By Danni Ybarra |Staff Writer|

The CSUSB Counselor and Guidance Graduate Program has been named one of the top 25 in the nation.

Graduateprograms.com, an online graduate studies guide built for students, ranked CSUSB against over 1500 other schools such as USC, Loyola University, and Boston College, as having a leading counselor education program.

“I was impressed, not surprised, and very pleased”, said Dr. Lorraine Hedtke, head of the program.

“We expanded our program about two years ago, so that we’re no longer just training counselors for educational counseling but we’re also training counselors for general counseling degrees and I think that’s what put us on the map”, continued Hedtke.

The program focuses on both academic guidance and therapeutic counseling which allows students to be well versed in those fields.

Data used to rank the schools was collected from Sep. 1, 2012 to Sep. 30, 2014 and was made up of research on current graduate student’s scholarships and social media patterns, according to graduateprograms.com

“For a given graduate program, rankings are determined by calculating the average score for each program based on the 15 ranking categories,” as stated from graduateprograms.com.

These scores are then compared across all ranked schools; the scores are then translated into a final ranking for that graduate program.

Some of those 15 ranking categories include academic competitiveness, career support, education quality, faculty accessibility/support, and workload.

The counselor education program at CSUSB was given an cumulative ranking of 7.7 out of 10, while the College of Education on campus was given an overall ranking of 8.3, according to graduateprograms.com.

To ensure quality results in their research, graduateprograms.com does not complete ranking for a school or program until a certain number of student surveys have been collected, according to graduateprograms.com.

CSUSB students were positive in their comments and feedback about the program on the graduateprograms.com website.

“The faculty is top notch, very supportive and have a passion for what they do,” stated one CSUSB student.
“It is a great program for the cost,” added another student.

“The professors that we have in the program are leaders in their field… they are advancing the profession by their research and writing,” said Hedtke.

Some students on campus were unaware of the level of quality the counselor education program has reached.
“I didn’t know we were recognized for that. I feel it gives more status to the program and for the students who want to become counselors, they should feel a sense of pride,” said student Anthony Anderson.

Recognition like this is what keeps strong ties between CSUSB and the surrounding school districts that favor CSUSB students for internships and employment over other colleges in the area and reinforces the idea that students are in the right program for their career path, according to Hedtke.

“[Students] are actually going to be able to provide something that makes a difference [in] people’s lives, which ultimately, to me, is what it’s all about,” said Hedtke.

For more information on the Counseling and Guidance Program visit www.coe.edu/programs/counselingguidance, or visit the College of Education Student Services in CE-102.