Question by er0920: Job opportunities for those with a “School Counseling” degree?
I recently obtained a Master’s Degree in School Counseling. However, after completing my internship, I realized that school counseling has more to do with scheduling/paperwork/bookkeeping than actual counseling…i.e. I am beginning to wish that I got my degree in Mental Health Counseling or in Social Work.

But, before I go back for any further degrees, does anyone know if a Master’s Degree in School Counseling grants career opportunities for environments other than a school (i.e. maybe counseling in a hospital; working for an agency; etc).

I am really looking for an environment where my primary responsibility will be COUNSELING (individual or group), as opposed to the mess of paperwork which, to the dismay of many school counselors, seems to become their primary responsibility.

Any information would be helpful. Thank you!
Beth: I actually DID do my internship at the high school level, and the paperwork ranged from college paperwork(for seniors) to testing schedules (for all grades, but especially Juniors and Seniors), to creating/modifying schedules, to bookkeeping (with regard to…well…pretty much everything you could think of).

The same counselor took care of ALL of this for each of her students. It wasn’t like one counselor took care of one thing, and another counselor took care of something else. Each counselor had ~200 students on his/her caseload, and all the age of students ranged (i.e. some counselors might have MORE/LESS students of various grades, but it was not uncommon for the same counselor to have students in 10,11, AND 12 in their caseload (in the particular school I was in, the 9th grade was kind of “separate.” But, if they hadn’t separated the 9th grade, I imagine the counselors would have had 9th graders on their caseload, too.
Basically, there was hardly any counseling done. Yes, sometimes there had to be interventions when students got into a fight. And, once in a while, a student would come in saying that they had a specific issue that they wanted to talk about. But, most of the time, these cases were diverted to the school Social Worker. In fact, the counselor even told me that, sometimes, students come to her saying that they “need to talk,” and she is so busy with paperwork that she literally has to send them away and direct them to the Social Worker’s office. Upon learning this, I requested permission from my school (where I was earning my degree) to do “part 2” of my internship under the SOCIAL WORKER (as opposed to the school counselor), but they would not allow it.

Granted, I DID spend some time in the 9th grade section of the school during my internship, and there IS more counseling in this grade than in 10-12….but there is still (by far) more paperwork than anything else.
It seems, unfortunately, that my experience with this extends beyond high school, as well. Recently I began “shadowing” a school counselor who works with Pre-K students and, the first thing she said to me was, “Not to discourage you…but if I had known that school counseling was going to be like this, I would have studied to be a social worker.” Because, even with the little kids, the paperwork literally overwhelms you, and becomes your main priority (over the actual counseling aspect of the job).

That’s why I am wondering if it would be worth it to go back to school and study either Mental Health Counseling (where you can work in various settings, like agencies and hospitals), or Social Work.

I was just wondering if, for now, anyone knew if my School Counseling Master’s would qualify me to work anywhere besides a school? Because, honestly, when I got into the School Counseling program, I thought it would be much different. I thought the focus would be on COUNSELING!

Best answer:

Answer by Beth24
I currently work at a university and I’m interested in getting my School Counseling License. However, I’m very concerned with the paperwork side of counseling. Did you do your internship in a high school or middle school? I’ve heard there is more paperwork involved at the high school level. I live in a pretty big city and I’ve heard that some schools have counselors that deal more with the college part and other counselors at the high school level that deal with mental health issues. Maybe you could find a job like that.

I was wondering if you knew much about guidance at the high school level and could share that. thanks!

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