Public Health / Counseling

Program Goals and Objectives

Public Health

• Educate community public health professionals and develop the skills needed to promote health within communities.
• Provide an academic environment that integrates community public health education with research and practice.
• Translate knowledge into practice through collaborative service projects both domestically and internationally.  This can be accomplished through internships with community-based organizations, clinics, and local health departments.
• Employ scientific investigation to advance public health knowledge of the relationship between health and the structural environment within which individuals live and work.

Counseling

Develop professional level competence in:

• Communication and listening
• Critical and analytical thinking
• Interpersonal and cultural sensitivity
• Understanding self through introspection and realistic self-critique
• Adhering to professional, ethical and legal standards and behaviors
• Generating and testing hypotheses about human behavior
• Understanding the theories and techniques of counseling and behavior change
• Using counseling skills in individual and group settings
• Integrating and applying assessment, diagnostic, consultation and educational strategies

Dual Degree

• Learn about public health and counseling principles from a global perspective. 
• Integrate your public health education with your clinical counseling training through the use of community projects/internships that will enhance clinical and community-based skills both within the United States and/or internationally.
• Enhance understanding of the scope of public health issues surrounding individual patients and their relationships to their families and their larger communities.
• Combine the advocacy agendas proposed by both the public health and counseling fields to most effectively address patients’ problems.

Degree Requirements

VIEW REQUIREMENTS

Admission Requirements

Dual degree candidates must be admitted to each of the programs in order to enroll in the dual degree program. Deadline for Fall admission is January 15. Deadline for Spring admission is September 15.  

In addition to the general admission requirements for graduate students, the following program-specific requirements must be met:

1. A completed graduate application including personal statements, to be completed online at www.arcadia.edu/gradapp.
2. A bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution with a recommended GPA of 3.0 or better in the major course of study.
3. One official transcript from each college, university or professional school attended. Transfer credits included on a transcript must include grades earned; if not, an official transcript from the original school must be submitted. Transcripts must be sent from the issuing school in a sealed envelope and contain the appropriate signatures and seals to be considered official.
4. Completion of at least three Psychology courses, to include Introductory Psychology, with grades of “B” or better in each. 
5. Three letters of recommendation. The letters must be of a professional not personal nature and one a health professional.  If the student has been out of school five years or less, at least one letter must come from a professor.  
6. Graduate Admission Test scores are not required of applicants with an earned master’s degree in a related field.  Test scores from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or the MCAT taken within the past five years are required for all other applicants.
7. Knowledge of the profession through work or volunteer experience.
8. An interview with the Counseling department (by invitation only).
9. International applicants should visit www.arcadia.edu/international for detailed information on admission requirements and application procedures. TOEFL/IELTS results are required for all students for whom English is a second language or who have not earned degrees or diplomas from post-secondary institutions in English-speaking countries (e.g. the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand). A course-by-course evaluation of all transcripts by an independent evaluation service based in the United States also is required.

Expenses

Students are billed on a per-credit basis based on the number of credits they enroll for in a given semester. Information on current costs is available.

Financial Aid

Graduate students who have been accepted into a degree program and are enrolled for at least six credits per semester are eligible to apply for financial aid. Please visit www.arcadia.edu/finaid for information regarding available aid options and visit www.arcadia.edu/gradfinaidapply to complete required forms online. 

Graduate Assistantships/Graduate Student Employment

May be available to graduate students registered for at least nine credits per semester. Students may apply for assistantships/graduate student employment upon acceptance and registration. Questions regarding graduate assistantships should be directed to the Office of Graduate & Undergraduate Studies at 215-572-2925.

Federal Loans

Graduate students are eligible to borrow through the Federal Direct Stafford Loan and Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loan programs provided they are taking at least six credits per semester (in the summer, six credits over all summer sessions combined satisfies this requirement). For more information, visit www.arcadia.edu/finaid.