transcript.

Official foreign transcripts transcribed into English are acceptable, as are credential evaluations completed and submitted by the World Education Services (WES) and/or Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE).

We may accept up to 12 credits for transfer from CACREP-accredited programs. After you complete an application and are admitted to the program, your faculty advisor will work with you to determine which credits will transfer into our program. The credits you plan to transfer may not be more than four years old at the time of admission.

At this time, our Online M.Ed. in Counseling is only available to matriculated students. If you are local to the Williamsburg area, we invite you to explore our non-degree course offerings.

Yes, including complete recommendation letters from your references. A confirmation email is sent when an application is considered complete.

First, have the recommender check his/her junk folder; the email is sent automatically when you save your online application. If they cannot locate the email in their inbox or junk folder, you can resend it through your application dashboard.

No.

Yes. International students submitting IELTS results require a minimum score of 7.0. TOEFL scores are also accepted, with a minimum score of 100 on the internet version (or comparable score if the exam is not taken online).

Obtaining a Social Security Number is required for fieldwork placements. If you cannot obtain a Social Security Number, you are ineligible to enroll in this program.

No.

When requesting that test scores be sent from GRE, our institution code is 5115. Be sure to also indicate a major/department code on your request. Anything in the area of "Education" will find its way to us.

In order to be fair to the many competitive applicants for each start term, deferrals are not permitted for the Clinical Mental Health concentration. Deferrals for the Military Veterans and School Counseling concentration are discouraged and will only be considered on a case-by-case basis.

There is no set length or format; the average submission is usually two or three pages long. However, you should reference our list of key points and guiding questions when constructing your essay, which can be found our Admissions page.

You can find information about notification dates in the online program academic calendar.

We require three letters of recommendation from academic and professional references.

No, application deadlines are fixed. We have three starting dates each year, so if you miss a deadline for one term, you can apply to begin in the following term.

We offer fee waiver for several reasons. If you fit into one of the categories listed below, you will indicate that on your application and upload the appropriate documentation:

• Members and Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces—Please upload a copy of your Leave Earning Statement (LES) or DD214
• McNair Scholars—Please upload a letter from your undergraduate institution confirming you McNair status
• Fulbright Scholars—Please upload a copy of the letter notifying you of your selection as a Fullbright Fellow
• AmeriCorps Participant—Please upload an official letter from the AmeriCorps indicating dates of service
• Peace Corps Participant—Please upload an official letter from the Peace Corps indicating dates of service

Yes. Please call 757-221-2317 or email graded@wm.edu to schedule a visit.

William & Mary understands that students may occasionally require an extended leave of absence from the program, and we allow a total of six years to complete all coursework, practicum and internship requirements. For students who find themselves challenged by the program demands or struggling within a particular term, a dedicated student success coordinator is available to provide personalized support that can keep students on track for graduation.

As a general rule to avoid any conflicts of interests, students in either concentration cannot complete their practicum and internship at their current place of employment. Please review our guidelines.

Your practicum will require you to spend 100 clock hours at a school or clinical mental health counseling site. On average, this will mean 8-10 hours per week over two 7.5-week minimesters. Meanwhile, your internship will require a total of 600 hours over four minimesters. On average, you can plan to spend 18-20 hours each week on site.

For both your practicum as well as your internship, expect to spend an additional 2 to 3 hours each week in synchronous class and supervision time with faculty.

Community service agencies, hospitals, public schools, and institutions of higher learning are typical field placements. Appropriate sites characteristically offer mental health or preventive counseling services in both individual and group settings. Final approval rests with faculty.

Students are required to be in a K-12 public school setting. However, to gain Virginia licensure, you can also choose an accredited private school in Virginia with a comprehensive developmental model of school counseling. Final approval rests with faculty.

Fieldwork requirements for the students pursuing a specialization in Military and Veterans Counseling are the same as those in the general Clinical Mental Health Counseling concentration. Fieldwork is typically completed in community service agencies, hospitals, public schools, and institutions of higher learning. Appropriate sites characteristically offer mental health or preventive counseling services in both individual and group settings. Final approval rests with faculty.

This time commitment can be challenging. In order to complete your fieldwork, you may need to arrange for some flexibility and adjustment in your full-time work schedule to accommodate fieldwork onsite hours.

We require that you complete a robust practicum and internship to ensure your success after graduation. Our CACREP-accredited Online Master of Education in Counseling degrees are designed to help you meet classroom requirements for licensure and perform better on the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination (NCMHCE).

Step one is to sign in here. After providing your first name, last name and email address and clicking "Submit," you will receive an email with further instructions and a link to access the online application.

Check your junk folder to ensure the activation email was not caught by a spam filter. Otherwise, please refer to the section titled "How do I resend a registration activation link?" on the initial sign-up page.

Please click "Forgot Password" to reset it.

If you are having issues with our online application system, please call our office at 757-221-2317.

You can find your school in the "Enrollment History" section of the application by typing out the name of your institution in the "Institution Attended" field. Use keywords when searching and avoid using "college" or "university." If your school is not listed, type "unknown" and wait for the "Unknown School" option to appear; you can then type in the name of your college/university in the text box that appears.

This error is usually caused by special characters in the file name. Please adhere to the following suggestions when saving your files for upload:

• Save and upload your file as a Word doc or PDF. This is the best option for getting past the ASCII character options.
• Avoid using special characters ( ~, #, %, & , *, {, }, \, :, , ?, /, |,) in the file name.
• Use the icon beside the "Upload File" field to remove existing files. If you cannot remove a file that was uploaded in error, contact our office at 757-221-2317; we can delete it for you.

When you complete your application, you will see a green dot beside each section of the application, and the application will display "100%." You will then click "Save and Pay" to submit the application fee. Once payment is made you will be able to click "Submit Your Application" and electronically sign your document. Your screen will then display "100% Complete" and "Application – Submitted."
Please note that your application is not considered complete until you have submitted your online application in full and we have received all necessary materials, including transcripts, references, etc. Unfinished applications will not be reviewed by the university.

Yes. At any point during the online application process, you can save your application and return to it at a later time. You will need your username (email) and password to log back in and complete the application.

Once you submit your application, you can send a reminder to any recommender who has not responded to your request. Locate your student dashboard and click the “Send Reminder” link to any recommender you want to remind.

If your application is in progress, you can click into the "Letter of Recommendation" section, remove the desired recommendation and replace it with a new one. Do not type over the name of the old recommender and put in a new name. If you have already submitted your application, locate the checklist section in your student dashboard and select the "Change Recommender" link.

Log into your account and locate your application to confirm it says "100% Complete" and "Application Submitted." Click on the application and locate the application checklist. This will show what materials have been received and which items are outstanding.

Students and faculty in the Online Master of Education in Counseling program collaborate and talk with each other primarily through video conferencing, live chat, discussion boards and email messages related to course assignments. In addition, faculty will hold scheduled phone conversations upon request.

The Online Master of Education in Counseling is largely considered a part-time program and thus requires approximately 15-20 hours of work per week for didactic courses, including time spent with lectures, research, and coursework.
As a professional preparation program, the counseling program also requires students to engage in 700 hours of counseling experience in a school or clinical mental health field site placement. The 100-hour counseling practicum and 600-hour counseling internship are completed concurrently with other classes and include students spending 8-10 hours per week during Practicum and 18-20 hours per week during Internship at their field site placements as part of the course requirements.
Students should be prepared for a near full-time workload during the two 15-week semesters of the counseling Internship.

You are required to complete two courses during each fall, spring and summer term, for a total of six classes per year. Until fieldwork, when you will likely take fieldwork courses concurrently with other courses.

Students are expected to complete both the practicum and internship within their local communities. William & Mary faculty advisors will assist you in identifying acceptable practicum and internship opportunities, ensuring that you are able to cater these clinical instruction experiences appropriately to your academic and professional goals.

While there are some similarities between these two program types—both can lead to clinical licensure, for instance—the Online Master of Education in Counseling focuses more specifically on developing a student’s knowledge of and skill related to prevention and counseling intervention, whereas a Master of Social Work program will typically focus more broadly on understanding and addressing issues related to public policy and the availability of community resources that influence client problems and well-being.

No. Academic policy prevents concentration switching.

The residencies take place in the 3rd and 5th semesters of your program.

The impact of adverse childhood experiences is integral to the content discussion in a number of courses in the Online Master of Education in Counseling program, including Human Growth and Development: A Life-Span Perspective, The Counselor and Psychopathology, Marriage and Family Counseling, and more; however, the psychometric measurement of ACE (i.e. ACE scores) is not included in coursework at this time.