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School Counseling

Become a School Counselor.

School counselors, otherwise known as guidance counselors, help guide our nation's youth through the primary and secondary education systems (K-12 grades) as well as continuing education programs in colleges, universities, technical and trade schools.

Their goal is to promote the academic, career and personal/social development of each student. They accomplish this through individual planning and goal-setting, responsive and preventative services, and counseling programs that promote support/advocacy when dealing with student problems at school or home.

School counselors perform the following duties:

  • Refer students to grants, scholarships and loans for higher education programs
  • Locate internships and summer jobs
  • Help students deal with academic, emotional or behavioral problems
  • Teach nonviolent conflict resolution seminars
  • Organize peer counseling programs
  • Organize job and college information fairs
  • Teach alcohol and drug prevention programs
  • Mediate conflict between students and teachers
  • Design individualized academic schedules and goals for students with academic difficulties

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Work Environment

School counselors work in elementary through post-secondary schools. Some counselors follow the traditional school schedule, working nine to ten months during the year with two to three months off during the summers; however, many are being hired on full-year contracts, especially those working in middle and high schools.

Training

If you wish to explore a degree in school counseling, sign up as a counselor at a summer camp or volunteer to coach a recreational sports team. This will give you experience in interacting with young adults while in a leadership/mentorship role.

To become a school counselor, you must have completed a four-year undergraduate degree. Bachelor's degrees such as education studies and sociology will best prepare you for a two- to three-year master's degree—most commonly the Master of Education in Counseling—that the majority of states and employers require. Master's programs provide students with a combination of learning and fieldwork in local schools.

All states require their school counselors to have earned their state school counseling certification, while some also require teachers to possess both their counseling and teaching certificates, as well as teaching experience. It is the counselor's responsibility to be conscious of the education, certification and training requirements within the state they plan to work, because guidelines tend to vary from state to state.

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Did You Know?

  • Being a school counselor might sound like an easy job (who wouldn't want summers off?), but during the school year, counselors are responsible for the academic and social success of hundreds of students—479 students on average, according to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). ASCA recommends a much more modest 250-to-1 ratio for counselors, but right now there aren't enough counselors to go around.
  • In the 1940s, the US military encouraged school counselors to help select upcoming military personnel in schools by providing military aptitude tests to students.

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Walden University

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Salary Data

The median salary for school counselors working within school districts nationwide is $36,909, while counselors employed at the college/university level make an average of $36,839 annually, according to PayScale.com.